OldPappy - Posted - 12/21/2022:  09:14:15

Here is a link to Dwight playing at the Opera House a few months ago. The banjo is one I built for him prior to the Pandemic.

 

youtube.com/watch?v=YAlVuQkzqLs

janolov - Posted - 12/21/2022:  09:41:55

Is the fifth string attached at the 7th fret?

vorvick - Posted - 12/21/2022:  10:55:59

Thanks for this!

OldPappy - Posted - 12/21/2022:  11:00:44

I think it is at the 6th fret, but I'll have to look again to confirm.

My banjos are specifically designed for "clawhammer" and Dwight, and others like the 5th string peg out of the way for 2-4 slides which are common with many of the tunes.

In our style of playing the 5th string is never fretted so moving it out of the way doesn't matter.

OldPappy - Posted - 12/21/2022:  11:02:29

Yep, the 5th string peg is at the 6th fret.

BrooksMT - Posted - 12/21/2022:  11:06:40

The soundtrack does not align with the video portion, I found it disconcerting to watch and listen. Maybe better to ignore vid and just listen.

Emiel - Posted - 12/21/2022:  12:38:51

quote:

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Originally posted by BrooksMT

The soundtrack does not align with the video portion, I found it disconcerting to watch and listen. Maybe better to ignore vid and just listen.

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I don't have that problem when watching… Must have been some kind of a connection problem?

srrobertsiii - Posted - 12/21/2022:  13:43:42

Thank you, Andy, for posting this! So good to see Dwight performing, as well as other musicians from Pocahontas County getting well deserved recognition through the Opera House’s Story Sessions. (And that's a nice banjo Dwight's playing!)

Edited by - srrobertsiii on 12/21/2022 13:45:14

JollyRogers - Posted - 12/21/2022:  13:43:53

That’s was nice to hear and see him play.

BrooksMT - Posted - 12/21/2022:  15:05:34

Emiel

Thanks, you were right, I must have had a bad connection.

OldPappy - Posted - 02/22/2023:  20:01:38

Just watched this concert again, and I broke down in tears as he sang "Sail Away Ladies". That brought back a special memory to me about when I first met Dwight. It was at one of his banjo camps in 2010, and when the whole group played the tune I got to sing it with Dwight because I was the only one in the room that knew all the words.



As far as I know this was his last on stage performance, and it moves me for more reasons than one.

The banjo he is playing is the last one I built for him. It is so sensitive, and responsive, I had too heavy a hand to play it, but Dwight, as he aged, seemed to need a more responsive instrument, and I think he made that one sound pretty good with his delicate touch. 

My goal from the time Dwight first asked me to build a banjo was to be able to build one that suited him. I am not bragging, but I do feel honored that he thought this one good enough for that concert.

Edited by - OldPappy on 02/22/2023 20:08:19

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 02/24/2023:  12:06:19

quote:

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Originally posted by OldPappy

Just watched this concert again, and I broke down in tears as he sang "Sail Away Ladies". That brought back a special memory to me about when I first met Dwight. 



 

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Andy, I know that Dwight was a friend to you and much more. Condolences to you. 

As has been mentioned, Dwight did much to preserve and pass on the music and the memory of the musicians of his area, and I don't doubt that you were of help to him in part by making banjoes that filled his requirements in playing his music, and in many other ways as well.  You've played a big role in keeping the music alive as well, and I know you will pass it and the memory of Dwight down, and keep it alive.

The ability to evoke memories of events, people, places, and times that were, is one of traditional music's most potent powers.  To hear a hundred year-old tune you learned from your father being played by your son is a nearly mystical experience.  It reveals our connection to something that is truly greater than ourselves yet of which we are an integral part.

Through this music the generations are connected, and the passage of time, rather than severing the connection only makes it stronger.  The music has a life of its own- none of us owns it.  We have the privilege of holding it in our hands for a short while before we must pass it on to someone else.

I play the banjo in many different contexts and moods, but when I am fully cognizant of what I am doing, I realize that the music I am playing is my link to those who have come before me and those who will come after me, and from whom I am separated only by the thin veil of time.