Onesimus - Posted - 01/25/2026:  08:50:34

I ran across the attached 1968 clipping in one of my highly disorganized file folders. It had been clipped from the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader and mailed to me by my dad, then a minister in Cynthiana, KY. I lived in Nashville, and would normally not have seen this Kentucky newspaper. But he was well aware of my interest in the region's folk music.

Buell Kazee had been interviewed by a sympathetic reporter, and it's interesting to have his own opinion of his art (as a banjoist). He was among the better-educated traditional players -- pretty articulate and self-aware about what he was doing. I hope this is the right part of the Hangout for it to be seen by someone who might like to read it.

banjohangout.org/forum/attachm...ID=317481

 

plunkyjunkie - Posted - 01/25/2026:  09:08:33

That's really interesting. I hadn't realized I don't know anything about Brother Kazee.. Thanks for sharing!

lapsteel - Posted - 01/25/2026:  17:16:34

Thank you kindly for posting that newspaper article. I enjoyed reading it.

Hunter Robertson - Posted - 01/27/2026:  01:58:29

Very interesting, thanks!

There are a few videos of him on Youtube, two where he talks and shows how he plays banjo:
youtube.com/watch?v=WbWD8H7IMN0
youtube.com/watch?v=WJQjUjVZZxQ

BTuno - Posted - 01/27/2026:  08:21:01

I have tried to find any information about his Gibson RB-3 trapdoor banjo(s). Does anyone know where they are, or at least their FON ?

Joel Hooks - Posted - 01/27/2026:  08:42:56

His early recordings, mentioned in the article, are available on the internet archive.

His routine certainly changed. In his early recordings he plays the part of the bumpkin with the standard folk wisdom/fish out of water gags. In the later films he presents himself as somewhat of a historian or folklorest, describing what the "mountain man" does.

It is a very interesting study how what we call "old time" went from current, hip and fashionable to academic professor in the hands of the very creators.

I often accuse Folk Revival academics of "not getting the joke", but perhaps they were misled by the actual practitioners of the music?

Chris Berry - Posted - 01/27/2026:  14:08:13

Thanks for sharing! I suspect in Kazee's case some of the "academic" approach may have been a way to distance himself from some of the less positive associations of banjo and other "worldly" music for himself and in the eyes of his community. Giving a history lesson can be different than active participation.

Andyrhydycreuau - Posted - 02/01/2026:  05:49:03

This is brilliant:

"The fiddler and the banjo picker would sit knee to knee,
right close together, and they'd keep playing and the thing would just melt together."

Thanks for sharing!

writerrad - Posted - 02/01/2026:  08:23:44

I have a friend my age (in her 70s) who is a fiddler whose parents taught at the same university as Kazee and remembered him from her childhood who talked to me about him. He was highly educated and was I believe a university chaplain and taught some subjects at the university besides his ministry. He was quite highly trained in formal singing and taught voice students at the university where he was chaplain. He was a gentleman of the old school. Somewhere there is a web site that gives more of his story,

His banjo playing and singing are too much neglected.

Thanks Hunter for the links to seeing him perform which is a kind of contrast between his rather formal posturing and his old time banjo.

Hunter is a great banjoist. He has a lot of wonderful generous instructional material on YouTube and elsewhere and several CDs that belong in every home.

Only problem is watching and listening to Hunter, you will wish you started playing the banjo younger and practiced a whole lot more!

writerrad - Posted - 02/01/2026:  08:29:04

As I pointed out I have met a few people who knew him.  He was an academic, a university professor and college chaplain and a gentleman of the old school with a formal musical education who was a little perplexed with the commercial interest in his old time playing.

Like Hunter Chris is also a great banjoist among other instruments and has very useful banjo entertainment and instructional material on YouTube and other places.   Check him out,

Anything where both Chris and Hunter post about it means we lesser banjoists need to check it out!

Thanks Chris

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Originally posted by Chris Berry

Thanks for sharing! I suspect in Kazee's case some of the "academic" approach may have been a way to distance himself from some of the less positive associations of banjo and other "worldly" music for himself and in the eyes of his community. Giving a history lesson can be different than active participation.

---

Onesimus - Posted - 02/01/2026:  09:22:58

Since several people have now expressed an interest in Brother Kazee, I'll add a link to an extensive collection of his recordings, publications, concerts, interviews with him and so on, held as a special collection by the archives at Berea University:

[Object identification/Box], Buell Kazee Collection, Berea College Special Collections & Archives, Berea, KY.
bereaarchives.libraryhost.com/...urces/564

Apart from the clipping my dad sent to me in 1968, I have been familiar since the early 1970s with Buell Kazee's work as a (fellow) student of American folk hymns. That's pretty thoroughly separate from his banjo playing; and fewer people (here) are really interested in it. But it was all part of who he was, and what he did.