BrianBanjos - Posted - 02/20/2007:  16:45:24

Here's my newbies view on the essential bluegrass album for beginners. Beg borrow or steal a copy of the Homer and The Barnstormers album alternatively titled "Banjos on Fire" or in the case of the copy I have "Banjos On Fire" on the old Alshire Records label. There is some good clean picking here on what to my ears is a good treatise for newbies like myself. I hesitate to call the arrangements presented here "basic" , more like deceptively simple, and played at a foot tapping tempo that screams "I can do that some day". What I like about the album most as a learning tool is that it's fairly easy to take what I've learned from the Janet Davis book "You Can Teach Yourself Banjo" and decipher what rolls and chords are being played. Who ever mixed the album did a great job as you can clearly hear the guitar runs in the background. I wish I'd come across it when I was learning flatpick guitar. I also wish they'd named the band members as who-ever made this great music isn't even credited. No idea if it's ever been released by anybody on CD. My copy is on well preserved vinyl.

Interested in hearing others views on essential beginners albums.

DelusionsOBanjer - Posted - 02/20/2007:  19:22:17

You might check this thread on "essential J.D. Crowe recordings"

http://banjohangout.org/forum/topic...PIC_ID=53110


......................................................................................................
"Hell, how 'bout a hand for absolutely no reason whatsoever..."
--John Hartford

wrentree - Posted - 02/20/2007:  19:38:51

Brought straight up from the annals of previous threads and quoted by none other than Jack Baker, The man in Homer and the Barnstormers is.............
Hi SJ,
It was Curtis McPeake who played on Homer and the Barnstormers. He filled in for Earl when he was hurt in an accident.........Jack

Jack R. Baker
http://www.banjohangout.org/forum/t...&whichpage=3

Dad always told me"If you want to have friends, you have to be friendly." Harold

Edited by - wrentree on 02/20/2007 19:41:01

DelusionsOBanjer - Posted - 02/20/2007:  19:49:19

More on McPeake (from his Web site). He's an expert on the prewar Gibsons...

Curtis McPeake, a veteran five string banjo player and recording artist, is originally from a small town of Scotts Hill in western Tennessee. He was born in 1927. He spent his boyhood years on the farm. He first started getting into music at the age of six or seven. His father bought him his first guitar in 1936. In the forties he was playing steel guitar with "The Rhodes Brothers" and had a weekly radio broadcast over WTJS Radio in Jackson, Tennessee. Around 1950 during the Korean War is when he really switched to the banjo full time. One of the first groups that Curtis started was "Curtis McPeake and the Rocky Valley Boys" which aired six days a week over WDXL in Lexington, Tennessee. It was around 1952 or 1953 when he first met Earl Scruggs, and even appeared on some of the "Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs" TV shows. Around Christmas 1955 Earl Scruggs was seriously injured in an automobile accident, and Curtis was called to stand in for him with Lester Flatt. This was considered by Curtis to become one of his first big breaks into the music field. He continued on many occasions to fill in for Earl up until 1968 just before Lester & Earl went through their break-up in early 1969.

Curtis played with Bill Monroe for about two years, during the time when Bill played Carnegie Hall in November 1961. Curtis also recorded some eighteen sides with Bill. After leaving Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, he joined Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper and worked throughout 1963 with them. After this stint Curtis signed on with WSM as a staff musician and continued to work as a studio recording musician. This continued for several years. During 1969 Curtis met Danny Davis and was invited to join him with the "Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass". He continued with Danny and the Brass up until 1987. Later he took charge of a group called the "Natchez Grass" which shortly changed its name to "Natchez Express".

Curtis has worked through out his career with several major artists. He obtained his first recording contract with ABC Paramount in 1961 and has recorded for several other companies throughout his career.

Curtis has also been involved with the music industry as a collector of fine vintage banjo's and various acoustic instruments and is in constant demand in authenticating and appraising fine vintage banjo's and various instruments.


......................................................................................................
"Hell, how 'bout a hand for absolutely no reason whatsoever..."
--John Hartford

Edited by - DelusionsOBanjer on 02/20/2007 19:49:59

wrentree - Posted - 02/20/2007:  20:16:53

Thanks for posting his bio. I also have a tape of his work. I'm pretty sure the name is Bluegrass Banjos on Fire. I will have to check it again, as it has been awhile since i listened to it.

Dad always told me"If you want to have friends, you have to be friendly." Harold

padlock - Posted - 02/21/2007:  00:08:02

Some of the old stuff is deceptfully easy sounding but tought to get right. Slow it down, listen to the emphsized notes and you will find its harder than it looks. These guys were real talents.
Bill

"Bring a song and a smile for the banjo" John Fogerty
Come pick with us at http://www.banjolounge.com

http://www.islandbluegrass.com

WildJimbo - Posted - 02/21/2007:  08:56:57

McPeake did not play on the Flaming Banjos/Banjos On Fire/Homer Albums...

Drag out your Homer LP, go to Side B and Play Camptown Races. I hear a great deal of Buck Trent in that - not just in the Camptown Races, but the second part of that tune they switch to Cindy. Well, Buck recorded Cindy on his "Sound of a Bluegrass Banjo" album. The two are amazingly similar. It's not just the lead, it's the back up too. I've posted both tunes here.

http://www.pd.net/lmb/jim/homer/02%20Cindy.mp3
http://www.pd.net/lmb/jim/homer/10c...ownraces.mp3

Original thread where I posted this: http://www.banjohangout.org/forum/t...PIC_ID=65706

There's some good discussion there.

Jim Pankey
http://www.wildjimbo.com | http://www.lonemountainband.com | http://www.banjolounge.com

Edited by - WildJimbo on 02/21/2007 08:58:06