Posted by banjopaul67 on Saturday, December 12, 2009
I had a once in a lifetime experience on Friday, Dec. 11, 2009, and that was that I was invited by Joe Bonsall of the Oak Ridge Boys to come hang out with him and the group for the day prior to their Christmas concert in Kalamazoo, Mi. Joe is an aspiring banjo player and he asked me to come give him a banjo lesson. I brought my guitar playing buddy Foose along, and the three of us sat and did a combination of jamming and "lessoning" for about an hour. Then one of the band members, Jeff, came in with his mandolin and we had a dang good four piece jam session.
Afterwards we were invited to eat with the band and the crew, and then we were given backstage passes and concert tickets. The whole experience was fantastic and a rare treat for this small town boy for sure. The road crew, production manager, stage hands...all welcomed us and appreciated our music. They enjoyed "grassing it up". What a great group of people. I'll be posting a blog post about the experience very soon over on my blog (see address in signature) and I'll be putting up pics and video of the day too, so stay tuned for that! I'll try to remember to give a head's up here at the B.H.O. when all that happens.
In other news, I'm launching a new product this coming Wednesday, Dec. 16, which is a guide to playing backup banjo. It's geared more towards beginners or those inexperienced with jamming, so if you have some basic ability already and function in a jam setting pretty well, then this would be "underkill" for you and you wouldn't need it. But if you need a little help getting off the ground with backup banjo, you might like this. Of course I'm always available for help and advice at no charge, just come on over to my sites or contact me through the Hangout. Lots of other people offer great free help too, but if you want a resource you can own at home and study with at your own leisure, then you can explore it here: http://www.banjosrule.com/backup_guide.html. It's on sale on Weds. and Thurs. to celebrate it's launch.
Let me close by wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and best of wishes for this holiday season. I feel blessed to be able to connect with so many of you on the Hangout, and I hope you and yours are safe and warm this Christmas. Say howdy sometime and I'll catch ya later. Oh, as I always say: pick 'em if ya got 'em!
Banjo Paul
"Wunse, I coodn't even spel bango pikker...now I are one!"
www.banjosrule.com (main site)
www.mybanjolife.com (blog)
2 comments on “I got to hang out with the Oak Ridge Boys!”
Oalbrets Says:
Sunday, December 13, 2009 @11:35:51 AM
Very cool Paul, it reminds me of the time I got invited back stage to concertwith Roger Waters, being a bluegrass person I didn't even know who he was. He came and sat at our table and I asked him if he played banjo and everybody started rolling on the floor. He is a great guy and understood this old country boy.
banjopaul67 Says:
Sunday, December 13, 2009 @7:23:13 PM
Hey Oalbret, thanks for sharing that story! That is awesome. I got a kick out of you asking him if he played banjo!! Love it.
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