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icina.1
Playing Since: 1979
Experience Level: Purty Good

Interests:
[Teaching] [Jamming] [Socializing] [Helping]

Occupation: luthier / musician

Gender: Male
Age: 62

My Instruments:
== open back ==
• Saga SS-10
• Gretsch G9455 Dixie Special
• Gretsch G9451 Dixie Deluxe
• Alesa 09
• Eko B5 3rd series

== resonator ==
• Aria B-800 Country Joe [profile pic]
• Fender Custom Concert Tone 55
• Pedro Martinez B115
• Pedro Martinez G110
• Gretsch G9420 Broadkaster Supreme
• Ibanez Artist 592G-FB
• Gold Star GF-85

Favorite Bands/Musicians:
== bands ==
• Seldom Scene
• Bluegrass Album Band
• Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
• New Grass Revival
• Highwoods String Band
• Freight Hoppers
• Lonesome Ace Stringband
• Foghorn Stringband

== musicians ==
• Bill Keith
• Eric Weissberg
• Tony Trischka
• Paolo Menconi
• Ben Eldridge
• Alan Munde
• Noam Pikelny
• Ken Perlman
• Frank Lee
• Victor Furtado
• Art Rosenbaum

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Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 8/9/2007
Last Visit 5/7/2025

Hooked by Deliverance's soundtrack as a young teenager, in 1978 I bought my first banjo. Between 1979 and 1980 I took a few lessons from 5-string wizards Paolo Menconi (3-finger) and Roberto Monesi (clawhammer), both members of Southern Comfort String Band, just to get able to grow on my own. Later on I have been the banjo and fiddle player for Crazy Banjo Band, co-founded in 1981. A couple years later the band rechristened Erbablu Style, turned electroacoustic, signed with a now-defunct label and issued its only album [Erbablu Style, 1983] made up almost entirely of original Italian lyrics sung to bluegrass rooted country music. Meanwhile I had started working full time as a luthier and set up my own workshop ProDiZI specializing in high-grade setup, repair, restoration, and refurbishing of banjos, violins and other stringed instruments. Woodwind servicing was added around 1998. From 1984 on I played with a host of minor groups while being stable sideman to folksinger/author Luigi 'Grechi' De Gregori. Then I gradually phased out banjo in favor of fiddle and mandolin as I joined the Anglo/Irish combo Blackstonefolk [Ten Years On, 2001], making only a few appearances on the five-string: folk group Manoir (1984/´88), pop band Spartak Motor Sound's aborted debut record (1990), traditional bluegrass Old Hammer String Band (1996/´97). In the fall of 1995 I signed up to an oboe evening class at local Conservatory while teaching myself both flute and recorder, attending on and off until 1998. I went back to clawhammer in 2001 while fiddling for old time string band Hard Trails [Demo 2000, 2000 / Country in This Country vol. 2, comp. 2002] when our banjoist quit. Both as Eccoquintet member [Demo 1997, 1997 / Cigana, comp. 1997] and studio guest for Modena City Ramblers [Riportando tutto a casa, 1994], Mary Newsletter [Nuove lettere, 1996], Claudio Rocchi [Oltre la soglia, 1998], and Iridio [Waves of Life, 2004 / Endless Way, 2007] I overdubbed oud, mandolin, violin, recorder, flute, and oboe. Sadly enough, a banjo track I laid out for Mexican Radio's debut album [Blinding Lights, 2006] was deleted from mixdown and only a mandolin track in 'Ripply' made it on CD. In 2007/2008 I played violin, flute and oboe for Mediterranean folk band Canzoniere dei Transiti. Between 1999 and 2008 I also played oboe and clarinet with socially committed marching band Banda degli Ottoni a Scoppio [Tonico balcanico, comp. 2003 / Scoppio di vita, 2005] and brushed up my chops on mandolin and fiddle with short-lived bluegrass trio Salami (2009), disbanded after a handful of home recordings but no live gigs. Other than occasional calls either as a studio sideman or stage guest, after the demise of psychedelic folk band Scaccialimaccia in early 2013 I co-founded Áilnok, a six-piece Irish combo devoted to both songs and dance tunes which ceased activities in mid 2018. In autumn of 2016 I made myself at home once again as San Brulli stringband hired me as official member on violin, mandolin, and vocals with occasional banjo and guitar. Lately the band released their debut album [Homegrown, 2023] a selection of traditional old time, pre-bluegrass instrumentals and ballads intermingled with original compositions. At leisurely pace, I go on developing melodic clawhammer tunes on the banjo for my own enjoyment.