Hello, Banjo Hangout Citizens.
I have just submitted a book length manuscript on the fiddler, Kerry Blech, to my publisher – McFarland of North Carolina.
After I finished a book on Dan Levenson, with co-author David Brooks, I decided to take a year off and read through the entire collection of Old-Time Herald – gifted to me by an old friend from northern Virginia (who was a founding member of the Arlington Banjo Lobby).
What caught my attention were the reviews by Kerry Blech – and, to tell the truth, Gail Gillespie, Art Rosenbaum, and one or two others.
Kerry’s devotion to the elder fiddlers struck me as notable and worth digging into. Not long into reading through the Old-Time Herald magazine, beginning with their first issue in 1987, I decided it would be worth a book.
I began working on a writing project about Kerry’s creative trajectory through the old-time music community that focuses on Kerry’s:
? Field Recording work, his archiving of cassettes he made (and collected) of elder fiddlers
? Efforts to compile the histories, and convey the stories, of tunes that were played in remote contexts by rarely known local fiddlers
? 22 years’ worth of record and CD and video reviews Kerry penned for the Old-Time Herald
? Involvement in a project in the early 2000s focused on harvesting the field recordings of the Hammonses from West Virginia made by Dwight Diller and by Wayne Howard with the goal of turning those reel-to-reel tapes into CDs
? Chat group activism, from the early 1990s through the first decade and a half of the 21st century, as an avid contributor to several old-time music chat groups and online platforms
The manuscript will probably see the light of day as a book by the end of this year. Until then, I’ll try to whet your appetite for a book on Kerry Blech.
Thanks for your attention.
Have a great day, and make great music,
Lew Stern
One thing I think I neglected in talking to Lew over the last year was that Kerry was a banjo player and guitarist and had rather definite ideas about playing both instruments. He still had the small Gibson banjo that he received I think as a birthday present as a teenager. I believe I sent you a picture I took of him playing that guitar at a Florida Fiddlers convention. I will send you a picture I took of Kerry participating in the banjo contest at the Florida Folk Festival in 2011 if I have no already sent it.
He had rather definite ideas about guitar accompaniment which he expressed to me in some kind of justified horror at the way I played guitar when I first got to know him. He was quite close to John Schwab and believed in some of the approaches and concerns about old time guitar that John has advanced trying to maintain the continuity of traditional playing. I do believe I pointed you to talk to John about Kerry. They did joint workshops on guitar accompaniment of the fiddle at least one I attended at Mars Hill in 2011 or 2012 or so, I think I have pictures.
Before his affliction got to him Kerry regularly participated in the annual banjo contest at the Florida Folk music festival. He was a pretty good banjo player at both finger style and clawhammer. He did not share the fantasy that RBs are not part of old time music and I think played an inexpensive Gold Tone RB. Again I will send you a picture of him playing his at the FFF.
The generation of musicians and folklorists, and activists of the old time music revival like Kerry, or for that matter, myself and Lew, are as old or older than the generation of people we looked at as "the old guys and gals" from the late 1960s and 1970s on. I am older than either Clarence Ashley or Mississippi John Hurt got to be. and Kerry was only a few months younger than I am.
Lew has stepped up to the plate and gone to work trying to retrieve the history and tell the stories of our generation of old time revivalist musicans, and music gatherers. More people should be doing this now while people are still living to talk to researchers.
Thanks again Lew
Edited by - writerrad on 05/16/2025 11:32:09
Tony - Yeah, a bunch of folks had those kinds of specific memories that you pointed to of the way Kerry handled a guitar, the way he worked a five string banjo. And a mandolin, too.
And Tony, you brought a lot of depth to aspects of Kerry's musical life, and his intense interest in old-time/traditional music history. I'm grateful for that, and for your comments on this BHO blog. You take care, Lew
I would definitely be interested reading your book. I've recently been delving into his collection of fiddle tunes on Slippery hill.
Pat - I also recommend the videos of Kerry playing with the Streak of Lean band: youtube.com/@StreakOfLean
I hope you do read the book. I only met him once - so, of course, I count myself among his closest 650,000 friends . . . but learning about him, reading his Old-Time Herald articles, interviewing friends, family, and musical partners was truly intriguing.
Thanks for your attention,
Lew
I have been fortunate enough to read several drafts of Lew's book on Kerry Blech. Like his books about Dwight Diller, Dan Levenson and others, this work is well-researched, well-written and a fine resource for anyone interested in old-time music and those who keep the flame burning. It is a fine tribute to Kerry and his life-long work to celebrate this music and its artists.
David
quote:
Originally posted by writerradOne thing I think I neglected in talking to Lew over the last year was that Kerry was a banjo player and guitarist and had rather definite ideas about playing both instruments. He still had the small Gibson banjo that he received I think as a birthday present as a teenager. I believe I sent you a picture I took of him playing that guitar at a Florida Fiddlers convention. I will send you a picture I took of Kerry participating in the banjo contest at the Florida Folk Festival in 2011 if I have no already sent it.
He had rather definite ideas about guitar accompaniment which he expressed to me in some kind of justified horror at the way I played guitar when I first got to know him. He was quite close to John Schwab and believed in some of the approaches and concerns about old time guitar that John has advanced trying to maintain the continuity of traditional playing. I do believe I pointed you to talk to John about Kerry. They did joint workshops on guitar accompaniment of the fiddle at least one I attended at Mars Hill in 2011 or 2012 or so, I think I have pictures.
Before his affliction got to him Kerry regularly participated in the annual banjo contest at the Florida Folk music festival. He was a pretty good banjo player at both finger style and clawhammer. He did not share the fantasy that RBs are not part of old time music and I think played an inexpensive Gold Tone RB. Again I will send you a picture of him playing his at the FFF.
The generation of musicians and folklorists, and activists of the old time music revival like Kerry, or for that matter, myself and Lew, are as old or older than the generation of people we looked at as "the old guys and gals" from the late 1960s and 1970s on. I am older than either Clarence Ashley or Mississippi John Hurt got to be. and Kerry was only a few months younger than I am.
Lew has stepped up to the plate and gone to work trying to retrieve the history and tell the stories of our generation of old time revivalist musicans, and music gatherers. More people should be doing this now while people are still living to talk to researchers.
Thanks again Lew
I knew Kerry in Seattle and before he moved there. I never saw him play the banjo, never heard him speak of it, so this is news to me. We play a bit together and I never heard him comment on anyones banjo playing. It was alway about fiddling.
It is so difficult to upload a picture to FB. I think actually playing the banjo was something he took up after moving to Florida or may have not done so much until that point, because I dont remember him playing the banjo or offering any particular advice about banjo playing until after he had moved to Gainesville, and we spent time together. In fact when Kerry moved to Florida he first stayed with my wife and in Sunny Isles Beach when he was checking out different option in Florida before he decided to move to Gainesville.
On the other hand the contest was a gimmick. Florida has a special huge part Stepehen Foster Park, built specifically for holding music festivals sometime in the late 1940s or early 50s, trying the cash in on the Suwanee River and the Foster song. The Florida Folk festival had some real state money going into it and would have a lot of musicians from expensive Nashville people in it. The problem of that park is that when the festival was going, the camp ground and other housing near the festival site was restricted to staff and entertainers. The nearest campground inside the park was miles away from the festival.
There had always been an informal fiddling contest organized by fiddlers during the festival. At some point, some of the fiddlers got a legislator to pass a bill to make the fiddling contest an official part of the festival. The only requirement to enter being paying a 25 buck fee that was donated to a program teaching kids music. Participants could then stay in the close camp ground as much a performer as any Nashville Star. A few years later The Florida Banjo Society was formed with one purpose and got a legislator to do the same for banjoists. I still have my badge as a "participant" in the 2011 Florida Folk Festival because of that banjo contest, same one I have pictures of Kerry playing in!
Tony, and Tony - You both made some good points, raised some interesting questions, about Kerry's banjo playing. I've posted my quick and dirty take on this in my BHO Blog. If the spirit moves you, take a look at my scribblings on:
banjohangout.org/blog/37113
Have a fine evening. Make great music,
Lew
It seems pretty accurate and more extensive than I thought. I will write you privately about what the mention in the first Banjo Roots manifesto was about.
Thanks
banjovially
Tony Thomas asked that I upload these photos to this forum. They were taken in Florida on 28 May 2011. THANKS, TONY! Great pics!
Edited by - Brooklynbanjoboy on 05/19/2025 02:22:42
Apart from any personal friendship, and those who owned Gretsch "Bacon" Belmonts with their mother of toilet seat decoration are a special elite, it is invaluable that you are working on documenting people in our (Kerry is about 3 or 4 months younger than me) generation of the folk revival. This is important history that needs to be saved and continue to be known. It is important. If I mention Kerry to someone at a jam or whatever nowadays few people know who I am talking about. How the revival of old time music has had a life and development is similarly important to how the actual original movement developed.
If we count the revival beginnig formally with the first notes of "Forked Deer" on the first NLCR record, the revival of old time music has lasted longer than the actual classic period of its existence under that name which I take from the Okeh recordings of John Carson. Folks we know can look at a Fairbanks or Boston Vega from 10 feet away and tell you what month, maybe what day of the week it was produced from 10 feet away, but the story that we are all part of is one to be told.
How did two people born in NYC (me St Vincents hospital) both come to play Gretsch Bacon Belmonts and feel that Kerry's life and example are something to be studied, recorded and cherished. Others need to do what you are doing before we are all brain dead or all dead!
