Thank you, Andy, for all you’ve done to bring this project to fruition. I’m sure many will appreciate again having access to Dwight’s instructional materials. (Particularly glad the “Beginning Clawhammer Banjo" video is on the list. That one always seemed a bit harder to find, even back in the day. And especially after “Just Rhythm” was done.)

When I was a beginner the only I got anything out of was "Just Rhythm", but after watching them now that I know a bit more about it, I find there is some good stuff in all of them. I like the one where Caleb is playing and there are some good closeups of his hands.

Most of the credit for bringing the project to fruition goes to others on the YPCT board, especially Callum, Catherine, Jamie and Teresa who spent a lot of long hours collecting, compiling, reformatting, and getting it out there. I was just a lump on a log in the discussions, my contribution was minimal.

quote:thank you for keep this man's spirit and music alive.   I have been lucky to know several folks who started by being instructed (a gentler word than might have been descriptive) by Dwight Diller who complained about it at the time but were happy about it thge rest of their lives.  Thanks for honoring Dwight.  I would also recommend the b ook about diller than my friend Lew Stern wrote several years ago.  

You are doing good work.  Please be proud of it.

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Originally posted by OldPappy

I am involved with Yew Pine Cultural Traditions (Non-Proffit), and the team has been working to get some of Dwight's long out of print material available on-line via Vemio.

Folks on the BHO used to ask me about getting Dwight's "Just Rhythm" DVD, and Dwight would burn off a few copies for them, but otherwise that DVD and all the others have not been available for quite a long time.

Check out the below link.

Dwight Diller DVDs

 

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I've been hoping to find these for sale for a long time, and being outside the USA it seemed almost impossible they'd ever be available to me.

I was first introduced to Mr Diller's music from the bandcamp page you set up, and now I can learn from the man himself.

I'm very, very grateful to you and the team for your work and generosity.

Great news!

At $50 for the entire package…

It’s a real bargain!

Much appreciated.

Just out of curiosity, are there other DVDs as yet still unavailable?

Those 5 DVDs are the only instructional material he produced, but there are a lot of other films, DVDs, and albums that are rarely seen nowadays.

One of the last things he produced was a 4 DVD set called "Across the Yewpines" which was a culmination of his life's work in preservation of the music, traditions, and stories of those who passed it on to him. These contain a lot of stories, pictures, and film clips taken from his visits with the Hammons, and one of the four is a film Dwight produced for a college project about the music and the people he was getting it from. Wonderful to watch, but it can't be distributed outside of WV due to restrictions of the grant that funded it. I don't know if it is still there, but for a while it was available to watch on his old website.

There was a gem, a feature length film he and John Morris acted in called "The Fifth String" which is worth a watch if you can ever find someone who has a copy.

Various other films, converted to DVD. Including a banjo camp he participated in up at Cass. It was called something like "North and South Banjo", I would have to dig out my copy to find the correct name.

There is another film on DVD called "Morris Family Reunion" while not specific to Dwight, it does include clips of some of the old timers he was learning from at the time. I don't remember how I came across a copy of that one, but I have watched it many times.

Before he started producing his own albums Dwight played with the Morris Brothers who released a couple of albums and a rather infamous 45 record with "The Hogeyed Man" as the title song. That record shows up on Ebay every now and then, and recordings of it are out there on Youtube. The tune is a variation of "Sally Ann", and Dwight said that when they played it on the Juke Boxes at the beer joints fights would break out. The rules are different in WV.

He also played with the "Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys", primarily as a bass player, but he did play some clawhammer banjo on a couple of tracks. He appeared on their album covers, and it is amusing to see him at a young age because of the way they were dressed. One album shows all of the players dressed in matching Paisley Print shirts, another in Tuxedos, neither of which attire being something Dwight would have worn on his own. I may dig out my copies of those albums to get all the names right and may post pictures if anyone is interested.