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I was Flipping through old copies of Banjo Newsletter and what do you know? I stumbled across the issue where one of our regular contributors here took the reigns from Jack Hatfield to continue the Beginner's Corner. This happened in the March 1994 issue.
I'll put a little suspense in here. Does anyone know who it is? I'd be amazed if the author himself guessed it correctly first.
Edited by - LittleGoomba on 08/30/2026 16:07:27
quote:
Originally posted by chuckv97Ira Gitlin and Ken Norkin also contributed articles to BNL
Yes. Hub ran two or three of my tabs from a collection I sent him, a photo I took of Alan Munde when Country Gazette played the Red Fox Inn (misidentified in BNL as the Childe Harold), and a short piece I edited for John Janzegers about using wood wedges and not screwdrivers to pry tight tone rings off of rims (to avoid damaging the top of the rim). He put my name on it as a co-author. That's every appearance of mine in BNL I can remember. This was from 1975 to early 80s.
I also wrote a review of the Peters adapters that turned regular tuners into D-tuners. But since my review was about how I couldn't get them to work, Hub didn't run it. At least that's my memory.
Whoever is the mystery columnist here, it wasn't I.
Dan Palmer got it! Jim Pankey took the reigns. As I go through these magazines, I wonder if he kept that article to himself or if it passed on to any of the other folks mentioned above?
What I find fascinating in going through all these old newsletters is how when I took up the banjo all these folks seemed immortal on stage and print, and now, I've had conversations and gotten to play music with so many of them/you. One of the newsletters from the 70s had a friend of mine, who I thought was a guitarist all this time, wind up with a detailed interview about him! He never mentioned it. I just thought he was an outstanding guitar player/builder and just a local fellow. One of the nicest and most unassuming people I ever met. He's long deceased and I miss him. It was a real surprise to see he was the subject of a two page interview about Banjos! (Scott Morgan, August 1979)
I'm sure I'll have plenty more raised eyebrows as I go through this collection. I'm only missing a few percent of every issue published. Thanks, Bob, for the two boxes of issues!
And, as I go through more issues, it looks like Beginner's Corner went through a few hosts. Ian Perry in May, Andy Cushing in June.Jim again in August, Ian again... It looks like that column got a bit de-emphasized and had a rotation of hosts when Jack Hatfield moved on, ala Jeapordy and it's host search.
quote:
Originally posted by Bart VeermanKen mentioned the Flinthill Flash. After all these years, someone PLEAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZE spill the beans: who was that??????????????????????????????????
Yes!! I still smile when thinking of him. He was passionate and fun and dead on right.
Ken
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