Category: 19th Century

The Banjo in Baltimore (and Beyond)

2/8/2018

Long time attendee and banjo maker Pete Ross was interviewed with Kristina Gaddy on the Hey Baltimore podcast about the early history of the banjo and the instrument's connections to Baltimore, Maryland.

The knowledge and research that are behind this podcast are a result of the last 20 years of the Banjo Gathering. Much of the research into the West African connections to the banjo have been done by participants Ulf Jagfors, Schlomo Pestcoe, and Bob Carlin. Pete Ross, Bob Winans, and Greg Adams did an extensive presentation about banjo maker William E. Boucher, which transformed into an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. And in recent years, Pete and Kristina have presented on Baltimore banjo maker Levi Brown and early American banjos.

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The Strychnine Banjo: Jake Wallace & Lotta Crabtree

12/6/2017

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At the 2017 Banjo Gathering, CW Bayer presented the wild history of banjos out west. His book The Strychnine Banjo, follows the accounts of Charlet Roades and Jake Wallace's exploits from the 1850s to about 1910. Below is an except, describing Jake Wallace playing banjo to accompany Lotta Crabtree in Virginia City in 1863.

During 1862 and early 1863, Jake Wallace played with some of the major San Francisco minstrels stars at McGuire’s Opera House and the Eureka Music Hall. During the summer of 1863, in Virginia City at the Virginia Melodeon on C Street, he accompanied Lotta Crabtree as she sang a Mart Taylor lyric, “Bound for the Land of Washoe:"

Bound For The Land Of Washoe (Words: probably Mart Taylor, 1863)

Exciting times all around the town,
Glory, Glory to Washoe.
Stocks are up and stocks are down.
Glory to old Washoe.

Washoe! Washoe!
Bound for the land of Washoe,
And I owned three feet in the “Old Dead Beat,”
And I’m bound for the land of Washoe.

There is the big Gould and Curry, and the Great Wide West,
Glory, Glory to Washoe.
O! I think they are the largest and the best.
Glory to old Washoe.

There is the Yellow Jacket tunnel, and my Mary Ann,
Glory, Glory to Washoe.
Oh, Johnny, how is your dog, or any other man,
Glory to old Washoe.

Oh, see the crowd on Montgomery Street,
Glory, Glory to Washoe.
Everybody is talking feet,
Glory to old Washoe.

Founded in 1859 and the site of a huge gold and silver lode, Virginia City teemed with young men and was a wild place. One night a local fireman, Louis La Page, shot out the footlights as the performers ran out the back of the stage. Then, one of the stagehands stole all their instruments:

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Levi Brown, banjo maker, player, and bon-vivant...

6/7/2016

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Originally posted on www.kristinagaddy.com

At this year's (2015) 19th Century Banjo Gathering (Banjo Collector's Gathering), Pete Ross and I presented on Levi Brown.

This banjo is owned by banjo researcher and historian Bob Winans. For many years, he knew that it was an antique, Minstrel-Era banjo from around the same time as the famous Boucher banjos. But there was no maker's mark or indication of where it came from. Until this showed up:

This tailpiece showed up on a banjo that had a nearly identical silhouette to Winans's banjo and had that mark: Levi Brown, Balto. Winans's research of banjo dealers and makers turned up the crucial information that Brown called himself a maker in advertisements and city directories.

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