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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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The 20th Annual Banjo Gathering!

11/7/2017

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The 20th Annual Banjo Gathering was held in Alexandria, Virginia, from November 2nd-5th. 

    Presentations ranged from the earliest history of the banjo to post-war Gretsch tenor banjos, and everything in between! We visited the Smithsonian National Museums of African American History and Culture and American History. For a complete look at the schedule, click here. If you are interested in taking our survey about the Gathering to help us plan for the 20th Anniversary Gathering next year, please click here. 
     Special thanks to Greg Adams, Peter Szego, Kathryn Weidener, Jim Bollman, and Ann Hough for making this event a great success! Stay tuned to the blog for more sounds, sights, and stories from 20 years of the Banjo Gathering. 
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Greg Adams with a Baltimore-made Boucher Banjo at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
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Lotsa Bobs.
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American Banjo Museum Banjo Fest

7/28/2017

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We are delighted to announce that two of our colleagues will be in the spotlight at the annual American Banjo Museum Banjo Fest  at the American Banjo Museum, Oklahoma City, OK, September 7-9, 2017.

Jim Bollman will be receiving the Jack Canine Award “for his lifelong dedication to the preservation of the banjo” at the Banjo Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, and Bob Carlin will be performing Joel Sweeney tunes at the same ceremony, which will take place Friday, September 8. Bob will also be performing at the Banjo Fest on Saturday.

Please go to http://www.banjofest2017.com for schedule and registration information.
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Bob Carlin's New Book

7/21/2016

2 Comments

 
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Bob Carlin and Hank Sapoznik at the 2014 Collector's Gathering in New Jersey.

Jason Verlinde writes that everyone needs Bob Carlin's new book Banjo: An Illustrated History. You may have heard Bob talk about this project at previous Gatherings, and now you can hear a podcast interview with Bob from Fretboard Journal. 

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A Musical Passage with Hans Sloane

7/15/2016

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Join Hans Sloane in tour of early music in the Americas through the Musical Passage website. 

In 1707, Sloane wrote  Voyage to the Islands of Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, and explored what this new world of the Caribbean Islands had to offer. He also described (and transcribed) the music he encountered, both what he heard and the instruments he saw, including the "Strum Strum"  banjo. Three amazing scholars - Laurent Dubous, David Garner, and Mary Caton Lingold - have brought the text to life with annotations, clips of music, and an exploration of early African diasporic music. The site, sponsored by the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, has so much to offer.
Explore away, banjo lovers! 
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Tony Thomas on Key Banjo History Concepts 

6/14/2016

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Tony Thomas, scholar and banjo player, presents "Key ideas of banjo history" at the Eighteenth Annual Banjo Gathering (formerly known as the Banjo Collectors Gathering) at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott on October 30, 2015.
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Levi Brown, banjo maker, player, and bon-vivant...

6/7/2016

4 Comments

 

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. 
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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: ​
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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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Fairbanks Banjos

5/25/2016

5 Comments

 
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Original attendee and banjo collector Hank Schwartz has provided a wealth of information about Fairbanks Banjos on his website. 

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