“Give me the banjo…When
you want genuine music — music that will come right home to you like
a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through
you like Brandreth’s pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles,
and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose,
— when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming
banjo!”
you want genuine music — music that will come right home to you like
a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through
you like Brandreth’s pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles,
and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose,
— when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming
banjo!”
– Mark Twain, “Enthusiastic Eloquence,” San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle,
23 June 1865
23 June 1865
We have been having some great banjo experiences lately, between some excellent shows by our favorite banjo duo, The Lowest Pair, and discovering a documentary that came out of The Banjo Project, called Give Me the Banjo, narrated by another excellent banjo player, Steve Martin. Both are worth knowing about for any old-time or bluegrass music fan, or anybody just plain curious about this American instrument.
This week I had the wonderful experience of attending my first house concert, and what better than to have it be my favorite band? It was nothing short of amazing having a front row seat on a comfy couch in a backyard, with two outstanding banjo players making music under a pear tree strung with lights. It was a completely intimate, focused musical experience with a small audience who were there for the sole purpose of listening to these musicians. While I do enjoy a good, rowdy hoe-down from time to time at our local watering holes, it is also good to just listen to the music.
Here is a little more about The Lowest Pair from their website:
“The Lowest Pair is a quirky, old-time roots influenced duet, featuring
the high lonesome harmonies of banjo pickin’ songsters Kendl Winter and
Palmer T. Lee. They perform both traditional and original music, often
nestling-in somewhere between. Arkansas born, and homesteading in
Olympia, Kendl is a solo artist on indie record label K Records and was
one of the founding members of the popular string band The Blackberry
Bushes. Palmer hails from Minneapolis, MN and is the front man of high
energy festival favorites bluegrass outfit, The Boys n’ the Barrels.
The two met in early 2013 and began discussing the idea of
collaborating. Shorty thereafter they hit the road with their banjos
and an old guitar. A few months after the duet formed they teamed up
with Dave Simonette of Trampled By Turtles to record their debut record
“36¢” put out by Team Love Records. They are road warriors with a city
folk front and back porch sentiment. This dynamic duo is turning heads
across the country.”
the high lonesome harmonies of banjo pickin’ songsters Kendl Winter and
Palmer T. Lee. They perform both traditional and original music, often
nestling-in somewhere between. Arkansas born, and homesteading in
Olympia, Kendl is a solo artist on indie record label K Records and was
one of the founding members of the popular string band The Blackberry
Bushes. Palmer hails from Minneapolis, MN and is the front man of high
energy festival favorites bluegrass outfit, The Boys n’ the Barrels.
The two met in early 2013 and began discussing the idea of
collaborating. Shorty thereafter they hit the road with their banjos
and an old guitar. A few months after the duet formed they teamed up
with Dave Simonette of Trampled By Turtles to record their debut record
“36¢” put out by Team Love Records. They are road warriors with a city
folk front and back porch sentiment. This dynamic duo is turning heads
across the country.”
Although I haven’t had much time to play these days, I am still feeling rich in banjo.
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