OT PBS special-Give me the Banjo.

[Bernie P.]

Anybody else watch the PBS special on the history of the banjo?Great show but IMO there just wasn't enough time to cover it as in depth as I would have liked.Still they did get in some great pickers from the past and some I never heard of.

[Barry_Blink_a_lot]

I caught the very end and then the little post documentary-picking session between Roseanne Cash (I think) and some other guy, I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember. That little back and forth was quite awkward. They both seemed nervous and not really on their game. The only specific example I remember is both of them talking about some droning sound that's exclusive to bluegrass, and misidentifying that tone as a blue note. But I do hope to watch the hole thing next time they show it on TV.

[guitarcapo]

Toward the end when they started trying to show the modern banjo it got kind of bizarre with this girl singing in Chinese and some banjo quartet backing her. The point was that the banjo shouldn't be limited to bluegrass/country but it kind of sounded bizarre.

[Bernie P.]

That was Abigail Washburn with Bela Fleck.I think they're dating or got married.Anyway Bela is taking the banjo into all genres of music.Check out some of the stuff he does on YT.He's also a pretty good acoustic git player.

[Samilyn]

Thanks for this thread. I'll scrounge around on da interwebz, find the show and watch it. We ditched TV years ago, but once in a blue moon, something actually worth watching is aired.

[FretFiend.]

It's a PBS show, so it's got a healthy dose of "oh woe, how the black people were exploited", and "oh woe, how Pete Seeger was screwed", crap, but it's still interesting.

[Neal]

Hah! Sure, but it's kinda hard to get historical and leave out important parts of that history.. We are what we are

[Scodiddly]

 

It's a PBS show, so it's got a healthy dose of "oh woe, how the black people were exploited", and "oh woe, how Pete Seeger was screwed", crap, but it's still interesting.

 

 

It is kind of an ironic story for an instrument descended from African instruments and brought here or maybe reinvented here by African slaves. Country music isn't much on African empowerment.

 

Otis Taylor did an interesting album called "Recapturing the Banjo" related to that theme.

[Gary Blanchard]

I had it set to record on my DVR but have been without electricity since the storm last week. My wife tells me we just got electricity back, now I can see if the satellite is working when I get home. Hopefully there are still some showings coming up.

 

As a banjo player and Pete Seeger fan, I can't wait.

[AVisme]

Here's a link to the video (posted originally on the HGEC thread): http://video.pbs.org/video/2164506461

[Terry Allan Hall]

It's a PBS show, so it's got a healthy dose of "oh woe, how the black people were exploited", and "oh woe, how Pete Seeger was screwed", crap, but it's still interesting.

 

Yeah, Truth can be disturbing, can't it?

[Joseph Hanna]

 

Roseanne Cash (I think) and some other guy, I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember.

 

 

That "other" guy is Rodney Crowell. He is country music writing royalty and was formally married to Roseanne Cash. He's been writing and producing some of the most intense Country/Americana music anywhere, anytime since the 70's. He is as highly regarded in Nashville as anyone I can think of. His "Houston Kid" album is not only a song writing masterpiece but also a sonic miracle right up there with "Aja" and Lyle Lovitt's Joshua, Judges, Ruth album.

 

You may or may not like his stuff but if you have any interest in song writing, lyric crafting, guitar playing, producing and or recording it's worth a small investment of time and energy.

[Samilyn]

 

Here's a link to the video (posted originally on the HGEC thread): http://video.pbs.org/video/2164506461

 

 

Thanks!

[Gary Blanchard]

Okay, I got it recorded and watched through the Seeger part so far. Very well done. I hope to watch the rest soon, but I think the first part is more to my interest. I'm not that big a bluegrass banjo fan ( he said heretically).

[Barry_Blink_a_lot]

 

That "other" guy is Rodney Crowell. He is country music writing royalty and was formally married to Roseanne Cash. He's been writing and producing some of the most intense Country/Americana music anywhere, anytime since the 70's. He is as highly regarded in Nashville as anyone I can think of. His "Houston Kid" album is not only a song writing masterpiece but also a sonic miracle right up there with "Aja" and Lyle Lovitt's Joshua, Judges, Ruth album. You may or may not like his stuff but if you have any interest in song writing, lyric crafting, guitar playing, producing and or recording it's worth a small investment of time and energy.

 

 

That's all really cool. I really enjoyed when Crowell sang and played. However, I'm only talking about the little back and forth I saw which was uncomfortable to watch. A blue note is not a long sustained high note lacking vibrato like Cash and Crowell agreed on.

[FretFiend.]

Yeah, Truth can be disturbing, can't it?

 

Truth or not, the name of the show is Give Me the Banjo. That would lead any reasonably intelligent person to believe that the subject would be banjo.

[Gary Blanchard]

Truth or not, the name of the show is Give Me the Banjo . That would lead any reasonably intelligent person to believe that the subject would be banjo .

 

But you can't talk about the banjo historically without looking at the African origins of the banjo and the appropriation of the banjo for minstrel shows as well as how that changed African American perceptions of the banjo. As for Pete Seeger, he has done as much to promote the banjo as Earl Scruggs. If you look at many of the folk revival groups you will find them playing Seeger-styled long-neck banjos. He is the reason I play banjo. History is history, whether we like it or not.

[FretFiend.]

The banjo has African origins, and I don't mind hearing facts about the instruments and the people who created them. And Pete Seeger is definitely an authority on all things banjo. Never said anything to the contrary.

[Gary Blanchard]

Then I guess I really don't understand your earlier statement. Sorry. On-line communication is not the best way to share dialogue.

[Neal]

 

Then I guess I really don't understand your earlier statement. Sorry. On-line communication is not the best way to share dialogue.

 

 

Me as well.

[FretFiend.]

Damn, Neal. If Pete Seeger is your hero and ideological mentor, I certainly wouldn't want to knock your idol off it's pedestal, what with Pete "laying bare the injustices of the time" and all that, when the subject at hand is supposed to be the banjo.

[Neal]

Damn, Neal. If Pete Seeger is your hero and ideological mentor, I certainly wouldn't want to knock your idol off it's pedestal, what with Pete "laying bare the injustices of the time" and all that, when the subject at hand is supposed to be the banjo.

 

You better not! Or I'll..I'll.. shake a fist at you!

 

[Gary Blanchard]

It is hard to find a documentary that doesn't get into personal anecdotes. We also heard more about Charlie Poole's drinking and dishonesty than was needed, but that is our tabloid culture, I guess.

[Queequeg]

Some people do not wish to be reminded of a dark part of our history.

Others do not want anyone to ever forget that very same historical chapter.

And that, my fiends, is human nature.

 

A few years ago I had the honor of driving Pete Seeger to and from his gig here, and transporting that very famous banjo in the back of my Ford.

[Terry Allan Hall]

 

It is hard to find a documentary that doesn't get into personal anecdotes. We also heard more about Charlie Poole's drinking and dishonesty than was needed, but that is our tabloid culture, I guess.

 

 

So it would appear!