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Friday, September 15, 2023

It's Time to Rethink the Banjo (feat. Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn)

The banjo was, at one time, the most popular instrument in America, with tens of thousands manufactured and sold between 1910 and 1930. Nahre talks to Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn to discover the origins of the banjo as an African and Middle Eastern instrument. 

Nahre travels to Nashville to learn how to play the banjo from some of the greatest banjo players in the world. Béla and Abigail show us what makes their banjo playing unique, and they also let Nahre play one of the world's largest banjos.

VIDEO HERE  (15:07 minutes)
-Steve

13 comments:

  1. "The best way to win a fight is to hit them with a banjo"..Bob Pinciotti

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  2. Bela Fleck is a legend. Always loved his supergroup Strength in Numbers
    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWY4joomlm-o-CpFobtCCI-sax7mQW471&si=L29ZAUT-RdWBVeLr

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  3. Hard to bring up banjo without mentioning Ellen Haygood (formerly Petersen) of The Petersens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GQYtBaI7bU&t=119s. I know these folks and they are something else.

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  4. I like Steve Martin playing.....

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  5. You ain’t heard the Star Spangled Banner until you hear Bella’s rendition. I love his music! https://youtu.be/R7O8meqcXa0?si=auRHbJw07eaJp7of

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  6. I'm more of a Dobro kinda guy I enjoy hearing a good banjo occasionally
    JD

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  7. Great video. David Bromberg play a mean banjo and John Hartford, RIP, would put a sound pickup under a sheet of plywood, sprinkle a lot of salt on top of the plywood then he would shuffle and tap dance while he sang and played banjo. He was a genius.

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  8. It's hard to top Bela Fleck and Chick Corea's "Enchantment" album. It was top notch. Check out the "Throw down your heart" documentary about Bela and the banjo roots. Never seen anyone play like that guy.

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  9. Listen to Bela Fleck and the Flectones Live at the Quick. Amazing group of musicians.

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  10. Unfortunately, the movie "deliverance" kinda gave banjo players some negative publicity...
    CC

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  11. A boy, who played banjo did the chords while Redden picked.
    What gave banjos a bad name was, "I bet you can squeal like a pig."
    Starker was here.

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  12. I was really in to Bela Fleck 20+ years ago. I kinda moved away from him since.

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