View Full Version : Not ALL banjo players are too LOUD!
johnwalser
Jun-23-2004, 6:48am
I attended Huck Finn Festival this past weekend and while the best know banjo player, Earl Scruggs was here, I was amazed by a banjo picker named Craig Smith. He joined Dan Crary and Byron Berline in 4 or 5 sets replacing John Hickman, who has been diagnosed with a heart valve problem.
Craig does not try to overpower and dominate every note of music. He actually tries to compliment the guitar player, fiddler or the lowly mandolin picker. I am of the opinion that most banjo pickers should be kept on an electrified collar and zapped for their musical transgressions. Craig is the exception and just a treat to my ear.
John
JGWoods
Jun-23-2004, 7:14am
Would you let your daughter marry one?
gw
Keith Wallen
Jun-23-2004, 7:40am
Would you let your daughter marry one?
gw
Ha ha.... NO WAY! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Kevin K
Jun-23-2004, 7:48am
What if your daughter was one?
Ted Eschliman
Jun-23-2004, 8:21am
John, you're not wandering over to the Dark Side, are you?...
flatthead
Jun-23-2004, 9:20am
Craig is a fantastic banjo player as well as guitar player too. #He is also a great guy, too. #California’s loss is North Carolina's gain.
Speaking as a banjo player, if I had a daughter, I wouldn't let her marry me...........:)
Flowerpot
Jun-23-2004, 9:47am
Craig Smith is the ultimate master of tone and taste, and is to my ear the very best backup banjo player anywhere. Mando content: to hear more of his playing, get herschel Sizemore's "Back in Business", which is an excellent album anyway, but Craig plays on every cut. If Herschel chose him, you know he's a mandolin player's friend.
I also like CS's solo album and would recommend it.
AlanN
Jun-23-2004, 10:03am
Yes to Craig's style and solo record - he does a nice mix of tunes and plays it very sophisticated and down-to-earth at the same time. I saw him with a good band (Jeff Foxall mando boy) at the Raleigh fairgrounds one year and the band sounded like a well-oiled machine. They blew through Flop-Eared Mule like a thoroughbred racehorse http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
sunburst
Jun-23-2004, 11:38am
Speaking as a banjo player, Craig is definitely one a of my favorites and, I'll say, one of the best.
Oh, and by the way, I dislike overpowering banjo players as much as the next guy, but remember that it's only 90% of banjo players that give the rest of us a bad name. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
Oh, and Flathead, If I had a daughter I wouldn't let her marry you either http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif .
foggyvalley
Jun-23-2004, 11:39am
My friends and I were at that festival and had the distinct pleasure of talking with Craig after his aforementioned set. His banjo's tone was the best and we wanted to know what he did to acheive it. He was very gracious talking with our group of 40 yr old wanna be's. He actually played banjo to Dan Crary's "Lady's Fancy" an awesome display of musicianship. Thanks Craig!
JackStraw_1969
Jun-23-2004, 11:40am
Where was the Huck Finn fest?
JGWoods
Jun-23-2004, 12:22pm
Oh, and by the way, I dislike overpowering banjo players as much as the next guy, but remember that it's only 90% of banjo players that give the rest of us a bad name. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
I have it on my own authority as a confabulator of facts that only 48% of banjo players give the other 52% a bad name-
ya see half of us play clawhammer style with no resonator and no finger picks and we don't over power anyone - except maybe plywood mandos- it's that other 50% bunch that plays bluegrass that will drown out anything more tasteful than what they are playing.
Then there's the 2% of BG banjoplayers that listen...
gw
JackStraw_1969
Jun-23-2004, 12:26pm
Oh, and by the way, I dislike overpowering banjo players as much as the next guy, but remember that it's only 90% of banjo players that give the rest of us a bad name. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
I have it on my own authority as a confabulator of facts that only 48% of banjo players give the other 52% a bad name-
ya see half of us play clawhammer style with no resonator and no finger picks and we don't over power anyone - except maybe plywood mandos- it's that other 50% bunch that plays bluegrass that will drown out anything more tasteful than what they are playing.
Then there's the 2% of BG banjoplayers that listen...
gw
64 percent of all the world's statistics are made up right there on the spot
82.4 percent of people believe 'em whether they're accurate statistics or not ;)
foggyvalley
Jun-23-2004, 5:13pm
Huckfinn is one of the biggest BG festivals on the westcoast, located in southern CA., Victorville.
johnwalser
Jun-23-2004, 8:04pm
Ted is asking if I am wondering over to the dark side.......I never left it. For years I played and still own a 5 string banjo. I just picked up a mandolin coming up on 3 years ago, noticed my IQ shot up 25 points and never looked back.
Ted is also privlidged to have gotten a photo of my Miata I picked up in Chino on Monday after the festival. Car is cool, but not as cool as playing mando.
I had the room next to Dan Crary at Red Roof Inn and got to talk a bit with him Sunday night. Sharp fellow (for a picker that is) and his CD "Renaissance of the Steel String Guitar" is SUPER!! Just short of Don's "Angel Eyes", but what CD isn't.
John
Ted Eschliman
Jun-24-2004, 6:52am
John's red Miata is cool, and the envy of any of us Male Midlife Crisis candidates. (Who needs to dump your wife for a 22 year-old co-ed when you can sport a Miata...)
Great that he made the switch to mandolin, because I don't know if in the English language, these words have EVER been put together in sequence:
"Is that the banjo player's red Miata blocking the driveway?..."
photos? (you can always lean the mando against it to keep it on topic)
Ted Eschliman
Jun-24-2004, 7:43am
What to drive to the jam:
John's Folly (http://www.tannah.net/ted/images/johnsfolly.jpg)
Notice a banjo would not fit as conveniently as a mando!
johnwalser
Jun-24-2004, 9:17am
One might think from the picture that I live in a forest....you got it! There is a rather large Giant Sequoia tree about 50 ft. from the front fender of the Miata. If that tree if falls, the Miata will look more like a pizza.
If this is my midlife crisis, I'm planning on livin' a very, very long time!!!!!
John