Besides his amazing banjo making skills check out the hot square dance shuffle he plays toward the end around 03:15 (including fanning up the neck). The tune is typical of the Hook & Line/Shout Lulu/Minnow on a Hook body of early breakdown songs (aka square dance, hoedown, "corn" songs and so fo...
2018-05-14 13:16:27 +0000 UTC View Post
She plays a nice rendition of "Hook & Line" and then wears her shoes out dancing!
Phoeba (Phoebe) Cottrell Parsons (1908-2001). Find more of her music here: https://fieldrecorder...
2018-05-13 20:37:31 +0000 UTC View Post
"I've been dying to try out open C, but I'm afraid I'll blow my second string if I try to tune it that way and how do I tune down from open G? Is it a full step lower so I basically go from a G to a G (I don't think that'll work for me and my banjo as the strings go all limp noodle if I try). I apol...
2018-05-13 18:30:22 +0000 UTC View Post
"My dilemma is, I got it my head that a scooped banjo would suit me style. Living in a rural part of Canada, there are not a lot of dealers around, so just accessing a scooped banjo to play is a challenge. So do you think the scoop makes much of a difference. Like Tyler I am tempted to order a scoop...
2018-05-13 16:12:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a nice HD recording of banjo #13 playing "Cackling Hen," an early southern dance piece that probably originated among African-American musicians. I learned it from George Gibson. eAEAC# tuning.
I am mostly using a straight overhand picking style here, incorporating left-handed double noting...
2018-05-13 01:46:50 +0000 UTC View Post
(gCGCE, relative aka "Cackling Hen" tuning)
https://patreon.com/cliftonhicks
http://cliftonhicks.bandcamp.com
2018-05-10 19:16:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Banjo #13: Ambrosia maple neck, black walnut tuners, bridge and tailpiece. Antique bent wood hoop (I think oak). Brass tacks and iron tacks. Goat hide from Jeff Menzies. Photos by Robyn Latham.
(f#DEAD)
Well Frankie had a bad man this everybody knows
Lord she spent one hundred dollars to buy him a suit of clothes
He was her man but he done her wrong
Yes Frankie had a bad man Albert was his name
Lord she spent one hundred dollars to buy him a coat and ha...
2018-05-08 11:37:42 +0000 UTC View Post
(f#DF#AD, relative)
Here's another recording of George Gibson from the summer of 2011.
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Look up look down that lonesome road hang down your head and cry,
The best of friends must part sometimes but why m...
2018-05-07 13:52:10 +0000 UTC View Post(gDGAD or f#DGAD, relative)
I have been sorting through my old field recordings (most made between 2008 and 2013 when I was based out of Boone, North Carolina) and managed to recover several that are worth sharing.
This was recorded at the home of master banjo player, researcher and me...
2018-05-07 01:49:11 +0000 UTC View Post
"I currently have a really junky Epiphone MB-100 banjo. I've learned to play some basic stuff, but the banjo is not easy to play which makes practicing frustrating. I'm looking to upgrade to something a little better and was hoping you could throw some advice my way. I'm considering a Deering Goodti...
2018-05-05 12:54:58 +0000 UTC View Post
busk [bəsk]: to play music or otherwise perform for voluntary donations in the street or in subways.
"My main goal is to get a decent repertoire together and do some busking. It doesn't have to be much, just a few tunes will do, but it has to be impressive enough to get people to stop and l...
2018-05-03 18:17:14 +0000 UTC View Post
"How do you keep your repertoire (and playing style) varied enough that it doesn't all sound the same? Do you have any tips for making very similar songs more distinct and interesting for listeners? All the best." - Mick
"I was wondering if you could talk a little about the roll improvisation play...
2018-05-02 19:45:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Playing for the family down in South Carolina.
(Filmed by my sisters.)
2018-05-01 01:02:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Howdy All: I am out-of-town for a few days visiting family members, I'll get more Q&As and lessons uploaded for yall upon my return. In the meantime, here's a few photos a sister took of a banjo I'm about halfway through.
Hoop is an antique dry measure and the neck is a super wormy old p...
2018-04-28 21:31:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's my attempt at a close-up shot of both hands playing Darling Cora out of gCGCC (actual tuning is eAEAA).
I learned this song from George R. Gibson (master musician and prolific researcher from Knott County, Kentucky) who said he learned it this way from his father, Mal Gibson. When I have he...
2018-04-23 22:40:46 +0000 UTC View Post
(eAEAA, relative gCGCC aka "Darling Cora" tuning or "dulcimer" tuning)
https://patreon.com/cliftonhicks
http://cliftonhicks.bandcamp.com
2018-04-23 21:28:16 +0000 UTC View Post
(banjo is tuned eAEAA, relative to gCGCC aka "Darling Cora" tuning)
As per your requests here is "Darling Cora." I use the same tuning, melody and words as George Gibson learned from his father, Mal Gibson, who was born about 1900, if I am not mistaken. George says this tuning, one of several know...
2018-04-20 20:57:40 +0000 UTC View Post
"The earliest mountain banjos did not have a 'can' rim to support the head - the head was tacked on just as it is on gourd banjos. I have proved that gourd banjos were in the Carolinas by the 1780s; they were likely widespread on the frontier by that time. The first person who made a mountain banjo ...
2018-04-20 18:26:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Somebody recently sent me a question about an odd version of "Little Maggie" they were learning; in searching around for some different versions of the song I stumbled across this great resource from former UGA professor and noted folklorist Art Rosenbaum.
I'd never seen these particular ins...
2018-04-18 16:08:19 +0000 UTC View Post
"At the Brooklyn Folk Festival there was a woman named Jane Henderson who danced to one of your songs. May I ask what genre of dancing was that? I thought it was Irish but I was wrong." - Josh
Flatfoot, Hoedown, Square Dance, Double-Shuffle, Heel-and-Toe, Jig and Buck Dance are just a few of...
2018-04-16 00:59:26 +0000 UTC View Post
eBEAB (relative gDGCD or "Pretty Polly" aka "Sawmill" aka "G Modal")
I learned this song mostly from George Gibson's 2000 album "Last Possum up the Tree." On this recording Gibson used a six string guitar banjo tuned DADGAD and a three-finger picking style so the arrangement demonstrated her...
2018-04-15 23:27:50 +0000 UTC View Post
... and here's the left hand.
eBEAB (relative gDGCD, a.k.a. "Sawmill" or "Pretty Polly" tuning)
eBEAB (relative gDGCD, a.k.a. "Sawmill" or "Pretty Polly" tuning)
Here's the right hand two finger picking Wild Bill Jones. I learned this song mostly from George Gibson's "Last Possum up the Tree" album. Gibson uses three-finger picking pattern on a six-string guitar banjo tuned DADGAD on his rec...
2018-04-14 22:54:24 +0000 UTC View Post
While waiting on my pre-ordered copy of 'Banjo Roots and Branches' (https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/23cnd4ft9780252041945.html) to I arrive, I'm meticulously going through ...
2018-04-14 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
(photos by R. W. Gordon, 1924-25, Library of Congress)
"Mr. Cohen, et al.:
"As far as I know, banjos with internal tensioning systems (vaguely similar to the "mountain" banjos we are discussing) began there development right in the middle of the war with George Tweed's banjo design patent of...
2018-04-13 20:07:09 +0000 UTC View Post
eBEAB (relative gDGCD, a.k.a. "Sawmill" or "Pretty Polly" tuning!)
I learned this song from master banjoist, storyteller, and researcher George R. Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. Th...
2018-04-12 02:02:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Michael asks where I acquire all of the different woods that I use and Alex wants me to start using names for tunings (not just "gDGBD" etc.).
"Any chance you can show us the process of carving the small parts like the tuning pegs and bridge? What tools do you use for that kind of thing?" - Michael
Michael asks just how exactly we hand make the tuning pegs for a trad...
2018-04-06 11:50:10 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm calling Banjo #12 done at this point. Since we've been listening to a lot of Bill Cornett lately I played and sang some of his verses to Morphine.
gDGBD, relative tuning.
I'm already thinking about the next banjo and the next person on the "potential buyer" list...
2018-04-05 16:26:58 +0000 UTC View Post