Learning the Banjo

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Learning The Banjo

One of the greatest gifts, I believe, is the ability to constantly learn new things. As a result of my experiences as an actor in summer theater productions, I have been exposed to opportunities for growth beyond my wildest expectation. Summer before last, 2006, I played the part of Teetot in a production of Lost Highway, the story of the life of Hank Williams, with SART, the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater. For that role I was asked if I played slide guitar , bottleneck slide. My answer to Bill Greg, artistic director of SART for many years, was "no, not yet". I then began my journey into alternate tunings and damping techniques. Carefully picking out the melodic content while making quiet the noise, rattle and overtones that are sometime desirable but most times not. To make a long story short, I had a great run with the play and learned to play a new instrument. The above photo was taken last summer 2007 while I was at a festival in Black Mountain, North Carolina. At that point, I had a pretty good grasp on the the techniques of slide.

In 2007 as luck would have it, I was to appear in a play about the life of Bascom Lamar Lunsford, the great balladeer and song catcher from the mountains of western North Carolina. The play, The Memory Collection: The Legend of Bascom Lamar Lunsford, was written by my good friend and fellow thespian, Randy Noojin of New York City. My role in that play was that of Huddie Ledbetter aka "Leadbelly". During this production I met Rev. Bucky Hanks, Hillary Dirlam and John Herman. These three wonderful musicians encouraged me to learn the banjo. Bucky pointed out that it was an instrument that was invented by slaves in America and that there was a long tradition of black banjo players as well as many other string instruments other than guitar. I discovered a rich tradition of black string bands and that many of my early blues heroes played the banjo in addition to or before learning the guitar.

Hillary agreed to teach me the clawhammer style and began with teaching me some of the oldtime music. This has enriched my life beyond my wildest expectations. I am hooked on banjo.