Book Review - The Birth of the Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstrelsy, by Bob Carlin

This is one of those books I'm glad I read, but wouldn't recommend. It's got some interesting information, but is deadly dull. The author is Bob Carlin, best known (to me at any rate) as a banjo player, instructor, and performer. Before I go on, I should also say that he is an amazing banjo player! I listen to his music every single day (though only the instrumental tunes - I find his voice not to my taste). He does a medley of the Beatles' Norwegian Wood with Waiting for Nancy that is absolutely great. His playing with other musicians is understated and perfect, letting the fiddle shine while pushing the sound forward. But as a historian, he has too much in common with someone making a grocery list.

Joel Walker Sweeney was a white man from Appomattox County, Virginia who, in the 1830s, brought the banjo (formerly an exclusively folk instrument played mostly by blacks and perhaps a few southern whites) onto the American stage. He didn't invent the instrument, and he probably did nothing to technically innovate its construction, but he did introduce it to the world. He did so by blacking his face with burnt cork and ham grease and pretending to be a black man. There is a LOT to say about the phenomenon of blackface minstrelsy, and many historians have done so. Carlin says almost nothing. We get little analysis regarding why white Americans - and people in Britain and Australia - thought it was a good idea to black up and play Negroes for broad humor. Instead, we get excruciating detail regarding Joe Sweeney's itinerary; the cities he played in, the theaters and their addresses, what the newspapers said about his shows, the night he took his "benefit" (apparently the night upon which he got all the gate receipts).

In Carlin's defense, Joe Sweeney died in 1860 at only fifty years of age, and before anyone thought it worthwhile to ask him about his life. He left few documents - such as letters, diaries, etc. - that would give historians a window into his mind. So all Carlin had to go on for Sweeney specifically were those newspaper accounts and handbills for shows. But the result is deadly dull, and left me unsatisfied as to how and why this whole blackface minstrelsy thing got started.

The one good chapter in the book discusses Sweeney and the "invention" of the five-string banjo. For a long time, those who wanted to claim the banjo as an "American" - read, white - instrument claimed that Sweeney took a crude slave instrument, and added the short fifth, or drone, string. This claim is patently false. There are numerous African ancestors/cousins of the banjo that have drone strings (often more than one), and the idea that an Anglo-American would take a folk instrument and add a drone string - which is almost unheard of in other Anglo-American musical instruments - makes no sense. Carlin discusses this, as well as the likely construction of Sweeney's banjos, who might have made them (probably not Sweeney) and the construction and sale of banjos before and after Sweeney popularized the instrument. It's a great chapter. If you get the book, skip the rest and read that one only.

June Apple

June Apple, dedicated to Cheryl Gibson of Lowell, Indiana. The last time she and her husband Joe graciously hosted a jam at their home, she requested that I play this. So now you can listen anytime you want to, Cheryl!

Not much to say about this tune. You've heard it, but it's a good one. I like these myxolidian tunes that go from A to G (or G to F). Sort of minorish, without actually being fully minor and down-bringing.

Avalon Quickstep

Here's You Tube user "Fukuda Banjo," from Japan, doing an excellent, steady rendition of one of my favorite tunes. Such a crisp sound and a nice tempo. I usually play it faster, but enjoy the slowdown here.

Does anyone know of a dance that could be called to this tune? I play contra dances here in Indy, and think this would be a great tune to dance to, with the low beginning to the A part. But whenever the band gets together, we immediately jettison any tune that isn't 64 beats. I'd love to find dances that work with these off-kilter tunes. Would a square dance work? I'm not sure how those are supposed to be timed, but understand that they don't require the precision of a contra.

Pretty Little Pink

Here's me, playing Pretty Little Pink! (after some yammering). I've just started holding my banjo in the middle of my lap. For all the 13-odd years I've been playing, I've held it off to my right, almost over my right hip, because it felt awkward to center it. But for some reason, though it still feels awkward, I make fewer mistakes, and get a crisper tone when I hold it in the center of my body.

My Banjo - A Gold Tone BC-350

So this is a picture of my banjo, a Gold Tone BC-350. The BC is for Bob Carlin. It's got a great, full sound (which is a polite way of saying it's kinda loud). The pot's on the bigger side, I believe it's 11 inches (I can't find a tape measure, otherwise I'd make sure). Its sound qualities are its best qualities, but there are some slightly annoying aspects to it. For one, the first string is too close to the edge of the fingerboard, which you can see pretty well in this picture. The groove in the nut for this string is right up next to the edge, as you can see below.

That makes it far too easy to pull that string off the fingerboard entirely, which does not make for a good sound! The action is also a bit too high when you go up the neck. That may be able to be fixed - I need to take it to a shop. But this is my only banjo. If I take it in, I'll be forced to fart around on the mandolin that I play atrociously. So I haven't taken it in.

The only other issue I've had is that I get a lot of overtones if I don't make a real effort to dampen the strings. I used to just keep a piece of felt under the strings right at the tailpiece (in addition to the bandana in the back), but I was still getting tones, so I eventually wrapped that piece of cloth around the strings below the bridge. It looks wierd, but it gives me the sound I want! You may notice something shiny on the left side of the pot - that's packing tape. I have nickle poisoning. If I play in short sleeves for any length of time, my skin breaks out in a rash where it touches the metal. So I've covered the metal in packing tape. Problem solved!

Welcom to The Frailer!

I Intend this blog to be about all things clawhammer banjo. I was rooting around on the internet a while back, looking to read something of, by, and for clawhammer banjo players, and I just wasn't finding what I was looking for. So, being blessed with an abundance of free time (as if!) I decided to just create what I was looking for. I plan on posting pics, videos, and maybe some audio files (can you do that? surely!) of interest to clawhammer banjo players. I should be posting an inaugural you tube video of my playing "Pretty Little Pink" in about half an hour (e.t.a. on the super-slow upload I'm apparently destined to endure). 

I've been playing off and on for about 13 years, though as somebody said to me once about playing a musical instrument, it's not the years, it's the hours. Some of those years I've put in a lot of banjo hours, some hardly any, but lately I've been getting in as many as I can. I am by no means an expert, and don't hold myself out as one. I'm probably a journeyman banjo player, but I want to connect with others of all skill levels. I'd love to post pics, vids, and links that people send me, so feel free to do so. 

As I say in the video that will eventually be posted, I named this "The Frailer" because both clawhammer.com and banjo blog were already taken. I'm much more likely to say "clawhammer" than "frailing," but you take what you can get when picking through the crumbs of the cyber table.