Banjos & Such @mayor@banjo.town

#tbt: "Green Corn Jig," or "Buckley's Jig" from Jas. Buckley's New Banjo Method of 1860, recorded 7 years ago. :jb:

https://peertube.social/videos/watch/695d5cce-7807-4ff6-89ed-4cd4d3a8adf8

#mastomusic #banjo #earlybanjo #fretlessbanjo #video #music #musiciansofmastodon #historicmusic #19thcenturymusic

I've decided to go back through all the #earlybanjo clips I've uploaded to youtube since ~2010, try to clean up the audio from some of the better ones a little bit, and release them as an album/EP on bandcamp.

The base sound quality is not going to be great, since most of them were recorded via iphone mic a few feet away, encoded straight to AAC and who knows what youtube has done to them.

For that reason part of me wants to call it something "the early banjo tapes" to communicate that they're a bit rough around the edges, but that seems silly/disingenuous given that none of them were ever recorded to tape. "the early banjo clips," maybe?

Whelpley's Jig, from Jas. Buckley's 1860 book:

https://peertube.social/videos/watch/1d047bd1-f64b-436b-8086-7a73336d7a87

#mastomusic #banjo #earlybanjo #fretlessbanjo #video #musician #music #19thcentury

Sneak preview of a track I'll be releasing to Bandcamp tomorrow! It's a #banjo funeral march from #1865, played on a fretted banjo in concert pitch with #mellotron accompaniment. #magicianssociety #mastomusic #music #oddio #earlybanjo #musicians #recording

Is #mastomusicmonday a thing? Here's a clip I recorded #onthisday a long-ass time ago, the beard seemed like a good idea at the time

https://peertube.social/videos/watch/0096e6c2-1983-4956-8151-0320fb000fcb #banjo #earlybanjo #fretlessbanjo #musiciansofmastodon #mastomusic #frankconverse #1886 #acoustic #acousticmusic

Welp, it has already been a year since I recorded this #banjo song from 1872, which means it's also been a year that I've been spinning my wheels on the EP recording project I learned it for. Trying to get that back on the front burner, it feels like a few things have been slowly coalescing over the last couple of months. https://peertube.social/videos/watch/df7619da-e974-497c-8645-bc72323c0c71 #earlybanjo #classicbanjo #musiciansofmastodon #np #nowlplaying #tootradio

#mastomusicmonday: This clip I recorded 3 years ago. https://peertube.social/videos/watch/12d0e89a-b0f7-4019-a46e-13cd504429fc #banjo #earlybanjo #mastomusic #nowplaying #tootradio #19thcentury #1855

I recorded a lot of clips in April 2014, apparently! Here's "Lynchburg Town" from Frank Converse's "Green book" of 1865. #banjo #earlybanjo #mastomusic #video #musiciansofmastodon #peertube https://peertube.social/videos/watch/b9533c68-d695-4812-a620-3326fa18eb5c

#waybackwednesday No. 1: #onthisday in 2014 I recorded 'Jake Bacchus' Reel' from 1860:

https://peertube.social/videos/watch/7ef4356f-a0a2-4d61-803c-9ee98ad8b9fa #mastomusic #musiciansofmastodon #banjo #earlybanjo #fretlessbanjo #fretless

#onthisday No. 2, an 1860 #banjo tune recorded in 2014: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/db5e040f-56de-41bc-b5b2-d69a04665c92 #mastomusic #musiciansofmastodon #earlybanjo #fretless #fretlessbanjo #video #music

#onthisday (give or take a day) in 2014, I recorded this tune from Phil Rice's 1858 banjo tutor book: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/8c3986db-dbae-42fe-b9e5-22f9cbae46aa #banjo #earlybanjo #mastomusic #musiciansofmastodon #tootradio

#waybackwednesday to this tune from Phil Rice's 1858 #banjo instructor that I recorded 6 years ago, which has a lot of interesting rhythmic stuff going on. #mastomusic #musiciansofmastodon #earlybanjo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvyDbKKId1g

#mastomusicmonday: Cane Break Reel, from Frank Converse's 1865 "Yellow Book", #fretlessbanjo multi-tracked with #parlorguitar, #rhythmbones, and #bassdrum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WrE8BJ_T1c

#mastomusic #tootradio #earlybanjo #multitrack #acapellaapp

This week's #earlybanjototw is "Pea Nut Girl" by W.H. Gassner, from James Buckley's 1868 banjo guide. I gave it more of an #earlyjazz treatment here with #plectrumbanjo and #parlorguitar:

https://youtu.be/Jga9f8cYWno

#banjo #earlybanjo #arcanebanjo #classicstylebanjo #4stringbanjo #5stringbanjo

With all the #earlybanjo stuff I post here, One thing I haven't really addressed is its problematic legacy. It's interesting to learn, play and record instrumental songs published in banjo tutor books that were published from 1855-1900 or so, but they are interspersed with *virulently* racist popular tunes of the time period, when #banjo was the star instrument of blackface minstrelsy... 1/

#tbt to this recording I did of an 1868 arrangement of an 1858 hit by Benjamin Hanley, "Darling Nelly Gray" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpSydWK6MRo #banjo #fretlessbanjo #earlybanjo #throwbackthursday #onthisday #mastomusic #tootradio

Sneaking in late with last week's #minstreltotw over at minstrelbanjo.ning.com, "The Modoc Reel" by Frank Converse, from 1886.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVXUtxVD2T4

#banjo #earlybanjo #mastomusic

More #onthisday #banjo content: I recorded this James Buckley arrangement of Stephen Foster's "Nelly was a Lady" 3 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJTw2PH2VUo #earlybanjo #minstrelbanjo #fretlessbanjo #mastomusic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qB6Myizmak

#waybackwednesday to this 1858 James Buckley piece I recorded four years ago today #banjo #earlybanjo