I began playing
the five string banjo in 1967, and over the more than fifty
years, have partnered up with a whole bunch of like-minded
musicians who shared my iconoclastic approach to old time
music. These recordings are all taken from concerts or practice
sessions held in my living room with some of my longer lasting
associations. All were pretty much first takes, so they are
occasionally rough, but I hope they are entertaining and show
a lot of enthusiasm for the music.
The
Beaumont String Band
It
was my first string band, all friends I had made when I first
came to Boston to got to college in 1969. Rose Zac was a fellow
student who payed classic banjo, ragtime piano, mandolin and
a bit of fiddle. Robert Gear was an established figure in
the Boston folk music scene, who played bottleneck blues guitar
and lap steel. Mickey Levine was a solid guitar flatpicker
who had also just come to Boston; I met both he and Robert
at picking parties at the Cambridge music commune known as
old Joe Clark's. The three recordings below are from a concert
we did in Cambridge in 1975.
Beaumont
Rag
Faded
Love
Sweet
Georgia Brown
Adam
Dewey & Crazy Creek
I
joined mandoinist Adam Dewey's
band Crazy Creek in 1995. It was my one stint in a bluegrass
band, and the musicians were stunningly talented. In addition
to Adam, Lincoln Myers played guitar, and Bradd Wheeler was
on bass. The music was great, but I guess I learned as well
that I preferred the laid back spirit of old time more than
the intensity and drive of fine bluegrass. I believe the last
two recordings are practice tapes, the first is from a radio
broadcast.
I'll
Write Your Name In the Sand
Red
Haired Boy
Crazy
Creek
Wry
Whiskey
Wry Whiskey was
the name we gave to the old timey band that I belonged to
for a couple of years back around 1998. Brian Clancey is the
guitar picker on the Wry Whiskey tunes; he now plays with
fiddler Robin Warren, they perform under name
Spirit Fiddle. Tom Speth, playing bass and singing lead
on Knoxville Girl, played for many years with Willow Creek,
a popular Boston area bluegrass band. The three of us played
together for several years. Later, we were joined by Richie
Chaisson on the resophonic guitar, and eventually Brian Clancey
moved on to play with Spirit Fiddle, and was replaced by the
late Gene Kettlehohn. The group eventually broke up when I
got too busy to practice. Richie has since joined the Pine
Hill Ramblers, a popular Boston area bluegrass band.
Cacklin
Hen
Cotton
Eyed Joe
Knoxville Girl
Pretty Saro
Fishing Creek
Cindy
My Creole Belle
Wind
That Shakes the Barley
Yellow
Rose of Texas
Little
Birdie
Long
Time Traveling
Rye
Cove
Wildwood Flower
Sittin'
On Top of the World
Fireball Mail
Rosewood Casket
Bonaparte's
Retreat
Liza Jane
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Don
& Ed Britt
I first
met Ed Britt at a picking party not long after he moved to the
Boston area from Syracuse in 1980; we were both impressed at
how well his clawhammer style fit together with my old-time
three finger picking. After Wry Whiskey broke up, sometime around
2000 I ,imvited Ed over to jam in my living room, and thus began
an almost two decade musical partnership that produced some
of th best music I will ever make. Ed passed away in February,
2021, and I dedicated a separate page on this website as a trinute,
with over fifty of our duet recordings. Click here.
Don
& Don Couchie
In
2005, I joined the online forum called The Banjo Hangout, and
a few years later became one of the regulars in the forums internet
chatroom, where I would spend quite a few hours swapping tunes
with members from all over the world. One member whose music
I enjoyed the most was Don Couchie, from North Bay, Ontario.
In the Augist, 2009, I finally got to meet and pick "in
the flesh" with Don when he crossed the border and camped
next to me on "Geezer Hill"at the Appalachian String
Band Festival, in Clifftop, west Virgnina. The first six recordings
are from a session at that festvial. The rest are from several
sessions at Cliffyop 2012. Don is an extremely talented and
versatile picker, who can pick up a new tune far faster (and
accurately) than I can. He had only played Last Chance for just
a few minutes of warm up before I turned on the recorder. Just
plain amazing. Don is playing melodic clawhammer banjo on Barlowe
Knife and Cookhouse Joe, and fiddle on the remainder. Bakc up
north, when he's not playing old time fiddle and banjo, he leads
the band Don
Couchie and the Spirit of Bluegrass.
Last
Chance
Barlowe
Knife
Rose
in the Mountain
Sal's
Got Mud Between Her Toes
Cookhouse
Joe
Dry
and Dusty
Sugar
in the Gourd
Big
Hoedown
Fine
Times At Hour House
Coleman's
March
Booth
Shot Lincoln
Bonaparte's
Retreat
Devil
Eat the Groundhog
Ebb
and Flow
Santa
Anna's Retreat
Shove
That Pig's Foot
Stepp's
Ways of the World
Don
& John Maguire
In
2016, when my long time busking partner Ed Britt
began to
show signs of dementia, I asked a fiddle playing friend of ours,
John Maguire, who had recently retired, to join us on the street,
in order to help Ed remember the tunes, and generally protect
his safety. By July, 2018, Ed was no longer able to busk as
a result of his condition, and our outings for the year ended.
In 2019, John and I began busking again, moving our operation
to the Boston Public Garden. We were pleased with the result,
and were lanning on going out again in 2020, but the Covid-19
pandemic postponed those plans. We're looking forward to a more
rewarding 2021.
Old
Mose
Sandy
Boys
MacCumber's Ida Red
Cumberland
Blues
Cluck
Old Hen
Cat
Tracks
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