I bought a banjo, so sorry!

[k0k0peli]

I'm in Nova Scotia Canada... So many musical influences. Nova Scotia was built on coal mining and steel production, apple farming, logging, fishing and boat building.

We spent a few autumn weeks in NS some years back. Lovely place (except Springhill). Cape Breton NP was in full color! Music and kind people everywhere. And I recall a "folk music instrument museum" in one of the Margarees, in the back room of a nice lady's house. We've planned a return. Should I take a banjo?

Note: When we first hit the province we could find nowhere good to eat. The cook in that packed diner in Springhill couldn't even scramble eggs! Then we picked up a recipe+guide book called SOME GOOD! and we ate well afterwards.

[skygazer]

I'm in Nova Scotia Canada; home of Hank Snow, Wilf Carter, Anne Murray, The Spinny Brothers and George Canyon (ugh!). Cape Breton (Rankin Family, Rita MacNeil, Ashlee MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster (see Alison Krause Get Me Through December)) is part of Nova Scotia. This is typically bagpipe and scottish-fiddle country. However given our close proximity to Newfoundland, you could also refer to it as Newfoundland-accordion country.

But we have farming communities as well so as likely with farming communities everywhere, they gravitate to the country, old-time and bluegrass more than the celtic. I don't know why this is.

Oh, and can't forget the sea shantys. So many musical influences. Nova Scotia was built on coal mining and steel production, apple farming, logging, fishing and boat building.

My favorite was Gordon (Stobbe?) playing mandolin and singing with Ladies Choice bluegrass band years ago, he was in your area and did a bluegrass show on the radio that I always listened to. He's a real nice guy too!

When I went visiting my neighbors they would generally get out instruments and play, even the kids would play something if only spoons. Today around here this could be considered to be instead of something passive like playing a CD or watching TV. I was spoiled, and when I moved to Maine I noticed a real difference - less music, and the shows and festivals had lesser quality sound mixes, which I would characterize as rock based - too loud overall and with the vocals buried behind the instruments, even when it was a famous female vocalist standing in front of her band in a seemingly professional spot like LL Bean's.

I used to really enjoy listening to the "morning march" bagpipe music out of New Glasgow, stirring music just before 7AM as I cruised down the road to work, ending as I pulled into the gathering spot (from which we were transported out into the woods.

[itstooloudMike]

If you've got a canoe, it'll make a pretty good paddle!

[itstooloudMike]

Remember when you were a kid and you lost a tooth. The Tooth Fairy would bring you a dollar. Well, as an adult, if you lose enough teeth, he brings a banjo!

[k0k0peli]

If you've got a canoe, it'll make a pretty good paddle!

That's what a Martin Backpacker guitar is for.

[MysTiK PiKn]

I listened to Jami Lynn doing "Sodbusters" on banjo and really liked it. I tried banjo once and found it physically uncomfortable but I'm thinking about trying it again as open back can sound so good as accompaniment, like this.

"Sodbusters" is older (at home) recording from 2011. I bought that album also.
"Good Time to Die" is recent - and 100% better sound quality.
It's here:
http://mp3releases.org/47972_fall-is...me-to-die-2015
I contacted her website:
http://www.jamilynnmusic.com/contact/

[theCOOP]

Coop! Nice stable you're building there, financial constraints aside. I have a Flatiron 1N and a 315 I picked up at a clearance steal to use as a beater, but that's a lot of mandolin. Not as complex a tone as my Silverangel Econo, but really woody, very good volume, etc. I'm considering upgrading the bridge a bit and am still toying around with which strings and picks fit it best, but it's definitely going to be hanging around.

Enjoy that 5 string, man! Though you've just dropped your IQ by approximately 63.7% (as did I about ten years ago ), they're a lot of fun to play!

Which one do you want to upgrade the bridge on? I'm happy with both the 1N and the 315. However, the 1N strings feel a little sloppy/loose. They're what it calls for inside on the front block; GHS phospher bronze set A250 sizes 10-15-24-36. Everything else has d'adario J74s.

[theCOOP]

My favorite was Gordon (Stobbe?) playing mandolin and singing with Ladies Choice bluegrass band years ago, he was in your area and did a bluegrass show on the radio that I always listened to. He's a real nice guy too!

Enjoyed your post. I.remember Gordon Stobbe (Stobee) on the radio.

[Paul Busman]

Still resisting... but videos like this one below are very tempting. Dig the bent notes, which I'll never do on a mandolin:




t.

Thanks for posting that! Gerry O'Connor is incredible, and that Bodhran player is fantastic too.

[skygazer]

Enjoyed your post. I.remember Gordon Stobbe (Stobee) on the radio.

Wow! You have a Ladies Choice album? Very cool! ...........I couldn't play it if I had it.

I remember Gordon often talking about St Margarets Bay, so I think he lived over that way. I loved the harmonies they did, with that dark haired girl singing backup.

Strange, but I don't really remember many (actually any) banjos in Nova Scotia. Guitars, fiddles, mandolins, bagpipes, hand drums, and quite a few autoharps.

Hope you haven't gone off the deep end! ...........

[theCOOP]

Now that you mention it, the banjo isn't very prominant here. There's Old Man Leaudecke who isn't really old at all.

There are normally a fair number for sale...maybe they just keep changing hands.

I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere

Apparently there's a banjo camp somewhere, maybe it's a conspiracy to get them all in one place...

[skygazer]

Now that you mention it, the banjo isn't very prominant here....

Apparently there's a banjo camp somewhere, maybe it's a conspiracy to get them all in one place...

......


Probably they would all fit in someone's kitchen!

[k0k0peli]

Probably they would all fit in someone's kitchen!

In the broilers?

[Relio]

I owned a banjo for about one week, but I had to force myself to practice because all I wanted to do was play mandolin. Plus I began as a guitarist so mandolin was very easy to pick up. Banjo is a beast in itself. I'd prefer not to be the jack of all trades, instead the master of one (mando)!

[theCOOP]

Banjo camp is this weekend starting tomorrow. A lady friend I haven't met is going and encouraged me to go. I don't know if that's how I want to spend the last three days of my vacation.

Apparently there are only 12 signed up.

I hear most guitarists have trouble adjusting to mandolin and vise versa? I get lost in all those strings on the guitar. Banjo is easier so far.

[MysTiK PiKn]

......


Probably they would all fit in someone's kitchen!

I thought only bagpipers did that - I think they call it a KayLee (sp?) - (it sounds like that anyway). Even a banjo would get lost in that roar. Likely mostly drunk at that point anyway.

[theCOOP]

I thought only bagpipers did that - I think they call it a KayLee (sp?) - (it sounds like that anyway). Even a banjo would get lost in that roar. Likely mostly drunk at that point anyway.

Cèilidh, though I don't know if that applies specifically to a kitchen full of bagpipers.

[MysTiK PiKn]

Cèilidh, though I don't know if that applies specifically to a kitchen full of bagpipers.

I just heard it first that way - bunch of folks in a pipeband competition.

Thanks for the translation to (what?) proper Gaelic? Not quite Anglais, huh.

How'd you get that accent on the /e/. Is that in kb settings? I never go there. I know there's slightly different accents crosscanada, but we still speak mostly the same kind of eeennngleeeesh, yah? I knew a girl from Nfld a while back; I used to have to get her to translate just a wee bit. My background is Irish, so I can usually get it - but I never heard of some of those expressions - wow. She was a lot of fun to talk with. I'm a fan of various cultures, and other unique things, too numerous to mention. In another recent thread, two of us were tossing fake gaelic back and forth - too funny. One of these days I have to make it to the east coast. I've seen much of the country; but the farthest east I have been is Quebec City. Technically, I landed in Gander; but I was too young to know about it in those days.

[Loretta Callahan]

My sincerest apologies, but I came home with a 5-string today. El Degas something or other. Unknown age. A sticker on the back of the head says SB-55 but I don't whether that's a model or not.

Perhaps I need a new support group.

Looks nice with the mandolins though

Maybe there should be a banjo support group here at the cafe. I finally paid off the tenor banjo I was craving last month. She's very awkward on my lap ... but gorgeous. She looks nice with my mandolins as well. If for no other reason, a banjo helps your skin thicken. Congratulations!

[theCOOP]

I just heard it first that way - bunch of folks in a pipeband competition.

Thanks for the translation to (what?) proper Gaelic? Not quite Anglais, huh.

How'd you get that accent on the /e/. Is that in kb settings? I never go there. I know there's slightly different accents crosscanada, but we still speak mostly the same kind of eeennngleeeesh, yah? I knew a girl from Nfld a while back; I used to have to get her to translate just a wee bit. My background is Irish, so I can usually get it - but I never heard of some of those expressions - wow. She was a lot of fun to talk with. I'm a fan of various cultures, and other unique things, too numerous to mention. In another recent thread, two of us were tossing fake gaelic back and forth - too funny. One of these days I have to make it to the east coast. I've seen much of the country; but the farthest east I have been is Quebec City. Technically, I landed in Gander; but I was too young to know about it in those days.

I bet she was fun ...

I just copied and pasted the spelling from a link. It's not usually expressed with the accent as far as I know.

[k0k0peli]

Banjo camp is this weekend starting tomorrow. <snip> Apparently there are only 12 signed up.

That's a relief.

I hear most guitarists have trouble adjusting to mandolin and vise versa? I get lost in all those strings on the guitar. Banjo is easier so far.

I'd been git-picking for a couple decades before I inherited a banjo-mando and didn't really concentrate on the latter. After three more decades and a bit more work recently, the mando chording is almost internalized. Almost. 'Irish' GDAD tuning, anyway. Yeah, banjo is easy, especially in the common open tunings that match my dobro. Now, if the banjo is tuned weird, that's another matter...

[skygazer]

Banjo camp is this weekend starting tomorrow. A lady friend I haven't met is going and encouraged me to go.

All joking aside, take her advice, I hope you go. Sounds good.

Remember, when a guitarist is needed, 1,000 people nearby are qualified for the job. When a banjo player is needed, maybe for bluegrass, you know only 12 people anywhere near you will be qualified!




Now, back to our regularly scheduled banjo jokes!

[skygazer]

Banjo camp is this weekend....
....Apparently there are only 12 signed up.

That's a relief.

That was funny!

[k0k0peli]

That was funny!

You're welcome. [/me polishes fingernails on lapel, looks modest] My original comment was, "This calls for a snide comment but I haven't the heart for it" but then the punchline occurred to me. Whew.

Anyway, banjos are fun but dangerous. I know; five banjo-like objects face me at this moment here in the morning room. (Amid a couple of dozen other lutes.) They're like nothing else. BAS may overtake me soon, driving me to a Pete-Seeger-style long-neck 5-string to join my Orlando. And a modern banjo-uke to supplement my 1920's-era Varsity. And I *do* plan to build a mutant banjo-dulcimer, nyeh-heh-heh. (I played one in a shop recently.) But right now, the morning sun is reflecting from the polished Guckert Duplex rim of grandpa's banjo-mandolin, threatening to blind me. My eyes! My eyes!

[theCOOP]

All joking aside, take her advice, I hope you go. Sounds good.

Thought long and hard about it but didn't want to spend the last three days of my vacation cooped up in a class-like setting.

Perhaps we'll have a late dinner or something and she can tell me all about t.