Artwork by Mike Stanger
THE PLAYERS
Alexis, Andy (Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.) |
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I grew up in the verdant foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in California. Other than Alan Hendricks, who had wisely skeedaddled by the time I played banjo, there was not a single other banjer player there. In 1976 or so I met Peter Roehling when I was attending college in Riverside, and he sent me on the long, crooked path to playing odd things on the banjo. I play an Arthur E Smith Shelburne II Internal Resonator banjo, which I have owned since 1981. I also own a Wunderlich Boucher banjo and a H. C. Nelson 1890s banjo converted to a fretless.
"Music for a New Found Harmonium" is in double C tuning. This tune has become very popular with the Irish music crowd, and was written by the late Simon Jeffes of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. "Silver Wedding" is from the Klezmorim. I arranged this tune in double C tuning after learning it from bouzouki wizard Bryan Ogihara. "Non Nobis Domine" is a simple round I learned off of a Sandy Bull record. It is in G tuning.
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Banks, Ray (Doncaster, South Yorkshire, U.K.) |
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I started playing traditional jazz on the banjo in 1961. I soon learned to frail - a college friend had tapes of NLCR, Wade Ward and others, and during the 60s I saw Pete Seeger and Hedy West. I used to perform a few songs at folk clubs, where I met my wife in 1973. Marilyn introduced me to serious mountaineering and the banjo receded mostly into the background until 1997 when a skiing injury badly damaged my left knee. An idle net search discovered a national OT festival nearby. It was there that I found a healthy Old Time Scene in the UK, and quickly got into it. I've learned loads of tunes, and play regularly with some good people. We now have separate holidays - Marilyn goes trekking in the mountains, while I go to Clifftop, Galax and various UK happenings, and we show each other the slides. My life is every bit as good as when I was climbing. I'm beginning to doubt that I'll ever grow up! (I'm now trying to learn the fiddle - now that IS hard work!)
I play a Cedar Mountain banjo by Lo Gordon with rosewood tone ring, and a Deering Sierra.
Elzick's Farewell - clawhammer solo
Waitin'For The Federals - clawhammer solo
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Britt, Ed (Wakefield, Mass., U.S.A.) |
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Growing up in the Buffalo area, I got the banjo bug (c.1965) from my HS best friend, Clark Barber. Later, Albany folkie Richard Wilkie gave me my first "frailing" lesson - at 1am, after my senior prom (still in my tuxedo). Pete Seeger and The Kingston Trio were early influences.
After college, in Syracuse, I co-founded a folksong club and concert series, and acquired my avocation in banjo history and collecting from tenor-player Dick Sheridan. The last 20 years, I've lived in the Boston area. I design high-tech products, help a run a church coffeehouse, and play in "The Blunt Instruments". I've designed a few banjos for OME (Boulder, CO). My "Grand Artist" prototype (pictured) is used on these tunes. This brooding version of Buffalo Skinners, is a favorite. But only had time for 5 of the 10 verses collected by Lomax, in 1910. Alan Jabbour collected Texas from Va. fiddler, Henry Reed, in 1966. Shortly after Alan's band recorded it, Henry recalled its real name was New Castle. Too late - it's now widely known as Texas. I smooth-out the crooked ending a bit. Tuning: G#Modal (g#D#G#C#D#).
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D'Alessandro, Gianni (Dale) (Verona, Italy) |
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I have been playing the banjo since 1977, though on and off, after I came across an old LP of the Barrier Brothers: I suddenly realized this was the music I liked, the music I wanted to play. One thing led to another, and I discovered a new world: Bluegrass.
Other musical interests: Country & Western, Cajun, some Jazz, some Classical. Favorites: Earl Scruggs, Bill Keith, Johnny Cash, Balfa Brothers, Jo-El Sonnier and a few hundreds more. In the beginning, I had no idea how to get the sound I heard on records. After a couple of months, spent in the useless attempts to get it by a flatpick on a 4-string banjo that I had, I shrewdly came to the conclusion that something wrong was there ... I was on the verge to give all up when, for a lucky case of serendipity, I found the Earl Scruggs' book. After a few years, I had the chance to attend a two-day workshop held by Bill Keith, and things looked even a little more clear, then. The songs on this CD: Blue Ridge Mountain Blues and Columbus Stockade Blues. Here I play guitar, mandolin and 5-string banjo. In an excess of recklessness, I even sing them (sorry, I haven't got the twang yet ... :-)) I hope you enjoy the songs.
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Daly, Conor (Dublin, Ireland) |
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I was compelled to take up the banjo a few years ago after seeing a TV commercial with 2 guys jamming together with guitar and banjo in a small boat. The sound of the instrument and the things that were being played on it were so organic that I knew I had to have one. My main instrument is a Deering Golden Era but for these tunes I used a Deering Goodtime as I felt it sounded better in the solo context in which they are played.
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DeBlois, Paul (Alexandria, VA, U.S.A.) |
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I'm a ex-retail store manager who belatedly discovered old time music last year. During a vacation to West Virginia, I stocked up on cds and tapes at the Augusta Heritage Center and saw an poster for a musical instrument garage sale outside Elkins. The next day I bought a Deering Goodtime from Bob Smakula, then headed down with my wife to Elaine Diller’s Morningstar FolkArts store in Hillsboro. When Elaine heard about my new banjo, she insisted on fetching Dwight from the house to give me an impromptu lesson. Dwight played my Goodtime, put the first thumb scratch in its frosted head, and showed me his right hand motion. That was it - I was hooked.
Since then, I've been working on basic clawhammer skills (where's that metronome...), going through various books and videos, reading Banjo Newsletter and following the Alt.Banjo discussions. What a helpful bunch of folks. "John Brown's March" is from Dwight's "Oh Death" cassette. It's a catchy little tune he attributes to Henry Reed.
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Douglass, Dave (Sunnyvale, CA, U.S.A.) |
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I'm Dave Douglass, old-time banjo nutcase. Like lots of other banjo enthusiasts, I was inspired back in the early 60's by the Kingston Trio and Pete Seeger. I bought myself a Gibson long neck 5-stringer and it was my main player until '94 when I had Bart Reiter put one of his fine necks on a '26 Tubaphone pot and it continues to be my main player. I also have a few other banjos including an old Fairbanks fretless that's fun to slide around on. I seem to be stuck playing clawhammer style and a little old-time finger picking styles. I never seem to get tired of it. My second favorite thing to do is to sit, knee to knee with a fiddler and render out fiddle tunes, just banjo and fiddle. A couple of years ago it occured to me that I had scant evidence of the years I'd taken to learn banjo tunes so I proceeded to self-produce a couple of CDs of my tunes. Now, if a limb falls on me there will be some proof that I was around playing some tunes. I'm playing a couple of my favorite deer tunes, Deerwalk and Forky Deer (both in ADADE double D tuning) from my first CD.
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Douglas, Terry (Richmond, VA., U.S.A) |
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I have been playing the banjo since April 2001, so I believe I am the official project neophyte. I play guitar, accordion and piano also. My banjo addiction started innocently enough— I bought a cheap banjo on ebay to get a Fishman pick up out of it to use on something else. Before I knew what had happened, I was spending all my time playing that banjo... I was neglecting my work, my other instruments; my house was dirty, my children were running amok- but it just didn't matter. It got so I couldn't get going in the morning unless I knew where my Earl Scruggs and Stanley Bros. CDs were, and had the CD player loaded with them. Then one morning I woke up and decided I needed a better banjo, and it all kind of snowballed from there.
I have submitted 2 tracks from my band, The Shiners' new CD, since that's what my playing time has been dedicated to lately. We are not a 'bluegrass' or 'banjo' band, so my tunes are a little different in that respect. Most of us are native to the central Virginia and Shenandoah Valley regions and I think this heritage is reflected in our music, which could be described as insurgent country or appalachian stomp with a bluegrass influence.
On the tracks I played my Vega Little Wonder on one song and my Deering Maple Blossom on the other.
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Duncan, Bruce (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) |
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I am a 51 year old Criminal Court Judge and father of 5 children. About 7 years ago my eyes fell upon a banjo- for sale-ad in the paper and, on a whim, I bought it. It spent most of the time hanging on the wall until last year when I saw a local clawhammer guy as a warm up act at a concert, bought his cd and began to get really interested in all things banjo. On this short piece I play a Wildwood long neck banjo and accompany myself on a Seagull guitar. I added a third track just plucking the bass strings of the guitar. It was fun and, for the listener's benefit, is mercifully short.
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Düsseldorfer Banjo Club (c/o Klaus Weusthoff, Germany) |
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The Düsseldorfer Banjo Club was founded about 20 years ago. At present there are 21 members, most of them playing tenor banjo. For the melody-line we have a mandolin banjo, a trombone and a mouth-organ. A bass banjo and a tuba are completing our group. Of course there is a singer, for we´re playing a lot of popular songs and jazz standards. Until may 2001 Sean Moyses, an excellent banjo-player from the UK was our soloist.
In the last years we arranged 4 banjo-workshops with Cynthia Sayer and Buddy Wachter as guest-stars. Although there are some other groups playing banjo we´re proud to say that the Düsseldorfer Banjo Club is Germany´s No. 1 banjo band.
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Garau, Kristin (North Carolina, USA) |
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It was during a John Hartford/Gillian Welch double bill in Wilkesboro that Kristin Garau got the banjo itch. A Deering Goodtime came a few months afterward as an early anniversary gift from his adoring wife who, later that night, went into labor. In retrospect, if the child preceded the gift, it's questionable whether Kristin would have a banjo at all!
With a little more than a year of playing under his belt, Kristin loves playing and squeezes his practice around "Daddy time." He is learning in the 3 finger style and considers Welch, Pink Anderson, and Doc & Merle Watson musical influences. Fittingly, Kristin's contribution, "Rock of Ages", is a brief take on the Gillian Welch tune. He is playing a custom-built Nechville on this recording and Jody King contributes both guitar and mandolin accompaniment as well as production responsibilities.
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Grant, Robb (Oliver, BC, Canada) |
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Robb's a Canadian who plays banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, piano and trumpet mostly for his own amazement. He also likes mountain biking, swimming, arguing, reading hard stuff, throwing things far and accurately, ridiculing television, and being in a hurry. He has a lovely wife who works, two young children, an old dog 'Banjo', a canary 'Huey', and no job these days. Formerly a corporate Occupational Hygiene professional, he unfortunately developed certain ethical feelings and had to quit to pursue a true calling; Those with true callings to offer or recommend please reply.
The 'Gatineau Reel', as from a Don Messer fiddle-tune book (don't make me tell you who Don Messer was), was recorded direct-to-hard-drive with N-track Studio thru the PC's original "Creative Labs" mic: Sorry! Track one was the melody, and I added the rythym next monitoring with crackly earbud phones; timing is bad. The banjo was a Rich and Taylor Bill Keith Classic with GHS J.D.Crowe strings and a SSII bridge that I never liked much but it looked impressive. I now have the surprising GTCC (Can $599) and it will quell the Banjo Jones just fine for now. Ta, Ta.
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Gregory, Bob (Asheville, NC., U.S.A.) |
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Harrell, Curtis (Palmdale, CA, U.S.A) |
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I began picking banjo in the early 70's on a $75 Harmony. I immediately became a hard-core follower of Scruggs and stayed in that mode until a couple of years ago when I met an old friend via both Banjo-L and alt.banjo. I remembered him as a tasteful guitarist, and, when I discovered he had taken up clawhammer banjo, I was led to reexamine my prejudice against styles other than BG.
Through him I discovered Brad Leftwich and the world of the fretless repertoire--the plunky drive of the Round Peak style. The two cuts on this CD reflect my Scruggs roots and more recently found Round Peak sensibility. Both are in D tuning: aDADE. Quince's tune is played on a 1929 Gibson TB-1. I replaced the neck with one of my own making--fretless with a double-cut peghead and no pearl anywhere. The original tune--Jubal's Charge--was played on an instrument I also made; it is very similar to the Mike Ramsey open-backs--thin 12-inch rim, rolled hoop tone ring. In my picture, this is the instrument with the extensive pearl inlay. I hope you enjoy the cuts as much as I enjoyed playing them, Curtis
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Hefner, Richard (U.S.A.) |
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Hergert, Don (Loma Linda, CA, U.S.A.) |
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I started playing 5-string banjo in 1970, when to my surprise I discovered that I had always loved the sound of the banjo. I still do today. Having tried but not been totally satisfied with a number of banjos, in the late '70s I built my own '34 RB3 copy which I have played exclusively until early this year. My 3-finger style for decades has been evolving into a classical-bluegrass mix which I've used in performing programs for many churches in my locality. I've been moving much further in that style direction this year through the influence of two recently purchased banjos, a '25 Gibson TB3 "Ball Bearing" 5-string conversion and a ca. '26 Gibson UB1 (tuned like a 5-string without the 4th string). My current 3-finger style sounds like a combination of a plectrum/chord solo/classical banjo. With this style I am able to devise my own solo arrangements of favorite songs, primarily made up of traditional hymns. The three songs I have contributed here are among those favorites.
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Hofer, Michael (Richton Park, IL, U.S.A) |
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My father a music teacher on accordian and organ started me on my musical sojourney playing my first instrument, the accordian at age 4. I started playing banjo in 72, a tenor, then bought a fivestring in 73. I taught myself some basic rolls, but not very much music. I also started playing guitar about this time.I was idle on the banjo for a few years, I traded the tenor banjo for a bass guitar, but still wanting to learn bluegrass banjo I eventually took a few lessons from Tim Owens, an old friend of mine who had recently completed a tour with The McClain Family Band.
Tim gave me the basics, and I took it from there. Im still developing my skills on the banjo, guitar, keyboards, and violin. Like life, music is a journey not a destination. "When You And I Were Young Maggie" is an old tune written in 1866. Probably more a ballad when first written, I do it in a moderate style. I have been composing and writing music for many years. Some of my work has been published by a small Nashville concern, and I am awaiting word of finalization of my first "cut" from an independant artist in Nashville. I wrote both lyrics and music for "Forever Stay ". Both songs were recorded on a Korg D8 Digital Studio. The banjo I use is a Fender Leo, the guitar is a 62 Guild D25NT. The bass, and other voices were sequenced or played live, on my Korg X3 workstation.
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Horowitz, Marc |
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I've been playing the banjo for forty-one years, starting out on a Beltone banjo purchased at Gem Pawnbrokers on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, on June 4th, 1960. I still have the receipt. My older brother brought home "The Weavers at Carnegie Hall" LP, and the instant I heard Pete Seeger's intro to "Darling Cory", I was hooked. Thereafter followed an obsessive woodshedding period, with me holing up in the basement of my parent's home practicing and learning tunes from recordings for up to eight hours a day. At seventeen, I played on my first professional recording session, a children's record with Tom Glaser. Other musicians on the date were Eric Weissberg (who gave me my start by calling me for the session) and Steve Mandell of "Dueling Banjos" fame. I entered and won the Philadelphia Folk Festival banjo contest ( I believe this was in 1966) and was a judge the following year. Then followed a great period spent playing with Tom Paxton, Doc Watson, Judy Collins, Steve Goodman, Raun MacKinnon, The Phoenix Singers and many more artists. I played in the pit orchestras of Broadway shows and logged hundreds of commercial jingle sessions. I worked full time as a musician, playing banjo, acoustic, electric and pedal steel guitars, and mandolin until 1979 when I went to work at Mandolin Brothers, here in Staten Island. I am now an account executive at Time Warner Cable, while my daughter Leah, now twenty-one, carries on the family showbiz tradition singing and dancing at Tokyo Disney's new park, Tokyo Disney Sea.
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Killinski, Mark (Coconut Creek, FL, U.S.A.) |
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I'm originally from Amsterdam, NY. I started playing banjo in 1976 when I was 20 years old. I soon joined a band called Yankee Strings and played until 1982. I quit the band when I moved to Florida and soon stopped playing banjo because I couldn't find anyone to play with. I got my banjo (Baldwin Ode Model C) out for this recording and played an hour a day for several days in order to "warm up" and get some of my chops back for this recording. While working on this tune, my friend, Jim Smith from New Brunswick Canada, stopped by for a visit so I talked him into adding mando break. I play the banjo, guitar, and bass. I recorded on a Tascam four-track cassette deck with DBX noise reduction using a Shure SM-57 microphone.
I'm still interested in the banjo - which is why I read alt.banjo every day - but have been playing guitar for almost three years now. For the past 1 1/2 years I've been playing lead guitar in a South Florida bluegrass band called Crossroads.
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Lewis, David (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) |
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I started playing bluegrass banjo on a whim as a teenager. Being born in the city and raised on Heavy Metal, Punk and New Wave, I have yet to figure out where the idea to learn banjo came from. Still, after a few weeks learning the basic rolls and licks, I was hooked. I played bluegrass almost non-stop for a year before deciding to pursue formal music training at the local university. Banjo was of course not offered, so I switched my focus to Classical Guitar. The next eight years included a great deal of success as a Classical Guitarist, but very little in the way of banjo playing. It was only sometime after abandoning classical music in favor of a more prosperous career that I picked up the banjo again. That was the autumn of 1999. The goal this second time around was to learn that mysterious style called clawhammer that I had heard once as a teenager. Ever since hearing that amazing sound, I wanted to learn clawhammer. So in the fall of 1999, I taught myself the technique and now play clawhammer exclusively. My primary instrument is a simple 6" mountain banjo that I built myself two winters ago. "Two Flights Up" was recorded with my old bluegrass banjo, but all other cuts were recorded with my little mountain banjo. The primary influences on my writing are Don Ross, Michael Hedges and Gillian Welch.
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Miller, Benton J. (Clinton, OK, U.S.A.) |
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My name is Benton Miller. I'm 39 yr. old, and have been playing banjo for about 10yrs. I enjoy the old-time fiddle tunes, and enjoy mainly playing clawhammer style banjo although i am trying to learn 3 finger bluegrass too.
I picked up my first banjo out of a pawn shop while i was going to college. The bug bit and i've played every since. I haven't gotten much exposure from other players, so i tend to play with more of my own accents to the tunes, although these two tunes are mainly straight ahead. I am playing a handcrafted banjo by Homer Haynes. It has a whyte ladie style tone ring, and is tuned to a double C tuning (GCGCD).
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Price, Penny (Northamptonshire, U.K.) |
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About 20 years ago my brother's best friend, known as "Dog", left his banjo with me to look after while they both went to Australia. I just put it out of the way somewhere and left it alone. Dog has since died. He was a wonderful person and a talented musician. About two years ago I noticed the old banjo one day and thought I'd like to try to play it. I've played it just about every day since then. I love it.
Someone told me it was really special and made by Arthur Weaver, who was born in England in 1857. I got on the Net and found alt.banjo and asked for any information. Ed Britt told me: "You should be aware that your banjo is one of the FINEST (if not THE finest) of the English classic banjos. Treat it with love and respect - it has its OWN great heritage." I feel touched and rather honoured that Dog left it with me to look after. It's very loud so I use a mute for singing. I only play in G - or in C with the capo on the fifth fret.
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Regan, Mike (Forth Worth, TX, U.S.A.) |
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I've been playing (at) the banjo since I was 15 (1963). I've put it down for years at a time, but always came back. I chose banjo because I wanted to be part of the folk craze, but not another guitarist. Plus I liked the sound. Unfortunately, the other players I know were guitarists so my early efforts were either strumming or finger-picking with alternating bass strings (no 5th string at all). Now you understand why I put it down. I wanted that "flow of notes" sound, but had no idea how to get it. After my first son was born (1981), I discovered Pete Wernick's book and, though, not a big fan of bluegrass, found out that I could get that sound (with a lot practice -- I was missing sleep anyway with the new baby and all). Anyway, "Long Black Veil" is my own arrangement based on the Wernick book and "Jesse James" is right out of the book. I was shaking like a leaf while my son recorded these which is my excuse for the poor performance. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
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Stanger, Mike (Idaho Falls, ID, U.S.A.) |
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Mike Stanger began playing the banjo in 1962 at the height of the folk scare. He was influenced by The Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger, Earl Scruggs, and Paul Crowder, an old friend who gave him one lesson. Mike was born and raised on an Idaho horse ranch he still calls home. He has designed some banjos for Ibanez Guitars, and has worked for the Gibson Guitar Co., Montana Division, as a color finisher and supervisor. He has been a graphic artist since 1971.
Mike used Big Red, a 1929 Gibson RB3 archtop, a Gibson Advanced Jumbo, an Ibanez AF100 jazz guitar, and a Yamaha RX120 Drum Machine on "Brazil". On "Fisher's Hornpipe", he used a Prucha Premium openback and the Advanced Jumbo.
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Schwartz, Hank (Menlo Park, CA., U.S.A.) |
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I was compelled to take up the old-time 5-string banjo in 1958 after spending a summer traveling in Europe on a teen tour led by Woody Wachtel. Woody had been similarly compelled to take up the banjo after hearing Stu Jamieson's 1946 recordings of Rufus Crisp of Allen, Kentucky. Woody, a New Yorker, went so far as to live for a while with Rufus' uncle in Allen just to be close to Rufus. While on the European trip, Woody carried an old fretless with no case everywhere we went. It was the first banjo I'd ever seen and that banjo and Woody's playing forever set my heart on this lifelong musical path. I went to college right after that trip and proceeded to major in old-time banjo and minor in everything else. The banjo really brought me out of my shell and I became a popular coffee-house entertainer during those Baltimore years. After a long break for other things, I eventually returned to my profound banjo involvement and recently made a CD "Notes Along The Way".
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Sieker, Rolf (Round Rock, TX, U.S.A.) |
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Rolf Sieker was one of the first 5-string banjo players in Europe. In 1975 Rolf's band Bluegrass Express recorded the very first bluegrass album in Germany. Now living in the US he won 1st place at the Texas State Banjo Championship in 2001. His way of playing the banjo is highly influenced by the blues-melodic style of Bobby Thompson, one of the most requested studio musicians in the 60s, 70s and 80s in Nashville. The two are close friends and Rolf received his banjo in 1996. Rolf is a creative songwriter. For The Siekers he wrote a lot of original material.
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Shelton, James (Port Orange, FL, U.S.A.) |
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I began playing banjo after hearing my uncle Gene play Cripple Creek on his banjo, when I used to sit around in Kentucky at my Grandparent's house on the farm and listen to my Father and his brothers play thier guitars (thumb-style). This was a weekend ritual, visiting our Grandparents. That was in the early 60's when I was young. I've played thumb-style guitar since I was twelve years old. Bought my first banjo in 1976, graduated to an Alvarez Denver Belle in 1979, purchased an Osborne Chief #12, two years ago. I still have and play all three of them. It wasn't til after moving down here to Port Orange, Florida from Muhlenberg County Kentucky, that I had my first experience at Bluegrass Festivals. Thanks to my Wife, Dee. I am one of those lucky one's that their spouse kinda likes hearing a banjo being played three finger style. I haven't tried clawhammer yet, looks too hard to learn. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Good Lord for giving me this talent of being able to play the banjo. I've met a lot of great people due to the fact of playing my banjo, including my Wife. Thanks for being there for me, Dee.
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Stone, Marvin (Utica, MI, U.S.A.) |
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My name is Marv Stone and I am 46 years old. I started playing the banjo in January of 1998. I'm married to Karen and we have 2 children, Hillary 9, and Taylor 7. I'm in the retail hardware business with my brother, and we own 2 Ace Hardware stores in Michigan. Our father started our first store 50 years ago in 1951. I always liked the banjo, but my only experience with music was from playing the saxophone in grade school. I'm a collector of vintage fountain pens, and one day while hunting at the flea market for pens, I spotted a 5 string banjo, it called to me, and I bought it. It was a very nice 70's Japanese copy of a Gibson Mastertone called a Conrad, with a solid brass tone ring and a solid one-piece flange. It was a great sounding banjo and it served me well for my first 2 years. I promised myself that if I finished one year of lessons, I would buy myself a quality banjo. My instructor, for my first year, told me to purchase my last banjo first and I would never need to buy another one. I finished my first year and ordered my Ome Grand Artist Megatone Bluegrass Banjo. It arrived about a year later. It is a beautiful banjo both in sound and appearance and the tunes that I have played here are on this banjo.
I'm a bit self-conscious about submitting my music here because of all the other great people and all their years of experience but if you don't stand up, you won't be counted, so I'm throwing caution to the wind and here goes my stuff. Hope you like it. BTW, don't believe that part about never having to buy another banjo. One banjo is never enough!!!
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Veerman, Bart (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) |
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I bought my very first bluegrass elpee in Hilversum, a small town south east of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where I was born (1950) and raised. It was an enormous honour to be invited to participate on this album. By The Each (tuning gCGCD, capo 2) is a tune I just wrote this summer (2001). A couple of years ago (1999 or so) I was watched a program on TV about a little town in south eastern Pennsylvania. During the interview the store owner mentioned that in his store you could still buy nails "by the each," meaning of course, just scoop them from a bin as they'd sell them a piece, or by weight, a perfect title for this tune. I recorded both tunes on my Fender Leo equiped with this pretty cool bridge made of African blackwood. My three biggest accomplishments in life: learning English as a second language, learning how to play the banjo and the most important one, having been married to my wife and bestest friend for almost thirty years, this one's for you my dearest: ForA Friend. I wrote it back in 1989, also in the double C tuning, except all strings tuned down a few frets for the mellow low sound and the extra sustain.
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