This is a collection of 50 unaccompanied old time banjo tunes recorded by 23 of the best old time players on the scene. A very rare source of music for all who are interested in old time music and particularly in old time banjo styles. 100% pure old time.
DOUBLE CD WITH 50 OLD TIME BANJO TUNES AND EXTENSIVE LINER NOTES (20 PAGE BOOKLET). In the Fall of 2006, 23 of the best old time banjo players in the country each recorded 2 to 3 old time banjo solos and contributed them to this project, which seeks to document the state of old time banjo music at the beginning of the 21st century. This is a very unique double CD set that contains 50 tunes, some well-known and some very obscure. Eleven of the tracks contain singing by the banjo player, but there is no accompaniment whatsoever, just banjo.
The old time banjo, "the heartbeat of the band," tends to get lost in jams and it is rarely featured as a solo instrument. So we peeled away all the guitars, fiddles, basses and washboards to let you hear what 23 players do with their banjos when nobody else is around. Nothing like this has been done since County Records released their Clawhammer Banjo series decades ago. This is a similar project, but with contemporary players, all of whom are still alive and kicking.
The project contains a wide variety of banjos, fretted, fretless, gourd, 13" large-pot Spratt, nylon string, gut strings, some slick and some funky, and several banjos made by the players themselves. And although most of the tunes are played clawhammer style, there is a wide variety of styles employed. (Mike Seeger actually goes back and forth between picking, strumming and clawhammer on his two tunes.)