Humbled & shot down,

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 5 Aug 2007 9:17 am

With the attitudes towards the banjo on this forum I just have to post this happening at a club we played at last night.

This club has a policy that once a month they allow musicians from the audience to come on stage and play their instruments with the regular band. A girl, age seventeen, came up on stage with a banjo and the band’s leader, the lead guitarist, made several real cheap shots about her banjo and most “bang & plunk” players has he phrased it.

This young lady tore into that banjo with The Orange Blossom Special, then the Devil’s Dream and the only two people who could keep up with her was the bass player and the guy on the acoustic. The mouth piece band leader who was on the electric guitar pretty much had to stop all together. She then grabbed the fiddle player’s fiddle and started all over again then did the same with the acoustic but playing the Twelfth Street Rag this time. Mr. Mouth Piece once again could only do a little chording as this young girl ripped away with three more lightening fast tunes. The audience went crazy but there was one very humbled dude who remained very quiet after the girl left the stage.

I guess the point is, a good musician is a good musician no matter what he or she plays music on.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 5 Aug 2007 3:15 pm

I've been playing the electric guitar for over thirty years, and in all that time I've learned that there are two very important things guitarists should beware of.

1) Players with bad attitudes think the electric guitar is a cool instrument to play, while other instruments such as banjos, accordions, fiddles, steel guitars, etc. are not 'cool'.

2) Players with bad attitudes can turn the electric guitar into an ego machine, on which they think they can outplay other electric guitarists or those who solo on other instruments. These same people will also try to hog the limelight every chance they can get.

Joe Butcher · Post by **Joe Butcher** » 5 Aug 2007 3:47 pm

I never understood the whole "anti-banjo" thing here........just seems like lame "group-think" to me. It's as if some people need a common enemy to unite them. That just makes me want to like banjos even more.

(I cant wait to read the replies left here by the predictable "sheeple")

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 5 Aug 2007 4:37 pm

Joe, I think is mostly just good-natured digging.

At least, I hope that's the case.
I have a good friend that plays banjo, among other instruments and we're always ribbing each other about our respective instruments. [my steel, dobro.]

Come to think of it, the drummers and bass players are the butt of as many jokes as banjo players.

erik · Post by **erik** » 5 Aug 2007 4:48 pm

Joe, I see you're new and don't know how long you've been reading the forum. It's really the host here that despises b*njos. It's been a running gag for years. There are forum members who publicly acknowledge they play one. I like the sound of them, myself. They can certainly grate your nerves if mic'd to hot.

Greg Simmons · Post by **Greg Simmons** » 5 Aug 2007 7:16 pm

Chalk it up to delusions of banjer, but I couldn’t find any steel guitar jokes over on the Banjo Forum

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 5 Aug 2007 10:22 pm

On average, we're a larger and more brutal gang than the Banjists. they know better than to mouth off in public.

Really, though.... Banjo can be dangerous in the wrong hands, but every now and then I run across a player that really adds some great stuff.

I think that inexperienced fiddle players pose a far greater threat to our way of life. They should learn in remote, soundproof monastaries.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 6 Aug 2007 8:58 am

Yes, Henry, and then they should stay in them, even after they have become "accomplished" .....

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 6 Aug 2007 10:27 am

Joe Butcher wrote:I never understood the whole "anti-banjo" thing here...

What part don't you understand? We don't much care for drummers either, but hard to get a gig without one.

The guys are right. It's just a lingering bit of a fun theme that b0b started and manages to periodically sustain.

Charlie St Denis · Post by **Charlie St Denis** » 6 Aug 2007 10:54 am

Hey Les
Thanks for the post as I enjoy hearing little
eye openers like your story. I've also seen
this happen and seen certain musicians mouth
off and then left standing with their mouth
open.
Charlie

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 6 Aug 2007 11:03 am

Les,I think that the guy who dissed the young lady should have given her half of his pay for that day...to save face.

Mike Ester · Post by **Mike Ester** » 7 Aug 2007 10:17 am

What?! The thread has turned to a discussion about banjos, and b0b has not locked it?

Dennis Coelho · Post by **Dennis Coelho** » 7 Aug 2007 10:21 am

At the first of the "folk music riots" in Washington Square in NYC in the late 50's, the only injury was to a policeman who sustained a broken leg when he was hit with a 10 lb. bluegrass banjo. Be afraid, be very afraid.

I like playing the banjo, along with a lot of other instruments as well. It's the good music that counts. So there.

Dennis

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 7 Aug 2007 10:22 am

On the Jerry Douglas bulletin board we are required to spell the word backwards, as in ojnab.

Don Walters · Post by **Don Walters** » 8 Aug 2007 1:44 pm

Those of us who have been on since the beginning know the reason. It's simply that b0b hates banjo ... he can't stand the sound and if you search you'll find him saying it.

Many others appear to feel the same.

If I can't come back as Buddy Emmons I want to come back as Earl Scruggs.

no, wait ... as Jerry Douglas.

no, wait ... as Mike AUldridge.

no, wait ... as Jim Cohen

no, wait ...

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 8 Aug 2007 3:51 pm

Joe Butcher wrote:I never understood the whole "anti-banjo" thing here........just seems like lame "group-think" to me. It's as if some people need a common enemy to unite them. That just makes me want to like banjos even more.

(I cant wait to read the replies left here by the predictable "sheeple")

I love the way they look. I'd hang one on a wall or in a glass case even. It's just the sound of them that I can't stand. They don't sound musical to me. Nothing personal against banjo players. I'm sure to some ears, it's a thing of beauty.

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 11 Aug 2007 9:07 pm

Bob,your getting soft,never thought you would use the word beauty and banjo in the same sentence.

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 11 Aug 2007 10:32 pm

"I love the way they look. I'd hang one on a wall or in a glass case even."

A thick glass case.

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 12 Aug 2007 7:35 am

If memory serves b0bs aversion to banjo comes
from a gig from hyell scenario.

Seems some State Senator or the like decided he
would'sit in with the band', so he planted his self
2 feet from b0b, aimed right at his lil ole heid.

At the and of a rambling and disjointed set,
that b0b barely heard, because the banjo was
drowning out his amp and the rest of the
tastefully loud band, he decided,
I don't like banjer too much...
least not in close proximity.

This has been a running forum joke ever since day one.

I am sure if Bela Fleck walked on to stage
with most anybody here, he would be hard pressed
to leave the stage before the band's set was finished.

Bo Legg · Post by **Bo Legg** » 21 Aug 2007 12:15 pm

I was gonna learn to play banjo so I bought the advanced version LEARN TO PLAY BANJO advanced level book and I opened it up and found out it was a coloring book. I should have known when it said it came COMPLETE with CRAYONS. Anybody want to buy a Banjo?

Dennis Graves · Post by **Dennis Graves** » 21 Aug 2007 12:22 pm

I've played bluegrass for many years and I've heard my share of banjos. Even played one myself at one time. The problem with "most" banjo players, even if they are very good, they don't know when to back off. They think because we're playing bluegrass, the banjo has to go wide open from one end of the song to the other. So it's not the poor ole banjos fault.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 21 Aug 2007 12:41 pm

If I can't come back as Buddy Emmons I want to come back as Earl Scruggs.

no, wait ... as Jerry Douglas.

no, wait ... as Mike Auldridge.

no, wait ... as Jim Cohen

I'd highly recommend picking one of the others. Trust me on this, just once.

.

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 21 Aug 2007 12:46 pm

I happen to have played one steadily for about four years in the 1970's and thoroughly enjoy the sound of it, esp when handled by someone like Earl Scruggs, Mike Seeger or Bela Lleck. Jerry Garcia wasn't all so bad at it either- (& there's another direction you can pull this thread.) I like it best when it has accompaniment & fits into a larger whole. All by itself, unless the guy is good, it can grate.

Leland Ogle · Post by **Leland Ogle** » 22 Aug 2007 2:16 am

I bought my son a banjo, and on the way home I stopped at Walmart. While inside, someone broke into my car and left two more banjos.
Lee

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 22 Aug 2007 8:08 am

Lleland you can open a store if you leave them there for a week.
They multiply like rabbits.

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