 | Recapturing the Banjo by Otis Taylor
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $8.93 This is one of the most important banjo CDs in recent years. More than commemorating the Black origin and past of the banjo, this CD brings the Banjo into the modern world of African American music especially Blues, trance, and their offspring. This CD belongs in every home.
Read my reader comment there for more.
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 | That Half-Barbaric Twang: THE BANJO IN AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE (Music in American Life) by Karen Linn
Buy new: $15.56 / Used from: $8.00 the banjo in American culture, its history. This is a necessity if you want to know about the banjo in history. She's quite good and debunking misconceptions that are common.
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 | America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Ninteenth Century by Philip F. Gura
Buy new: $38.45 / Used from: $30.95 A great book of pictures, of explanation, of history of the art of building fine banjos in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Very little here about the music, all about building banjos as an art
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 | African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions (Publications of the American Folklore Society New Series) by Cecelia Conway
Buy new: $23.40 / Used from: $12.00 Start here, a decisive book that changed my life!She documents the African origin of the banjo and the African American origin of mountain banjo playing as well as the playing style and history of the last generation of tradition-based Black banjoists.
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 | Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia by Various Artists
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $48.28 great record of Black Banjo players and fiddling and singing many of the people discussed in the book above. Watch out for second volume coming out soon
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 | Altamont -- Black Stringband Music from the Library of Congress by Nathan Frazier
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $10.99 Field Recordings of two great black string bands from the 1940s features unbelievably good finger picking and frailing and some nice fiddling
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 | Black Appalachia: String Bands, Songsters and Hoedowns (Deep River of Song) by Alan Lomax
Buy used from: $69.98 Magnificent work by a variety of Black Banjo players, fiddlers and drummers and other musicians
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 | North Carolina Banjo Collection by Various Artists
Buy used from: $12.94 Excellent collection of Black and white, traditional and professional banjo playing from the 1920s to the 1950s
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 | Southern Banjo Sounds by Mike Seeger
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $16.25 An encyclopedia of black and white banjo music see my comment. Get the accompanying instruction DVDs where most songs on this CD are taught in Mike's clear and straight forward way.
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 | You Ain't Talkin' to Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music by Charlie Poole
Buy new: $22.97 / Used from: $28.00 This is a collection not only of Charlie Poole's music, but of music that influenced him and music that he influenced. There is a great book of notes and information. All of this was done by serious scholars and players of the music as a labor of love.
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 | Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order, Vol. 1, 1927-1928 by Gus Cannon & Noah Lewis
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $12.36 The work of a great banjoist, blues singer and band leader, at the top of his game.
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 | Travelin' Down the Road by Uncle Dave Macon
Buy used from: $12.95 A great banjoist in both finger and frailing styles
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 | Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings by Dock Boggs
Buy used from: $64.88 An extraordinary finger style banjoist and a great singer
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 | Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968 by Dock Boggs
Buy new: $24.98 / Used from: $14.99 Many say Boggs' picking here is better than on the old recordings. The recording sure is better. One of My favorite CDs
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 | The High Lonesome Sound by Roscoe Holcomb
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $10.48 A great banjoist, a great singer, see my comment
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 | Shady Grove Old Time Music from North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia
Buy new: $24.95 / Used from: $14.16 Wonderful banjo picking by Roscoe Holcomb and Dock Boggs, great music by Tommy Jarrel and Kilby Snow, see a young long-haired Mike Seeger!
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 | Vintage Banjo
Buy new: $15.99 / Used from: $37.47 Mary Z Cox is a great banjoist. She is clear, she is beautiful, she is strong in her playing, she aims to make music not be flashy. She is nice to listen to and you can learn so much from this CD
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 | The Complete Mercury Recordings by Flatt & Scruggs
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $8.79 The best work of the greatest banjoist of the 20th century, This is one of the CDs that is so good that you might get afraid to play it because it will stay in your CD player for a while
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 | DVD-Old-Time Banjo Styles Taught By Mike Seeger
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $18.64 Demonstration of many styles with Doc Watson, Etta Baker and other old time musicians
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 | The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo by Patrick Costello
Buy new: $24.95 / Used from: $19.95 Despite Pats other behavior he is a good teacher and writer of banjo books, though this one has its limitation see my reader review there
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 | DVD-Learn To Play Clawhammer Banjo-Lesson 1
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $15.70 Very good banjo instruction, very thorough and not too fancy
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 | The Birth of the Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstrelsy by Bob Carlin
Buy new: $31.50 / Used from: $32.00 A great book about not just Sweeney but the history of minstrelsy in the US, Britain, and Australia. Has key information about early banjo construction. Straight forward with massive documentation, a real reference for anyone concerned with the banjo, American popular culture, and history
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