podfolk

a podcast... and weblog section for folk music and online folklore (see the weblog front page for Bob's "Other Journalism")... and, no, this isn't about "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," unless as pod-folklore.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Banjos and more...

The McClung Museum next door to the UT Communication Building has a terrific exhibit for the next few months on the African roots of an instrument that many folks associate with stereotypically "white" mountain music. The Banjo: From Africa to America and Beyond opened at McClung last week.

Along with feeling guilty about not getting an audio podcast together, I feel especially negligent in not bringing along a recorder to catch a few Swedish-accented words from Ulf Jägfors, the keynote speaker at the opening.

<irony>Now where else but Sweden would you go to find an ethnomusicologist criss-crossing the African continent for years, looking for skin-headed harps and lutes, getting to know musicians, and watching for something similar to the "down-picking" styles that banjo players today call "clawhammer" or "frailing"?</irony>

Here's a special OldTime Herald feature related to Ulf's work, complete with some audio. (Click on the name of the tune -- "untitled" -- then on the "play" triangle.) Here's Ulf's own site Akonting.org. The akonting is a long-necked West African gourd lute he considers a close relative to the banjo developed by African slaves on this side of the Atlantic.

Some of the instruments at the McClung exhibit come from the Museum of Appalachia, and a few, I was surprised to see, came from the collection of a Massachusetts banjo expert named Jim Bollman, who, coincidentally, sold me my banjo about 25 years ago. Here's a radio interview with Jim, plus UNC Professor Philip Gura (they wrote a banjo history book together), plus a couple of banjo players you might have heard of -- Bela Fleck and Tony Trischka.

(And if any of my newswriting students happen on this item, notice that site's charming reference to a banjo head made of "a ground hog hide." Like Mark Twain's saying the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug, in this case, one little space makes the difference between a woodchuck and sausage meat.)

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Speaking of getting back to the roots of thngs, World Music Central has the details on instrument contests at MerleFest 2006, the Wilkesboro, N.C., event that WMC calls "the largest American roots music gathering." I've never made it to the event because it usually coincides with final exams or something. Hmm... This year it's April 27-30, the weekend between UT's last classes and exam week. I really don't like big, crowded events, but maybe if I make an extra effort to have my grading up-to-date... I'm afraid that falls in another folkloric category: "Tall tales."

8:21:35 PM

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