BanjoQuest!

new cd & banjo tab book from Mary Z. Cox

2011-09-14T09:41:00.001-07:00

Girl With the Banjo Tattoo :) and free MP3 in July only.

2011-07-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family,

Hope you are having a wonderful summer and keeping cooler than we are in Tallahassee.

We just finished a new clawhammer banjo cd—and yes—a tab book to go with it too.

If you order the new cd and/or book in July—I’ll also send you a free bonus MP3 of Mississippi Sawyer. (email attachment only)It’s not on any of my cds and is only available to you. It was originally supposed to be on the new cd, and it turned out fine—it didn’t quite fit the overall mood of the cd—but thought some of you might enjoy it anyway.

Cello banjo, cigarbox banjo, banjolin, John Bowlin 1865 fretless, Deering Gabriella & John Hartford, Chuck Lee, Cedar Mountain, Lame Horse and more on solos and duets on: Last Chance, Chickens Crowin At Midnight, Scarborough Fair, Whiskey Before Waltzing With Soldiers, June Apple, Goodbye Girls I’m Going To Boston, Morning Has Broken, Sweet Bama, Pretty Polly, Gaspe Reel, Julia Delaney, Star Of the County Down, Needed Time & Chinkapin Hunting.

AND---a New clawhammer banjo tab book too! Simple tabs to all the tunes on "Girl With the Banjo Tattoo" cd---And--all the tunes on "Drumming On the Edge of Banjo--all in one book .

Last Chance, Chickens Crowin At Midnight, Scarborough Fair, Whiskey Before Waltzing With Soldiers, June Apple, Goodbye Girls I’m Going To Boston, Morning Has Broken, Sweet Bama, Pretty Polly, Gaspe Reel, Julia Delaney, Star Of the County Down, Needed Time, Chinkapin Hunting, Rock the Cradle Joe, Coleman's March, Tam Lin, Campbell's Farewell To Red Gap, Foggy Dew, Coo Coo's Nest, Snake Charmer's Daughter, Soldiers Joy, Murat's Dream & John Bowlin's Ground Hog Strut.

This is a fun book with historical and playing notes and hints for playing tunes on many kinds of banjos. :)

They are both available on my website:

http://www.maryzcox.com/

Thank you to everyone who has been buying my cds and books and buying them as gifts for your friends and family—you make it possible for me to continue to offer you new banjo music and tabs.

For folks who only do digital--the digital downloads are up oncdbaby now. They will be on itunes--but it usually takes a couple months before they put them up.

Hope to see you sometime this year

Best wishes always,

Mary Z. Cox

Cello Mississippi

2011-03-18T10:02:00.001-07:00

Drumming On the Edge Of Banjo :)

2010-02-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

Sounds very old and very new all at the same time. We think this is our best cd yet!

Banjoquest 2010

2010-01-29T13:36:00.000-08:00

How did Banjoquest start? Several years ago I began taping short "in the field" videos of old time style Florida banjo players that I met at festivals and gatherings. There were some excellent ones and my intent was to put together a DVD of each playing a tune. The project began well, but it was too overwhelming in time and finances for me to finish, so the tapes sat and I became involved in other projects. Then Youtube came along! And I kept taping informal short videos of banjo players in other states. My husband also taped me playing my different banjos in different parts of the country. So I decided to go ahead and put up all these videos in one place and call it "Banjoquest". I'll begin with some fairly recent videos, but put up more and more of the older film as I have time to sift through it and load it to Youtube and this wesite.

David Brose/Coal Creek March

2010-01-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

Here's an informal video of David Brose playing "Coal Creek March" for my "Be a Banjo Star" workshop at the John C. Campbell School in Brasstown, NC.

New Lame Horse banjo/ Panama City

2009-09-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Here's an old time tune at St. Andrew's State Park at Panama City Beach on Labor Day weekend 2009. Mary Z. Cox trying out her new Lame Horse Shooting Star banjo.

West Fork Gals

2009-08-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here's Yves playing "West Fork Gals" at Thierry's home in Quimper, France.

David Brose/Banjola

2009-04-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

Here's David Brose fingerpicking and frailing his Goldtone banjola on "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground. David is the folklorist at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown North Carolina. He is a fine old time banjoist, and stopped in at our "Be a Banjo Star" banjo workshop to demonstrate several old time picking styles. April 2009

Chip Arnold/Rocking the babies asleep

2009-04-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

Here's two finger picker, Chip Arnold, of Blairsville, Georgia playing "Rocking the Babies To Sleep." Tish Arnold accompanies him on guitar. Chip and Tish recently visited Bob and I at John C. Campbell Folk School to give a two finger banjo demonstration at our "Be a Banjo Star" workshop.

Gordon Scott/Sandy Boys

2009-03-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here's Gordon Scott playing Sandy Boys in his music store, Gordon Strings, on Monroe Street in Tallahassee, Florida. He teaches banjo, mandolin, guitar, and mountain dulcimer at his shop. I took my GDL (mermaid) banjo by and he gave it a much needed set up, and here he is giving it a test drive. :) Gordon is known in the region for being a founding member of a popular bluegrass band, " the Big Bend Ramblers." I played bass for them for ten years. (twenty years ago) and we always had such good fun together playing music. :)

Mark Johnson/ Foggy Dew

2009-02-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

Here is one of my favorite banjoists, Mark Johnson, playing "Foggy Dew" at the Florida Folk Festival several years ago. Mark has a brand new DVD out.
http://www.elderly.com/videos/items/300-DVD365.htm
You may also visit him at his website to hear and purchase his fine CDs.
http://www.clawgrass.com

Tommy Bledsoe/Cumberland Gap

2009-02-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

Here's another Florida banjo player, Tommy Bledsoe. Although originally from Tennessee, he lives in St. Augustine, Florida and has performed and taught in Florida for many years. This was taped at the Florida Folk Festival a few years ago.

Ernie Williams on Banjoquest/Bully of the Town

2009-02-18T12:04:00.000-08:00

Here is Ernie Williams, long time banjoist and teacher in the state of Florida, playing "Bully Of the Town" a few years ago at the Florida Folk Festival. Ernie is originally from the Sand Mountain area of Alabama and you can see that wonderful influence in his style. Many, many, Florida old time banjo players have learned to play banjo from him.

Lukas Pool/Arkansas banjoist

2008-12-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

This video was filmed at night in Mountain View, Arkansas. Lukas is a fine banjo player and think you will be seeing and hearing a lot of his playing in the future. Here he plays, "Old Cumberland" on a banjo his Dad made for him.
There was jamming up and down the street all night that night and all the spots by a light were taken by bands and big jam sessions. I wish I had used my night vision setting--but you can still hear his wonderful playing even if its hard to see him.

Jon Mark Fletcher/cello banjo

2008-12-15T16:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a little something different for Banjoquest this week. Jon Mark Fletcher of "All Night Cookin" bluegrass band in NYC www.myspace.com/allnightcookin (visiting his folks who are my neighbors)--dropped by a few minutes to try out my cello banjo. He plays a little Bach and a little bit of Leather Britches. It's not clawhammer--but this is the first time I've recorded my cello since it's been set up a few weeks ago--and Jon Mark's style does show off its pretty tone too. Jon is an awesome banjoist that you may never get a chance to hear unless you live in NYC. Also, for all you strict frailers and clawhammerers--here's a short video of me playing "Snowdrop." The banjo is my Deering John Hartford fretless and I'm sitting in John Warren's pasture in Cashiers, NC. :)

Foggy Dew/ Tune of the week for BHO

2008-12-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a short video of Foggy Dew that I taped today in my living room for this week's Tuna the week for Banjo Hangout.
http://banjohangout.org
This has become a regular thread on BHO and different folks take turns presenting an interesting tune each week.
I've been tabbing a simple version of Foggy Dew all week and hope to have it ready to put up at BHO soon along with a link to this video.
I decided to upload it to Banjoquest instead of Youtube because the sound and resolution are a little bit better when I upload to blogger.
In this video, I'm playing my 12" Chuck Lee Custom banjo. It has the Tony Pass ancient wood rim, real skin head, Texas style scoop, and Bill Keith tuning gears.
It has a colored inlay on the peghead of the girl in the moon playing the banjo with a basset hound floating on a cloud beside her.It is a sweet sounding banjo and I have been playing it almost every day since October--just to hear its voice. :)
To see more details about my banjo, visit Chuck's page.
http://www.leebanjos.com/cox.html

Banjoquest

2008-12-08T06:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a short field video I taped of Frank Lindamood at the Florida Folk Festival a few years ago. Frank is my favorite old time banjo fingerpicker in the world. He and CD Smith used to sit and play guitar and banjo in front of the Episcopalian Student Center at Florida State when I was a freshman there. Frank played the guitar and CD played the banjo. Over the years, Frank began to play the banjo too. He sounds like he has been playing it a century or two. Frank is one of Florida's secret musical gems. He doesn't have a web page that I know of--but when he plays in the campground at night--folks begin to gather and listen.

Bob taped me playing "Liza Jane" at the South rim of the Grand Canyon this summer.
It was a beautiful day and I played it on my John Bowlin 1865 fretless. (Minstrel style reproduction banjo.) The Bowlin traveled from Tallahassee to Pasadena and back with us in June and it was lightweight and easy to carry around with a gig bag--even climbing around the Grand Canyon or the Painted Desert. :)

Bob insisted we visit the Grand Canyon after listening to Mark Sickman's audio CD of the Grand Canyon Story. (The Epic Tale of John Wesley Powell's 1869 Exploration of the Green River, Colorado River, and Grand Canyon).
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sickmancox
Mark has recently added a new CD version of this audio and musical adventure, Grand Canyon Courage.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sickmancox2

Hope you enjoy this little glimpse of the Grand Canyon while hearing the voice of my John Bowlin 1865 fretless.

Banjoquest begins today!

2008-12-03T06:05:00.000-08:00

Banjoquest begins with a field recording that I taped several years ago in the campground at the Florida Old Time Championships. Here is banjo builder, Lo Gordon, playing "Peach Bottom Creek" on his Cedar Mountain Banjo.
http://cedarmtnbanjos.com
My family has known Lo and his family for many years from Florida festivals. Now Lo and his family live in Brevard, North Carolina where Lo and Tim build his wonderful Cedar Mountain banjos, and Mary and Lo own Celestial Mountain Music.
http://www.celestialmtnmusic.com They host a wonderful jam for all to enjoy on Tuesday nights at the store. Lo taught me this tune a couple years ago, and we recorded it as a melody/ harmony duet, on two Cedar Mountian banjos, on our newest CD, "Florida Banjo." Lo's banjo tab to both the melody and harmony to this tune are in "Florida Banjo Tab Book"
http://www.maryzcox.com
Hope you enjoy hearing him play in the field as much as I have.
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Here's another North Carolina friend and banjoist that Bob and I have known and played music with for over thirty years. We played music and had great fun together when Bob and I lived in Cashiers, NC while Bob was at Western Carolina University. Today, John plays guitar and banjo in a band called the Cashiers Music Company.
http://cashiersmusiccompany.com
He and his wife, Marsha, and their lovely home, were just featured in the October 2008 issue of Southern Living.

Bob filmed this casual video of John playing Ragtime Annie on his new Chuck Lee Banjo. I join him on my new Goldtone 5 string Banjo cello in a jam in the little log cabin.