Lukas Pool/Arkansas banjoist

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

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

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

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!

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.
*********************************************************************************
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.