I started playing banjo in the late 1960's or early 1970's after hearing Pete Seeger for the first time. Over the years my musical interests have fluctuated but I always return to acoustic music. I was heavily into banjo from about 2000 until mid-2007; I then got pulled into a more rock-oriented style of music with electric guitar. My banjo was hanging on the wall, collecting dust, when fate intervened.

My mother-in-law decided that she wanted to give her three youngest grandsons guitars for Christmas; she asked me to shop around for them. At one store I saw an acoustic guitar that caught my eye; I picked it up, started playing, and fell in love with it. The guitar led me back to a folk-based approach to music. That led me back to banjo.

I am now a week away from owning a custom long-neck

what kind of man plays a banjo with an archtop tonering in it. that is just a delibrate sin. all the good banjo pickers play a flat head. just a thought.

After reading The Diva's latest article in the BNL I got to thinking about my own experiences and a young boy finding a life long friend in the 5 string banjo. I remember in the 7th grade in chorus class, a class that I took because it was pretty much a free pass, a friend brought his banjo to school to play for the class. Even at that stage he was a pretty good picker. I remember watching and listening and how I was just overwhelmed with what I was hearing. At that point I decided that I had to learn to do this. It was close to Christmas and my mother ask me one day what I wanted for Christmas. A banjer I said, and she just kinda said ooooookaaaaay!? I remember she told my father What I wanted a he said that it would be a waste of money, just something to pile up in the corner , but mama

The Mafia has RSS feed, and I didn't have a clue as to how it works. So right now I am in a class teaching me all about it. Hmmmm....

I may not understand all of it yet, but am beginning to get the hang of it.  So this blog is a test to tell me if I set things up right.

There's a lot of info to absorb in this class, and made especially difficult by stumbling across a site on Ostracods, that sounds like a blast. Ok, so I have a fascination for invertebrates, although I don't know of any that would make a good banjo head ....

Maybe squid skin?

Nah, but we all love the MOP they supply for our inlay.

Bye for

I have always wanted to get these thoughts out in writing of some type...for some reason it helps me learn and grow as a person.

 Part 1: The Begining

Greetings,

 My name is Patrick and I'm a banjo-holic. I started playing roughly 5 years ago.

<Hi Patrick!!> lol j/k

I recieved a banjo for christmas 2003. My mother asked me if I would like a new instrument for x-mas. (we were pretty poor at the time but she ALWAYS made sure I had anything I needed to make music, i have been playing one thing or another since my first memorys and learned to read SN around the same time I learned to read english) Not having any knowledge about banjos other than that my grandmother liked them and I had hung out with Alvin Breeden a few times (for those who don't know, Alvin paints houses for a living,well used

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This story comes from Africa, A long, long time ago,

about two farmers in their fields, each with his row to hoe.

That's when God went walking down the road between

Wearing one of his many hats, the one that's blue and green.

The blue side , it was pointed East, the green side pointed West

And anyone who saw one side, just plain couldn't see the rest.

So one man saw the green side, and one man saw the blue

Looking at God's brand-new hat, from different points of view.

And God just kept on strolling, enjoying the morning breeze,

until he passed out of their view, behind a clump of trees.

That's when God started walking back, heading away from town,

but just before he did that, he turned his hat around.

So the man who saw the green side, and the man who saw

This election threatens to reduce the level of civility in this country to near barbarism.  I, personally, think it's because there aren't really two distinct sides in the race, just two versions of the same thing - liberal and liberal light.  It's about power, not ideas and that makes for a lot of ugliness.  Some of the self-proclaimed "tolerant" have been guilty of some of the worst excesses.

We are a nation of many beliefs and values, but there is room for all so long as there is tolerance as well. By tolerance, I do not mean that we must embrace and encourage all beliefs without question. One may believe that homosexuality is a sin and still fight for another's right to be gay if they want to be. You may believe that as a Christian I am an infidel and that is okay so long as you don't