A Bunch Of Stuff I Bet You Didn't Know About The Banjo

When I came to the University of Virginia I expected a lot of things: a beautiful campus, intriguing classes, charismatic people and some bluegrass. What I did not expect was a banjo conference. But that is exactly what I got, along with all those other things. The Conference on Antebellum Culture and the Banjo was held this March 21 and 22 right here on University grounds.

It was an impressive conglomeration of academics and experts on the banjo, players and researchers, the big whigs of the banjo world. Most of the people I'd never heard of, some I had but had never seen, and a couple I knew. I thought I knew a lot about the banjo until I heard all that they had to say. They traced the history of the banjo from when it was brought over on slave ships through the minstrel period. And, I tell you, bluegrass had absolutely nothing to do with any of that.

The first person I heard speak was Dena Epstein, who wrote an influential article called "Folk Banjo" twenty years ago. She was not known to me but was apparently very important. She summarized her discoveries since her article had been published; many were about gourd banjos. Slaves made their banjos out of gourds on the plantations before the Civil War. The most interesting thing to me was that not all gourds are suitable for banjo making. Only a few out of five thousand or so will work and those must be cured and prepared before a skin head can be slapped on them. The significance of this information is that it contradicts the theory that slaves made their banjos out of what ever they had. Slaves very much knew what they were doing. They didn't just throw a banjo together, but crafted it like any luthier might. Gourd banjos were lighter and more resonant than banjos with rims but the industrial revolution gave rise to rim banjos because they were easier and quicker to make.

The next speaker, John Michael Vlach, talked about slave culture on plantations in the South. Slaves, in playing and storytelling were creating their own culture; it was a human element in the midst of their inhuman position. Through songs they could openly protest their situation. Music acted like a camouflage to the white masters. Slaves openly sang about their mistreatment and separation from family but the masters didn't detect it. If they had talked about it, they could have gotten in serious trouble. But the interplay of the music and verse created a different feeling than just the verse by itself.

A prime example of this interplay between words and music came in the form of Rex Ellis from the Smithsonian Institution. He got up in front of the room and gave a most riveting performance of storytelling, singing, and frailing. He intertwined his story with song, giving us snippets of "Shortnin' Bread" and "Will The Circle Be Unbroken." He told a story about two slaves, Ben and Viney, who were out in the woods where Ben was asking Viney to marry him. He masterfully played both roles, courting himself and accepting his own offer of marriage. He told of their love and how Ben, a musician himself, saved up enough money over the years to buy Viney's freedom. The stories slaves told and the songs they sang were their personal expression. Music was the one thing they had that was their own and musicians were accordingly highly valued, not only by slaves themselves but by the masters who were entertained by the music.

Where in all this, you might be thinking, is Joel Walker Sweeney, the supposed inventor of the fifth string? Well, it turns out that he didn't invent the fifth string at all. There were five string banjos long before he appeared on the scene. Not to belittle his significant contribution to banjo history but Sweeney was merely the first well known white banjo player. He popularized the instrument and spent years traveling with a minstrel troupe. He did however build banjos and may have helped with the transition from gourd to rim construction. In fact he was so enthusiastic about banjo building that early in life he sacrificed his mother's two house cats to make skin heads for his instruments. When his mother realized that her first cat was gone, she burned the banjo on which its hide resided. Sweeney, not to be discouraged, started over with the second cat and constructed a banjo that his mother didn't burn.

There was so much information presented on banjo construction, players, minstrelsy, classical banjo, and songs that it would take a whole book to relate. So I will jump ahead in my chronology to the evening concert. It was held at the Prism Coffeehouse, a great music venue here in Charlottesville. It is the second oldest continuously operating coffeehouse in the country and every weekend hosts an amazing number of amazing acts, featuring a high percentage of bluegrass. If you are ever in this area you might want to stop by. The performers that night were Mike Seeger, Bob Winans, Bob Carlin, and Joe Ayers. The latter three's work may be heard on Rounder's "Minstrel Banjo Style" compact disc.

Mike Seeger opened the night by singing an old modal tune with his gourd banjo, which, curiously, has no metal parts at all. He was host and tried to open the crowd's and radio listeners' (it was being broadcast live) minds by pointing out that minstrel music, "like old time music, is sometimes better than it sounds." Mike is a pretty famous person and really nice guy. Like Ron Thomason says, when he is at bluegrass festivals he is just a regular guy but when he is at a folk festival he is a GOD. He was in his regular guy persona at this show and was soon joined on stage by Bob Carlin. Bob you may know from his work with John Hartford on the "Fun of Open Discussion" and Grammy nominated "Wild Hog in the Red Brush" albums. Bob sang while they both played a song which I can't remember. (Big impression it made, huh?)

Bob Winans was up next. His played pretty straight forward minstrel tunes as far as I could tell. It was a bit like old time fiddling, the same tune just kept repeating over and over and over. I guess Mike was right. The most unusual performance of the night belonged to Joe Ayers. He played the banjo and brought his three sons along, one on bass, one on trombone and bass drum, the other on trumpet and bones. Their music was supposedly minstrel but sounded more like an old-timey mariachi band to me. A new and interesting experience.

In fact, the whole weekend was a new and interesting experience. I had never heard minstrel music or even thought about what it really was. It was a very unexpected, mind-opening event, one that everybody should attend if they get the chance.