Category Archives: General
Whiskey Flat – Jam Session 1965
We both agreed that Art Chambers, a two-finger stylist on the five string banjo was a special gem among the people there. Art had accompanied Fiddlin’ Van Cunningham in the contest, and he was rarin’ to go to demonstrate some of his banjo showpieces. Continue reading
Kernville CA: Whiskey Flat Days Fiddle Contest!
“A friend in Los Angeles told me about a fiddle contest being staged near the end of February in the mountain region known as Kernville, up highway 178 from Bakersfield CA. Always seeking the music, I decided to drive up there to record the event on tape if I could get permission.” Continue reading
The Folk Music Revival (Monterey, CA 1963)
“I always wanted to play different from anybody else . . . and it turned out to be bluegrass music.”
-Bill Monroe,
Monterey California, May 18, 1963 Continue reading
Eck Robertson, Texas Fiddler, and “Sallie Gooden”
“He had a leather strap around his neck attached to the end pin of the instrument. He spoke of fiddling and occasionally, would raise the instrument to playing position and run his bow across the strings to make a point. His frailty vanished as soon as he laid that bow to the strings: there was the Eck I knew from his recordings! ” Continue reading
The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover: Little Annie
What got me excited was Don’s “tag” or ending of his banjo break. It’s four beats of pure delight, sort of going off sideways like a plot twist in an Alfred Hitchcock film! Continue reading