The Brake Fluid Banjo

The Brake Fluid Banjo

I just finished the “Heavy Duty” Brake Fluid banjo. This is another A-scale oil can banjo using an “ebay neck”. I replaced the plastic nut on the neck with bone, and I made a cedar bridge. The tail-piece is once again a kitchen fork. I strung it with Nylgut strings. I’ll have to figure out some kind of strap for it.  I’ll shoot a video soon so you can hear how nice it sounds. I’m learning that every can is a little bit different.

I think this can will be for sale, so if you’ve always wanted an oil can banjo, let’s talk. My email address is on the about page of this blog.

Waltz Time

Breaktime at the Saturday evening square dance at Merlefest 2013 meant waltzing to the music of the South Carolina Broadcasters.

Merlefest Highlights

Merlefest offered us quite a variety of music, with something like 90 acts and a dozen stages but we found ourselves spending lots of time at the Traditional Stage. For me, it was a great opportunity to enjoy performances by Riley Baugus and Kirk Sutphin, two of my favourite old time musicians.

Kirk Sutphin and Riley Baugus at Merlefest 2013

We had a chance to hear them perform at various workshops and even providing music for old time mountain dancing. Kirk Sutphin plays fiddle and banjo, including fretless banjo, and Riley Baugus plays banjo and guitar and is among the best singers we heard through the festival.

Stompin’ Tom RIP

As I grew up I somehow or other absorbed the lyrics to many Stompin Tom tunes. I don’t know where I heard them. They never played his music on the radio. The songs were just always there. You just had to reach out and grab one. Tom’s gone now but Bud the Spud will always be speeding down the 401 with another big load of the best potatoes ever been growed. The man in the moon will always be a Newfie. Up in Sudbury, the girls will always be out to bingo, the boys gettin stinko. Ketchup will always love potatoes. Big Joe Mufferaw will forever be paddling up the Ottawa all the way to Mattawa in just one day.

He was unique, prolific, corny, passionate about Canadians he met everywhere. He wrote catchy, fun songs about life in Canada. He wrote songs you hear once or twice and they stick with you, stick with you for years. He managed a successful career completely outside of the style of the day, any day, outside of fad and fashion. For those of you who don’t live here or are maybe too young to have been exposed to Stompin’ Tom, here’s a taste.

Gumboot Clogeroo

Bud the Spud from the bright red mud

Moon Man Newfie

And of course, Sudbury Saturday NIght

 

 

Flying Solo + messing around on the canjo

I’ve been flying solo this last week, as Tuffy P and her friend Suzanne have been in Baltimore and Washington having an adventure. Me and the dogs and cats have done OK on our own, but I miss Tuffy P and I’m glad she’ll be back this afternoon.

Today I ran some errands in the morning, then spent a couple hours grooming Ellie Mae and Memphis. I prefer grooming them in nicer weather so I can do it outside. You can’t imagine how much underfur I strip off Ellie and Memphis when I brush them down. I filled two plastic grocery store bags jammed with Newf hair. Memphis isn’t a fan of getting groomed. She behaves for it but when she sees the grooming tools come out, she fades into the background in the hopes that Ellie has to go first. Of course after grooming I have to sweep and then sweep again as bit of Newf fur floats around everywhere.

Still lots of time before I pick Tuffy up at the airport, so I sat down and played the oil can banjo for a while.

Big Miss Liza Jane

There are apparently a number of Miss Liza Jane songs. I came across a tab for this one among the tabs in Tony Spadaro’s Tabonanza  and I’ve been working on it on the oil can along with some other songs tabbed out in that group of tunes.

This is in Double D tuning. Players on an regular size banjo would tune to Double C tuning and capo up, but on the can, with its short scale neck, I normally tune a tone above standard tuning, so in this case I’m tuning directly to Double D – aDADE.

As I improve my skills with this instrument, I’d like to develop a lighter touch and more relaxed and confident feel. At this stage, after just a month, I’m happy to be able to more or less get through a tune.

I hear there is some kind of football game on Sunday….

I thought everyone would be going to Hugh’s Room for the 13th Annual Banjo Special.

Visit to Story Gourd Workshop

This afternoon, I drove up to Cookstown Ontario, about a 45 minute drive north of 27th Street to meet Dena Lee and visit her shop, the Story Gourd Workshop. I’ve wanted to do this for some time since I found out she was making gourd banjos just down the road.

Dena is a remarkable individual who not only builds banjos and ukes, but is also a physician. She makes custom banjos and also offers workshops in making gourd ukuleles and kalimbas. I’m looking forward to participating in a future uke workshop! Check out her site and also her page on facebook (I just saw a picture of me on there, playing one of Dena’s banjos!).

Let me say that Dena’s banjos are gorgeous! They’re beautifully crafted, and they fill the room. The tone is just beautiful, rich and deep, and the volume is remarkable. Most of her instruments are fretless but she’s just made a fretted one as well. I really liked the feel of the fretless neck. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected to find the notes and it is delightfully fluid.

Dena took the time to talk to me about her building process and show me her tools. I was particularly interested in seeing how she makes her necks because I’d like to make another oil can banjo, but this time with a fretless neck of my own making. Eventually I’d like to try making a gourd banjo and the other style of mountain banjo as well. All in good time.

I really enjoyed my visit to Story Gourd today. I learned a lot, and had a chance to meet Dena who is not only a great banjo builder but a super-nice person too.

Here’s Dena playing my oil can banjo. Banjofiles out there will notice right away that Dena is a lefty and my banjo is a righty so she was working it out “upside down”. It worked for Jimi on guitar, so why not for banjo.

Tecumseh Valley

I was surfin around the YouTube machine and stumbled onto this performance of Tecumseh Valley by Townes Van Zandt with Nancy Griffith. This song stops me in my tracks every time I hear it. Sad. Beautiful. Just about perfect.

This is like a desert island song for me…you know, if you could only take 10 songs to the desert island, what would you take? This would be on my list for sure. What’s on your list?

 

16 Top Hits

At first glance I thought these fine lookin’ clean cut kids were eating raw hot dogs and that the blonde girl was dishing out from the supply on the little table. But no. On closer examination, I can see that the brunette girl and the guy with the nice part in his hair are toasting up hot dogs using hand-held grill-units in the blazing fire, while buddy with the guitar is serenading the group.

I don’t know if you can see the titles or not. Let me share:
White Silver Sands
Sink the Bismark
Summer Set
Don’t throw away all those teardrops
Shazam
Cradle of Love
Madison Time
The Old Lamplighter
Greenfields
I love the way you Love
Let the Little Girl Dance
Teenage Sonata
Clementine
Big Iron
Way of a Clown
Puppy Love

Splendid. On the back, we have some technical data. The recording you have just purchased was made on an Ampex tape recorder, Model 300, with Alter and Telefunken microphones.

The masters were cut on a Scully lathe with Grampion feedback cutter heads driven by specially designed 200 watt amplifier.

Mastering was done with maximum stylus velocity consistent with minimum distortion realizing the ultimate in signal to noise ratio

This recording may be played on any 33 1/3 rpm record playing instrument.

Low Frequency Limit…….16 cpsHigh Frequency Limit..25,000 cps
Crossover……500 cps
Rolloff (my favourite)…13.75 db at 10 kc

This is a long playing high fidelity 33 1/3 rpm record. Unbreakable under normal use. This record should always be kept away from heat and stored in this sleeve. Dust and dirt shold be removed from this record with a lint free cloth.

And now for the important part….the liner notes

Today’s music – the TOP HITS – played as you know and love them!

To dance, to sing, to listen – or to do the dishes! Hit Music!

Gay, sad, sentimental – the novelties, rock ‘n roll and the ballads. Music of many moods – music with a beat – Today’s Hits!

Why does a tune “climb the charts” to become a Top Hit? Of course – the deejays hear it, like it play it. But the tune you “swing with ” is the one they play and play and play!

And the one you like well enough to buy has started up the ladder – to the “top of the charts”!!

So these are the HITS you choose – want most.

TODAY’S FAVORITES TODAY!!!!

Find your own top favorites here on thie LP, recorded for you by the country’s leading vocalists and orchestras in highest fidelity!