The Glory-Beaming Banjo

March has been a relatively quiet month. However, I've maintained my pace to achieve this year's playing time goal so far. Aided by a jam in January and a festival in February, I've actually managed to stay ahead of the curve. With a few days left in March, I have amassed a total of 42 hours of playing time (21.5 banjo, 20.5 fiddle). If I keep this up, I'll reach 168 hours, exceeding my stretch goal of 150 hours.  Of course, a lot can change between now and December, but it's encouraging that I've maintained such a steady pace of playing banjo and fiddle these past three months.  As a reminder, I played 41 hours on each instrument for a total of 82 hours last year, so my minimum goal is to reach 42 hours on each instrument (total: 84 hours) in 2024, and I'm already halfway to reaching that goal. However, my primary goal is to surpass my 2022 total by playing 62 hours on each instrument (total: 124 hours). As I already mentioned, I'm currently on pace to

This year's Lake Erie Folk Festival dedicated a whole track of its free daytime program to Ohio-centric folk music. Two workshops, presented by Columbus-based old-time musician Henry Barnes , focused exclusively on fiddle tunes from the Buckeye State.  Seeking out Ohio-based old-time tunes has been a subject near and dear to my heart, as I've attempted to identify a common fiddle tune repertoire , uncover uniquely Ohio tunes and seek out my state's most influential old-time musicians .  Barnes is much more accomplished in all of these areas, so it was exciting to meet and learn from him at the Lake Erie Folk Festival on Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Thwing Center on the Case Western Reserve University campus in Cleveland.  Barnes presented three workshops during the festival:  Learn Ohio Fiddle Tunes Fiddle Bowing Exercises  Performing Ohio Fiddle Tunes (with Susie Goehring) I attended all three. However, I'll focus on the two presentations related to Ohio fiddle tunes. 

More banjo duets have arrived. Mark Olitsky and Cary Moskovitz have released  Pretty Little Cats: Duets Two , available now to download via Bandcamp with CDs expected to ship by Feb. 20. As foreshadowed in November , the duo has returned with the follow-up to their much-loved 2017 album, Duets .  Like its predecessor, Pretty Little Cats features 17 tracks highlighting the interweaving harmonies of Olitsky's bassy clawhammer and Moskovitz's sparkling plectrum banjo playing. Once again, Olitsky is armed with his 13-inch homemade grain-measure five-string banjo, while Moskovitz plays rotating arsenal of 1920s four-string banjos.  Some of my favorite moments on the new album are when Olitsky and Moskovitz seem to leap out of the gates matching each other note for note on the melody, and then suddenly their playing veers off and dances around one another, weaving in and out as they each take turns leading, always driving forward. The interplay between their seemingly disparate ba

Every year, I start out the same way. Here are a list of goals. And when December comes, I look back on how it all went off the rails. With a mental cocktail mix of imposter syndrome and an inferiority complex, I've developed an ethos of constant improvement when it comes to playing old-time music. However, as a working stiff and a family man, I've come to accept the ebbs and flows of available bandwidth to focus on the banjo and fiddle.  Last year, was a down year. So naturally, I want to do better this year. However, I also want to be realistic. In the past, I've set somewhat rigid goals, and when I miss my target, I feel disappointed in myself. With the Super Bowl just around the corner, perhaps a football metaphor is in order. While the endzone never moves, sometimes a team winds up getting farther away from the goal line, rather than moving closer. Luckily, there is more than one way to score points. Of course, sometimes you might have to punt.  With that garbled messa