It's a more personal instrument than say the guitar or something in my opinion.
You could hear 50 banjo players if they play old time overhand banjo and the odds are
even if they're trying to sound the same there's going to be something different about it.
So to hear someone who's really honed their craft sit down and play a beautiful song on the banjo
is you know I can't think of anything makes me happier when I actually hear it.
I feel like in a way the banjo is about drove me crazy you know just there's all these tunings
and these old songs and there's no right way to do it but there is a wrong way to do it.
Makes me feel closer to all the people who've lived here throughout the ages
especially if you're playing traditional music from your area because I know that several people
like my great-grandfather was a solo banjo player.
Eastern Kentucky banjo is a little more bluesy than banjo in a lot of other places and that's
because you know intermingling between you know white farmers and black railroad workers and
things like that a long time ago so it's you know it's uh it has a lot of factors
that affected and made it just a little more special than a lot of old time styles everywhere
else.
All of the songs I'm playing are old songs and they were traditionally passed down orally
like there was you didn't go and take lessons you didn't you know you didn't you know find
them in a book or learn them from a record it would be just these songs that people have always
played and they passed them down and I think in a way that that's one of my favorite things
about the music because if you get right down to it there's no way that that's a bad song or it
wouldn't survive so long. I take a lot of pride in playing the banjo actually it's uh you know
there's not a lot of banjo players like around here there's quite a few but once you get out of here
you know there's not a lot of people playing the banjo and if they are they're not they're not
playing it like they're from Kentucky. A lot of it is to me it's I'm proud of where I'm from
and here's a tradition that's dying and I'm more than happy to try to carry it on.
I wasn't crazy about the banjo when I was way younger because a lot of this I didn't hear
you know I didn't hear the music from around here I really didn't have any clue about old-time music
all I've associated the banjo with would be like he-haul or green acres or something so
as a kid I didn't think that was too cool but I guess as I got older I felt a desire to get
more in touch with you know where I come from where my family comes from you know more mountain
people I guess I kind of identified that with the banjo might have made me feel like I was home
when I wasn't. It is me it is you know where I'm lucky enough to be from one of the best places
in the world nothing was only true cultures left in America. And tomorrow will be the end of me.
