When does a harp sound like a banjo

When it's Joanna Newsom playing, that's when.

Although Owen Pallett plucks a violin to replicate her sound...

Yes, yes, ys.

New Coat Cover

Banjonistas! I have returned from the city of Calgary with a new Coat cover! This play about a dead man in a coat has been improved by the fact that it now pays tribute to the mystical city of Prague.

Cash Gospel

I know Johnny Cash never liked the banjo, and when he recorded God's A Gonna Cut You Down, it was closer to Moby's version than to Odetta's, but I'd hang out with him anyway. I'd put away the banjo and groove with the rest of the movie stars.

Let's Do That Again

I have the bad habit of burying the links I want you to hit among a whole load of whimsical ones. Take the last post for instance. This guy's site was what I really wanted you to see. Old Man Luedecke.

He's doing that rare thing: making a bit of a splash with a solo clawhammer banjo.

He's been featured on two recent podcasts from CBC Radio Three. #59, and the most recent, #90, the East Coast Music Awards 2007. I'd like to permalink these, but I don't know how to circumvent the main site to get to it. CBC Radio 3 is defeating me.

(btw the thing about my incessant linking is mostly just that I like the green colour that words become when I turn them into links.)

More Than Ever

image from here.

From the MySpace Universe:

Hi! I'm a gigantic fan of yours and I was wondering if you knew where I might find some karaoke tracks of any of your songs?

Karaoke is still the new folk.

(In case you're wondering, I got to that page via this page. You can wander around forever in there. I even have friends in there...)

Milkypop

Buy a button for a dollar.

Such Wit!

...most jubilant disc since Born in the U.S.A. and more fun than a tribute to Pete Seeger has any right to be. Jonathan Ringen

A popular singer pays his respects, and the Rolling Stone critic takes the opportunity to take a shot at the octogenarian who's getting the tribute. Is that classy or what?

I think what.

Runner's Thyroid

This really belongs here. But I don't put images there.

The Gift of the Coat

BTW

I'm going to Calgary with the tall man. Next week. To work on a play. About a man and a coat.

Image is from here.

Foot on the Hunt

Since we're putting things back in the jar again, here's something. I had a dream awhile back that I drew a picture of a foot hunting a rabbit-like creature and sent it to a highly-regarded local painter.

So I woke up and got right down to it. Struggled with the Mac Appleworks Drawing Program and got it done. She told me she felt sorry for the foot-creature.

It was creepy though. When I tried to use the drawing as my desktop image, it appeared in several overlapping versions of itself. Don't know how that happened.

"Hey Banjo! Where's the Bass?"

Just around noon today I was walking down Harbord Street, past Central Tech (on my way to make a very important delivery and to have a very important meeting, because when I feel excited about such deliveries and such meetings, I like to walk to them in order to draw out the experience, because I have so little that's exciting in my life...) when I thought I heard the above question called from one of the kids hanging out on the large front lawn of the school.

Did I imagine it? I turned and looked, and a group of guys were looking back at me, or maybe then again they weren't.

Seemed crazy, but I really thought I heard it.

"Hey Banjo, where's the Bass?"

I thought: Could it be true? Am I Banjo Banjar? Is that my name? I've been told it has a nice ring to it, anyway. Maybe I should claim it. Even if I am a semi-amateur. But there's no shame in that. So's Pete Seeger. At least according so some other banjo players out there.

Speaking of Seeger, in the above linked video (which is well worth watching) he reminds me somehow of my friend Ami. Maybe it's the stretch.

(And thanks Carl, for sending me that link.)

But the point is, the call from the kid across the schoolyard could only have been a reference to this. Or else it was nothing. But could that have possibly been what he was shouting about? Or was the wind playing funny tricks on my ears?

That's James Thomson on Bass. Which I suppose answers who, if not where. And the video was shot by Katerina Cizek. And my voice is a bit shaky, so I don't know what to think of it. But hello again, kiddies. I'm Banjo Banjar, and this is my blog.

My Pride and Joy

This. Connected to something else which is even prider and joyer. It might not look like much, has no archives and especially no dates. (They could be writing from 1927.) But if you revisit it, it will pay attention to you.

The symbol at the bottom is Cuneiform for 'water' fyi.

Thanks Veda, for the link that revived this blog.