Larry Marcus handles an unusual early (pre-1870) banjo with bone inlay and a solid ebony neck. (Photo by Clifton Hicks, 2018)

[Editor’s note: Today we are happy to welcome a new writer to our blog, Clifton Hicks.  After bugging him for a few months, he graciously agreed to lend his virtual pen to our small efforts to branch out and expand our blog into new territory.  After you hear some of the playing in this post, I think you’ll agree with our hope this isn’t the last time we hear from him!]

The 20th Annual Banjo Gathering

The 20th Annual Banjo Gathering (formerly the Banjo Collectors Gathering) was held November 1st – 4th this year at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Virginia. Banjo collectors, makers and researchers were invited to set up tables to display and sell their wares and sixteen presentations were given in the museum’s state-of-the-art theater. In between presentations were ample opportunities for the event’s 100 attendees to mingle, play banjos, buy banjos (as many of them did) and enjoy the numerous restaurants and watering holes of downtown Bristol.

Friday night’s show – Part 1

The Gathering was well organized and even Friday night’s two hour long, banjo-dominated concert (broadcast live on WBCM Radio Bristol and streamed on the station’s Youtube channel) seemed to go off without a hitch. The musical lineup featured mostly familiar faces but included a few relative newcomers. Greg Adams kicked off the evening with three minstrel pieces played on an a reproduction 19th-century banjo; Adam Hurt played gourd banjo and fiddle; Jake Blount played banjo and fiddle also; George Gibson and I, Clifton Hicks, performed traditional songs from Kentucky.

Aaron Jonah Lewis played classic guitar-style tunes from the turn of the century; Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer gave several interesting pieces featuring “cello” banjo;  Bob Carlin closed the concert with a five-piece ensemble. Blount, Carlin, Gibson and I all sang with our music. 

Friday night’s show – Part 2

Further reading…

Much was said about the new book Banjo Roots and Branches edited by Robert Winans and featuring research by several other Banjo Gathering attendees. The book represents more than ten years of effort and includes a total of seventeen scholarly essays concerning the banjo, its history and development.

Other new publications presented and available to attendees were Chauncey Richmond & “The Old Buckbee”: The Story of a Banjo, Its Maker, and Its Player by Reginald W. Bacon and Dixie Dewdrop: The Uncle Dave Macon Story by Michael D. Doubler.

Check out The Banjo Gathering website for more details and content about this year’s event, as well as other banjo-related research and projects!

A fine early banjo flanked by two Kentucky folk banjos from the collection of George Gibson. (Photo by Clifton Hicks, 2018)