Informal bardic school of all things banjo. Tags will likely change to reflect the varieties of banjoposting, and at present are merely suggestions. Will update pinned later.
I've discovered how to get Bandcamp to give me random albums and let me tell you, it is all over for you fucks. I just spent thirty minutes listening to the most incredible banjo music. We may well be doing music recommendations daily over here.
More seriously—at what point do these sorts of things need to become a side blog?
I love early American folk music in this vein—for many of the same reasons that I love the "Celtic" music that was its main progenitor. To me this music is the music of reverie: timeless and wandering and wistful.
When I listen to music like this, I like to stop what I'm doing and just let my thoughts wander. Usually, I will daydream my way into the world of Relance. Many's the time I have pictured Afiach Bard herself playing tunes like this one in some cozy inn, deep in some sheltering valley, to warm candlelight dancing in the entranced and glassy eyes of awestruck local onlookers, each plumbing the depths of their own reveries, or soaring on flights of fancy, while the moons shine above outside in the starry sky.
No one introduced me to this music when I was young. It's just something I intrinsically like, either by oddity of birth or by autoconditioning in my childhood. Interestingly, once you go the one extra step into that blues scale and venture into the realm of country music, my appreciation falls off sharply. The mood of the music changes completely. I've got nothing against country music, but it doesn't transport me to other worlds like this music does.
It's important to identify the magic spells in your life that will help get you to hard-to-reach mental spaces that offer you happiness, relief, rest, whimsy, and reverie. I have a special place in my spark for that music which makes me feel free.
And I wouldn't assume or expect that this particular style of music does anything like that for you, but, in case it does, it's good to share.
Here are the process photos of my recent banjo build. 😌 I definitely need to take more in the future, but at least this shows a rough display of the steps I went through to get to the finished piece.
Not my cartoon, but I appreciate the serendipity of it hitting my feed just before publishing this post so I could add it.
For as long as I can remember, I have observed that most people are not fans of certain musical instruments. This observation has been enhanced since the advent of the Internet. Generally, it seems that music created for and by the bagpipes, accordion and banjo tends to…