Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 A Brief History of the Banjo -- 2 The Old-Time Nation -- 3 God Is in the Details -- 4 An Homage to the Past -- 5 An Apprentice to Ghosts -- 6 The Banjoâ#x80;#x99;s Evolving Story -- Appendix 1. List of Interviewees -- Appendix 2. Banjo Builder Websites -- Notes -- Bibliography
Summary
Banjo music possesses a unique power to evoke a bucolic, simpler past. The artisans who build banjos for old-time music stand at an unusual crossroads-asked to meet the modern musician's needs while retaining the nostalgic qualities so fundamental to the banjo's sound and mystique. Richard Jones-Bamman ventures into workshops and old-time music communities to explore how banjo builders practice their art. His interviews and long-time personal immersion in the musical culture shed light on long-overlooked aspects of banjo making. What is the banjo builder's role in the creation of a specific musical community? What techniques go into the styles of instruments they create? Jones-Bamman explores these questions and many others while sharing the ways an inescapable sense of the past undergirds the performance and enjoyment of old-time music. Along the way he reveals how antimodernism remains integral to the music's appeal and its making. He also delves into the omission of African Americans-the originators of the banjo-from both the instrument's popular history and the nostalgia engendered by the music, and the role contemporary banjo builders are playing to rectify this situation. Book jacket
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes
Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher
