Various Artists/Mike Seeger – Just Around The Bend: Survival And Revival In Southern Banjo
Smithsonian Folkways – Out Now
“Survival and revival in Southern banjo sounds” is the informative (and actually rather evocative) subtitle for this fabulous release, which headlines with a 110-minute DVD comprising the last-ever documentary made by the late folklorist and master musician Mike Seeger, chronicling his two two-week trips in January and June 2009 with his wife Alexia Smith into the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia, to interview and record banjo players on their home territory. Sadly, this was to be Mike’s final major project, for shortly after returning from these trips he became seriously ill with a rare blood cancer and, tragically, died in August of that year.
Mike himself was an excellent singer and musician, and had a wealth of experience of old-time music, from collecting and recording songs through to co-founding (with John Cohen and Tom Paley) the seminal New Lost City Ramblers in 1958. He provided a definitive definition of Southern old-time music as “the home music made by American Southerners before the media age”, and the very ethos of old-time is generously and wholeheartedly embraced and celebrated on this beautifully-presented Folkways set, which comprises the aforementioned DVD plus a pair of CDs that present recordings made on location while filming, plus an extensive, fact-filled 80-page booklet containing invaluable artist biographies and portraits, and individual song/tune notes incorporating a necessary modicum of technical description alluding to the specific characteristics of the banjo techniques on show. As for the central documentary film itself, it’s indicative that Mike’s own personality is present in every frame, his relaxed passion and easy rapport making him both the perfect guide for us viewers and the perfect guest (and champion) for his fellow-musicians. We see that he’s totally enraptured by and in tune with his fellow-musicians; he appreciates and relishes every single individual performance, and he engages in informed and convivial conversation with his interviewees in their home surroundings (even taking in ancillary topics such as pottery and growing onions!). So in essence the film (lovingly completed by Mike’s long-time friend, film-maker Yasha Aginsky, who had accompanied Mike and Alexia on these forays) now serves as much as a portrait of Mike himself, the documentarian, as he visits and records people he loves and admires playing the music to which he had devoted his own life.
It might seem almost incidental, then, that the individual “chapter segments” of the film can be seen to illustrate the many, perhaps unexpectedly diverse styles of old-time banjo playing that Mike came across in his travels – the different playing techniques, the special sonic properties of the different instruments, the different musical personalities and dispositions of the players and the varying degrees of experience of these music-makers typifying the central tenet of “revival and survival” in old-time banjo playing in the South, its place of origin. The roots of these players go way back in time, yet their music-making is such an integral part of their lives today. Vitality and down-home integrity, and an unshakable belief in the central life philosophy create their own brand of excitement. Moreover – and this is really important –when playing old-time, in learning from the sources the emphasis is on emulation rather than imitation.
Now I’ve always loved old-time music and responded to its unique character, but from this set I feel I’ve gotten to know so much more. For a start, I’ve been introduced to some darned fine banjer pickers, a great many of whom weren’t even names on my radar (to my eternal shame). (Names such as Rhiannon Giddens and Riley Baugus were familiar to me, but that’s about it as far as the roll-call goes.) Then again, I’ve also learnt a helluva lot about banjo techniques and styles! For instance, I can now appreciate better the difference between up-picking (straight guitar-fashion) and down-stroking (clawhammer – memorably described by player Brien Fain as sounding “kinda like a horse trottin’!), as well as identify specific techniques and devices.
All of which has been made possible from actually being able to watch the film’s participants playing, thus being enabled to listen in a more informed manner to the music, and of course absorbing Mike’s insightful commentary and revelling in his enthusiastic espousal of the old-time ethos. I particularly enjoyed the uplifting melodic clawhammer playing of Debbie Grim Yates, the adapted three-finger bluegrass (“Scruggs”) up-picking style of Marsha Bowman Todd (her selections also feature the spiritful fiddle playing of Richard Bowman). And Matt Kinman’s curiously haunting instrumental version of The Cuckoo. Then there’s three versions of favorite old-time tune Cumberland Gap, which prove fascinating to compare, contrasting the unusual two-finger style of Peter Gott (which alternates up-picked notes and down-brushes, interspersing flourishes and licks and, on Whistle Blow, also employing a percussive tapping motion) with the more in-the-face driving rhythmic index-lead clawhammer of “veteran youngster” Tina Steffey (unfortunately there’s only one example of her playing on the disc). And the adoption of the core principle of emulation had led to the development of some intriguing blended personal styles, such as that of Jerry Adams (a combination of down- and up-picking involving both hammered-on and pulled-off notes); Frank George (described as “an idiosyncratic clawhammer”); Jesse Wells (an infectiously vigorous variant of overhand); and Joe Ayers (playing slide on his cover of a Charley Patton number). And of course, the “showmanship” style (swinging the banjo round and back and forth while playing), as derived from Uncle Dave Macon, demonstrated on this set by Leroy Troy and Robert Montgomery with a great sense of fun.
The two CDs are perfectly complementary, both to the documentary and to each other: Disc 1 takes in the mountain states of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, while Disc 2 features the players of Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. Note that a small handful of the CDs’ tracks would appear to be drawn directly from the performances featured in the film: these include Old Jawbone, played by Joe Ayers in “early American” (Afro-American) style, tunes by George Gibson and Brett Ratliff (the wonderful Lost Hornpipe, performed with fiddler Jesse Wells), Old Rattler by Robert Montgomery, Bully Of The Town by Leroy Troy and Georgia Buck by Rhiannon Giddens. (OK, I could be mildly picky here and say I regret that a couple of the players seen in the film – Jackie Helton and Trish Kilby Fore – aren’t represented on the CDs, but doubtless, there’s a good reason why not…)
Several tracks on the two CDs are “banjo songs” – the pick of these being the spine-tingling, cutting-through vocal presence of Rhiannon Giddens; John Haywood’s forthright take on John Henry (clearly inspired by Roscoe Holcomb); Matt Kinman’s Cold Icy Mountain, with its unerringly long-held notes and accompanied by distinctive “up-style picked” banjo; Brett Ratliff’s overhand/stroke-style-accompanied Fair And Tender Ladies; and Clifton Hicks’ intense epic ballad German War.
It’s probably a fair observation that at first glance this set may appear to be rather specialist, one for banjo nerds only even, but initial bewilderment then casual wonderment very soon turns to total engrossment and then compulsive rapture, and you soon come to realise it’s of monumental importance in the presentation of the profile of old-time music. Not least, of course, due to the gentle force of Mike’s own personality, his over-reaching enthusiasm for old-time and its practitioners. Mike’s avowed life-mission was to bring the best of this “home music” to a wider audience – and to encourage listening and playing; and this magnificent release does just that, par excellence. The eventual release of this DVD has (for whatever reason) been a long time in comin’, but it’s sure been worth the wait, for it proves to be of massive significance in the furtherance of our knowledge of the old-time culture and (it goes without saying) of old-time banjo playing in particular.
Just Around the Bend is beautifully presented as a Double CD and DVD with accompanying booklet.