Earlier this year, we reviewed an album called Cinnamon Tree, released on the highly respected independent Jalopy Records (the in-house label of the Jalopy Theatre and School of Music, located in Redhook, Brooklyn, NY). It marked the debut album release of Nora Brown and was produced by the legendary musician Alice Gerrard. While she’s young (maybe 17 now), when you hear her old-time banjo playing she has an intuitive fresh approach that’s more akin to a lifetime of playing and is certainly ear-catching.
She recently recorded this video on which she performs Virgil Anderson‘s version of Wild Goose Chase from his album On the Tennessee Line. Despite the tune title, this is no break-neck speed tune, far from it. Virgil, who was born in 1902 and raised in Wayne County, Kentucky, played from a young age, entertaining logging camp men with his skills from the age of 10. He was later influenced by African-American musicians Cuge and Cooney Bertram around Pall Mall, Tennessee who introduced him to the traditional blues, from which he improvised.
Virgil Anderson was known for his complex style of two-finger picking. The notes from that album state “His driving rhythms are accomplished by both up and down picking, both thumb and finger leads, all somehow gathered into a remarkably clean, sophisticated lick.” Here, Brown also adopts a two-finger style of playing and highlights the tune’s delicate melody and gorgeous harmonic notes.
Read more about Virgil Anderson here.
Follow Nora Brown here: https://www.facebook.com/norabrownbanjo/