Banjo Builders

Conversations with North American Banjo Builders

The Series - Music - People - History - Culture - Joy

I’ve always been fascinated with the banjo. Thanks to the internet, I've found many others that share my interest (over 100,000 at banjohangout.com). Whenever I meet creative, innovative builders and players of this historic, joyful instrument, I'm compelled to learn more about them. So I started off with 38 Banjo Builders. But there are many more!

As a player, I’ve always wanted to learn what makes a great banjo. In having conversations with Builders, I could also learn what it is that makes them so passionate about this instrument. So as a 60th birthday present to myself, I gave myself permission to do just that.

In May of 2011, I drove eastward for 19 days, intent on capturing the images, thoughts and sounds of 14 of the 38 Banjo Builders I’d selected to include in my first documentary adventure. Volume 1 - Banjo Builders East of the Mississippi (shipped in August of ’11). In October of 2011 and March of 2012, I traveled West and picked up the West Coast Builders - 11 more. Volume 2 shipped in May (2012). Along the way I won a $10k grant from the state of Minnesota, so Volume 3 - Conversations with Banjo Historians was produced in the fall of ’12 and shipped in January 2013. And in December of ’13, Volume 4 - More Conversations with North American Banjo Builders was filmed. I was on fire! These stories were so interesting, I couldn't stop filming!

Also along the way, I received a phone call from Daniel Sheehy, then Director of Smithsonian Folkways. He was delighted with the stories and histories my films captured and expressed an interest in starting a new Smithsonian Folkways Film Collection to house the Banjo Builder series for posterity. I immediately agreed. In 2014, the archives of the first 4 Volumes of Conversations with North American Banjo Builders were permanently donated.

You can follow the course of the Banjo Builder project as it happened, here: www.banjohangout.org/archive/202324
Before it was archived, this Banjo Hangout thread received over 130,000 views.

Conversations with North American Banjo Builders - Volume 1

Volume 1 includes the stories of Bill Rickard, Jason Burns, Jeff Menzies, Greg Galbreath, Pete Ross, Bart Reiter, Lo Gordon & Tim Gardner, George Wunderlich, Mike Ramsey, Will Fielding, Chuck Lee, Kevin Enoch, Doug Unger and Jim Hartel.

Click on the picture of any Banjo Bulder to see their "teaser" video clip.

Click on pic above for a complete listing of Volume 1 "teaser" videos.

Volume 1 is now available through Smithsonian Folkways. Elderly Instruments and Banjo Hangout. Click on links below for ordering information. An individual Builder Pay-Per-View option is available here.

Pay-Per-View option here.

Conversations with North American Banjo Builders - Volume 2

Volume 2 includes the stories of John Bowlin, Greg Deering, Bob Flesher, Patrick "Doc" Huff, Brooks Masten, Jason Mogi, Chuck Ogsbury, Mark Platin, Jason and Pharis Romero, Bob Thornburg, Colin Vance and Banjo Hangout Founder Eric Schlange.

Click on the picture of any Banjo Bulder to see their "teaser" video clip.

Click on pic above for a complete listing of Volume 2 "teaser" videos.

Volume 2 is now available through Smithsonian Folkways, Elderly Instruments and Banjo Hangout. Click on links below for ordering information. An individual Builder Pay-Per-View option is available here. Click on link below for ordering information.

Pay-Per-View option here.

"Why I Build!"

Don't miss this Banjo Builder highlight reel! (Click on Pic)

Conversations with North American Banjo Builders - Volume 3

Volume 3 includes the stories of Greg Adams, Laurent Dubois, Peter Szego and Friends Banjo Collection Tour, Bob Winans, Bob Carlin, CeCe Conway, Jim Bollman Banjo Collection Tour, Kevin Fore, Ulf Jagfors, Taj Mahal, Dwight Diller, Adam Hurt,
The Tombigbee River / Gum Tree Canoe Music Video.

Click on the picture of any Banjo Historian to see their "teaser" video clip.

Click on pic above for a complete listing of Volume 3 "teaser" videos.

Volume 3 is now available through Smithsonian Folkways, Elderly Instruments and Banjo Hangout. Click on links below for ordering information. An individual Builder Pay-Per-View option is available here. Click on link below for ordering information.

Pay-Per-View option here.

Conversations with North American Banjo Builders - Volume 4

Volume 4 includes the stories of Patrick Heavner, Jeff Delfield, Jeff Kramer, Randy Cordle, David Ball, Glenn Carson, Mac Traynham, Luke Mercier, Ken LeVan, Dan Knowles, Noel Booth
and Wyatt Fawley.

Click on the picture of any Banjo Builder to see their "teaser" video clip.

Click on pic above for a complete listing of Volume 4 "teaser" videos.

Volume 4 is now available through Smithsonian Folkways, Elderly Instruments and Banjo Hangout. Click on links below for ordering information. An individual Builder Pay-Per-View option is available here. Click on link below for ordering information. Click on link below for ordering information.

Pay-Per-View option here.

Conversations with Old-time Performers & North American Banjo Builders - Volume 5

Banjo by Carl Arcand (Second Life Banjo)

And here it is... the fifth volume of both Conversations with North American Banjo Builders & Conversations with Old-time Performers! Why combine these two groups? Well, frankly, why not?

Volume 5 includes the stories of the Canote Brothers (Old-time Performers), William Seeders Mosheim (Banjo Builder), Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones (Old-time Performers), Tas Philp (Banjo Builder), Beverly Smith and John Grimm (Old-time Performers), Jan Bloom (Banjo and Fiddle Builder), James Leva (Old-time Performer), Matt Acara (Banjo and Guitar Builder), Dan Levenson (Old-time Performer) and Dean Robinson (Banjo Builder).

Click here to learn more (it's at the bottom of the next page).

The amazing Canote Brothers