For fans and students of legendary banjo player and innovative teacher Roger Sprung
49 Members, Created 4/4/2011 - 
Administrators: Rich Weill (owner)
From Tom Hanway on 11/20/2015 3:57:57 AM
In the early '90s, from time to time, Roger used to drive down from Connecticut and pick at my old jam at Dempsey's Pub, Greenwich Village, NYC. He would challenge us with interesting tunes, and for the most part, we could keep up. I especially loved playing 'The World is Waiting for the Sunrise' with him, and I enjoyed our cutting contests, good healthy competition, and would he test me to see if I knew such-and-such a tune. That was a huge compliment, and we got on like a house on fire!
Not everyone knew whom he was, but I sure did, and I would ask him to play whatever he wanted to play - not that he needed asking, jazz and fiddle tunes, whatever he wanted. He's a lovely character, the original 5-string innovator, a pioneer of traditional, retrogressive and progressive banjo, whose early recordings and band put the very word "progressive" in the bluegrass lexicon. He'll play just about anything, and that's why I hold him in the highest regard. He's eclectic without being an iconoclast, innovative without being unfocused. He's so important, was, and still is, way ahead of his time! Best ~ Tom
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