www.beyondthetrees.com
Playing Since: 1972
Experience Level: Purty Good

Interests:
[Teaching] [Jamming] [Socializing] [Helping]

Occupation: luthier/artist

Gender: Male
Age: 70

My Instruments:
Bruno 5-string open-back skin-head banjo, circa 1910; The Jomama- a baritone, 5-string fretless oud/banjo with wooden top and cast resin back/sides/pot, built by me circa 1993; old (Slingerland?) banjo-uke, tuned in 5ths with fishing line strings; most recently, prototype tack-head, goatskin 6-string banjo with cast resin pot (The Froggy Banjo!), built by me, 2016; fiddle a bit (I have a sweet old home-made- looking fiddle, unsigned). Used to have a guitar or so made by myself around to play, but they tend to get sold to pay the bills, so I'm currently without one.


Favorite Bands/Musicians:
Uncle Dave Macon, The Skillet Lickers, Art Rosenbaum, Mike Seeger (and all the New Lost City Ramblers) Allen Block, Pete Sutherland, Taj Mahal, Joseph Spence, Blind Willie Johnson, Sam McGee, Dock Boggs, Pete Steele, Luther Strong, Pierre Bensusan, John Williams, Hedy West, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Rhiannon Giddens and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, The East Texas Serenaders!!, Jody Stecher, Tim O'Brien, J S Bach, Glenn Gould, Hazel Dickens....and on and on!! And definitely not in that order!


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Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 10/23/2016
Last Visit 6/29/2024

Started playing banjo as a teenager (1972, about)- Got into instrument-building at that time, wanting to make myself a banjo- Worked with an artist/luthier in northern Vermont for several years, a very informal apprenticeship- Studied guitar-building with luthier/teacher Charles Fox at his "Center for Guitar Research and Design (GRD) in 1975- Repaired and built guitars, banjos, dulcimers, viols, thumb pianos, marimbas, sympitars, harp-sympitars, cellos and other stuff for over 40 years- Performed and recorded with partner Suzy Norris; Old MacDonald and the Fallen Arches Stringband, The Plainfield Irish Band, Northern Lights, The Crutons, The Word of Mouth Chorus. Mostly self-taught on banjo; took guitar lessons with various people. After 40 years of mostly building guitar-related instruments, am now getting back to pursuing my interest in banjo-building, especially using new designs and materials, exploring different string configurations and so on.