Gourd banjo songs

[michael01612]

Greetings...

Here is a link 2 a songs played on a gourd banjo:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=3240&alid=-1

The first song is titled "Gourd Banjo #1" and the second song is played "Gourd Banjo #2". The songs are played in the minstrel/clawhammer/frailing style (as opposed to the 3 finger Scruggs picking so common now) that was used at the time of the Civil War.

The gourd banjo was made by David Hyatt ( http://www.dhyatt.com/). The head of the banjo is made from a hollowed out and dried gourd. The head of the banjo is calfskin, stretched tight, and tacked onto the gourd. The fretboard is fretless. The pegs are friction tuners. These homemade gourd banjos I believe are reasonably historically accurate for the Civil War period and before, and I have read that such banjos were made and played by soldiers both North and South and before.

Enjoy,

Michael Foley

[yeoman]

Re: Gourd banjo songs

Sir, I love this site, http://www.dhyatt.com/ . I've gotta go plant some banjo gourd seeds real soon, thanks for bringing this to the forum. I will try to learn some period music while my gourds dry, thanks again.

[Old Cremona]

Re: Gourd banjo songs

Strictly speaking, gourd banjoes and Authentic campaigning don't get along.

There is no documentation of anyone other than a plantation slave playing a gourd banjo, and that was at the latest 30 years before the War Between the States. Tackhead wood-frame banjoes replaced the gourd sometime around the 1830's.

Which isn't to say that a stray gourd wasn't being played later on somewhere by someone. There just isn't any documentation.

I know this because I met Pete Ross at the Antietam Early Banjo Gathering last September. He is unquestionably the most authentic gourd banjo maker around.

He has found just about all the gourd banjo documentation there is. And it's unfortunately thin. Attitudes at the time regarded gourd banjo music as "monotonous thrumming" and presumably unworthy of documenting. Which is a great tragedy as is deprives musicoligists of a vital link in the development of American popular music.

So, by all means, play gourd banjoes and develop a style that feels right on it. Much of the early documented banjo music from the 1850's seems to show a link to the gourd-bodied instrument.

But they aren't right for authentic reenacting of the 1850's-60's.

[yeoman]

Re: Gourd banjo

Sir, thanks for posting a little history of gourd banjos and authentic campaigning. As I go through the older threads I am running across these great links to banjos and their makers. One link had a receipe for making a gourd banjo and I thought it a good summer project to do with my grandson. The grain measure banjo looks nice also. I would like to learn more of period music (banjo, guitar, bones, tambourine, fiddle, etc), and having seen your and others music on YouTube my heart is inspirit. I've been playing guitar since 1964 and learning mandolin for the last year or so and know its never to late to learn something new(banjo). Once again thanks for sharing your music and if I may share a quote by Berthold Auerbach, "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life".