Thanks go out to our friend Bill Evans, west coast banjoist and renowned instructor of the five string, for pointing us to this fine review of a free show by Cherryholmes in New York City’s Madison Square Park this past Wednesday evening. As Bill had suggested, it was interesting to read this review of a band with whom we are well familiar, written by someone from outside of our bluegrass community.

Cherryholmes is an extremely flexible band, shifting arrangements, physical and vocal, several times per song. (At one point late in the show all the family members formed a line and jubilantly clogged.) And even though they are capable traditionalists — their self-titled fourth album is an excellent display of fundamentals — onstage they can be eccentric, especially Jere, the patriarch.

After a discussion of how to remain creative while touring the country with your family, he deadpanned, “The songs that I wrote happened to come out murder ballads.” “My True Love” was written by Sandy, he said, but not about him, because “she couldn’t find any words that rhymed with ‘short.’ Or ‘long gray beard.’ Or ‘bald head.’ ”

Sound familiar…?

It’s a brief review, but captures the spirit and style of the band’s live show quite well. Read the full article on the Times’ web site.

J. D. Crowe and Charlie Cushman join Sonny Osborne, Alan Munde, Ned Luberecki, Bill Evans and Frank Neat to round out the teaching staff for the 8th Annual NashCamp Banjo Retreat, October 17-19th at the Hachland Hills Vineyard in Joelton, Tennessee - about 15 miles north of Nashville.

This event is hosted by noted banjo players Sonny Osborne and Bill Evans, along with Cindy Sinclair. They welcome beginning through advanced bluegrass banjo players for a weekend of small group instruction, jamming for all ability levels, a faculty concert and much more.

Evans shares a few thoughts about NashCamp…

“While folks come to learn banjo, the emphasis is also on making friends, hanging out with your banjo heros, having fun and eating lots of great food. We’ve had young and old attend each year, men and women - people from all parts of the United States and even Japan. I’m especially proud of the fact that we have a great group of women who attend each year - and that number grows with each camp. Sonny has been our guiding light with this event - his positive energy and enthusiasm along with his interest to stay involved with others who love the banjo inspires everyone around him. This camp has a great spirit. This is the camp to attend if you’d like comfortable surroundings, great food and tremendous fellowship in the company of some of the best banjo players and teachers in the world.

And with Sonny and J. D. in one place, who knows what will happen?”

Students are grouped according to ability level - from beginners with one year of playing experience to the most advanced players. Small group instruction is mixed with full group interactive sessions and the Friday night jam features some of the best Nashville musicians sitting in with students. (more…)

Known far and wide as a scholar specializing in banjo music, Bill Evans is bring the banjo to America.

Bill performs in variety of ensemble settings, including his band Rustler’s Moon, and shows with fiddler Megan Lynch. Bill also works as an instructor at many banjo camps and workshops, and he is an accomplished author. His most recently published work being the Banjo For Dummies book, available from Wiley Publishing.

In between all these other items on his busy schedule, Bill somehow finds time to perform as a soloist, in a format that could best be described as a concert/educational workshop called The Banjo in America. During the course of the presentation, Bill traces the banjo from its roots in West Africa to America, performing selections from the 1700’s forward on a variety of instruments in the banjo’s linage.

Bill recently visited me here at the studio and we filmed a few short video clips of select period performance pieces taken from The Banjo in America. I found the various instruments and tunes to quite fascinating, so I took the opportunity to speak with Bill about the tour and glean some information from him.

I inquired of Bill how long he had been pursuing this concept and what his inspiration had been.

I’ve been touring with “The Banjo in America” since the mid-1990’s but it’s something that I’ve often squeezed in between band performances, workshops and other shows. The initial inspiration for this concert format came from my participation in the Tennessee Banjo Institute and a couple of the Maryland Banjo Academy events in these years. These remarkable weekends brought banjo players together from all over the world who played in a variety of styles, including many of the historical styles I later incorporated into “The Banjo in America.” Also, as in so many things in my career, my buddy Tony Trischka was an inspiration to me. We were following similar paths in exploring these earlier historical styles. Joe Ayers, Clark Buehling, Eli Kaufman and Bob Carlin have also provided help and input along the way.

My work in American music history as a graduate student in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s also helped me as I developed the format for this show. The Kentucky Humanities Council provided tour support early on as well - I played just about every public library in that state between 1992 and 1994! I’ve also toured with “The Banjo In America” throughout Japan, I’ve showcased this concert at IBMA on several occasions and have performed “The Banjo in America” at Wintergrass, the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival and various festivals here in California and Colorado, among others. I completed a two week tour in Virginia last November, when these videos were taped. So the show has been out there for a long time - It’s just been under the radar!

A lot of people probably don’t realize the important role the banjo has served historically in the popular music of this country. (more…)

Banjo picker Bill Evans, author of the popular Banjo For Dummies book, recalls his Christmas of the banjo…

It was Christmas 1970 and, even though my eight track tape player was constantly playing George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band that holiday season, I had somehow decided that I wanted a banjo. Seeing Roy Clark on Hee Haw had put it in my fourteen-year old mind that I could actually play this instrument. I’m not sure if I had even heard bluegrass music at that point, growing up in Norfolk, Virginia.

There was a music store at Ward’s Corner, about a mile away from our house, and an Aria banjo had been placed front and center in the store’s Christmas window arrangement since early November. Priced at over $200, this was way too much of an extravagance for my mother, who supported the two of us on a meager Social Security disability income. She almost never called upon my dad to help out with anything extra — just getting the monthly child support was miracle enough — but somehow an agreement had been worked out to buy that banjo.

We brought the banjo home two weeks before Christmas and it was stored underneath the spare bed in my mother’s bedroom with the promise that I would not open the case until Christmas morning. Well, you know how that worked out. As soon as Mother had left the house on an errand, I pulled the case from underneath the bed and opened it up to take a look.

You can imagine my shock when I found a banjo with a broken resonator. The back of the instrument was a landscape of cracked wood with the resonator’s binding splayed out from the sides at various angles that obviously were not intended by the banjo’s Japanese manufacturer. My heart sank. Did this happen in transport from the music store? Had I done this myself in carrying it into the house? I had held the banjo in my own hands before we bought it and it was fine. Was this some kind of Christmas curse — God’s retribution to me for opening the case before Christmas? Could I not get away with anything?

I then remembered that there were two banjo cases in the back room of the music store. Perhaps, just perhaps, the store owner had switched banjos and had given us the one with broken resonator. I immediately felt guilty even thinking this thought but then another much larger issue loomed in front of me, like a ghost of Christmas present: how could I tell my mother about this? If I confided that I had discovered that the banjo was broken, I would also be admitting that I broke my promise not to look inside the case before Christmas. This was a tough existentialist dilemma for a fourteen-year old suburban teenager.

Full disclosure won out, along with the overriding desire to get a banjo with a good-looking resonator. My mom’s anger mingled with my own somewhat twisted Christmas joy as I watched her chew out the store owner, who promptly traded banjos with apology. When the new new banjo arrived home, it went under the bed once again and was not to be opened before Christmas morning.

This time, I kept my promise.

More than 60 banjo players will converge in the small town of Cumberland Furance, TN this weekend for the 7th Annual NashCamp Banjo Retreat. Hosted by Sonny Osborne and Bill Evans, this year’s camp also features multi-IBMA award winner Tony Trischka, Alan Munde, Ned Luberecki, Kristin Scott-Benson and Frank Neat. Camp director is Cindy Sinclair, who co-directed this year’s IBMA Awards Show.

The setting for the Banjo Retreat is the stunning 1865 Drouillard House and its surrounding grounds and The Mad Platter, an acclaimed Nashville restaurant, caters the event.

“While we try to get the best teachers and players we can each year, the Drouillard House and the food are probably what keep people coming back. I’ve taught at most banjo camps across the country, and I’ll proudly admit that I think the comfort level of our camp is second to none. And that creates a relaxing atmosphere for folks to have a great weekend.

We’re also excited about Kristin Scott-Benson being with us. She’s one of our favorite players and people and her playing and teaching are going to bowl people over!”

Small group classes, faculty concerts, jamming and a wide choice of electives highlight this year’s class offerings, with a special emphasis this year on double banjo playing, in honor of Tony’s CD, Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular.

Folks do seem to come back year after year - this year’s camp sold out in early June. As a special added feature for 2007, Munde, Evans and Luberecki will perform at the Station Inn on Thursday night, October 18th at 8 p.m., backed by guitarist Tim May, fiddler Megan Lynch, mandolin player Roland White and bassist Jon Weisberger.

If you want to get in on the NashCamp experience, reservations will be accepted for the 2008 event on January 2, 2008.

The American Made Banjo Company has launched a new fund raising effort based on their line of cryogenically-treated banjo strings. The program is called Cryos For A cause, and offers a dozen or more signature banjo string sets recommended by prominent pickers, with $.50 from the sale of each set being donated to the charity of the artists’ choosing.

For example, the Bill Evans’ signature set will benefit The Children’s Tumor Foundation for young folks who suffer with neurofibromatosis. Other artists who are participating in this program include Sonny Osborne, Brad Leftwich, Casey Henry, Charlie Cushman, Mary Z. Cox, Mike Scott, Peter Schwimmer, Rich Stillman, Todd Taylor, Ron Cody and Tony Ellis.

Each artist set is made up using the string gauge and winding they prefer, and sets suggested by both bluegrass and clawhammer players are part of this effort.

The treatment these strings receive involves exposing them to extremely low temperatures (below -300 degrees Fahrenheit), as is common in industrial applications to insure consistent hardness of critical metal components. American Made Banjos says that this extends string life and enhances tonal response.

Learn more about their banjos and banjo strings on their web site.

Banjo For Dummies, the book from Wiley Publishing we first told you about last December, is now available for sale. Written by Bill Evans, noted banjo instructor and subject of three popular AcuTab DVDs, this is the first bluegrass release from the publisher of the popular yellow and black covered Dummies books you find in bookstores worldwide.

The book is designed to take a new banjo player through all the steps required to get a grip on the instrument, starting with how to choose a banjo, how to get it in tune and how to get started in a variety of styles. Bill spends time on learning bluegrass, clawhammer, minstrel, melodic, classic and single-string banjo playing.

There are a great many details about the book accessible from Bill’s web site, with links to view the table of contents, the complete 8 page introduction and a full five page chapter, Ten Tips To Make Practicing More Fun.

Like all the Dummies books, Banjo For Dummies is written in a light, entertaining style and formatted to make it easy to find the information you are after. An audio CD is included which contains slower speed versions of all the musical examples shown in tablature throughout the book.

Personally, I think anyone who takes up banjo is no dummy, but hat’s off to Bill for getting this in print all the same.

Here’s a new Mel Bay release that is sure to become an important reference for banjo pickers. Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook - Banjo Edition includes well over 200 popular songs, complete with chords, lyrics and the basic melody presented in both standard notation and banjo tablature.

The book was written by Dix Bruce and Bill Evans, who also recorded a version of every song from the book for the two companion CDs. Bruce has more than 20 books available from Mel Bay, and is an accomplished guitarist and mandolinist and music writer. Evans is a noted banjo player and teacher, with three instructional DVDs from AcuTab.

The songs in the book include bluegrass, old time, country and gospel favorites drawn from the recorded work of Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, The Osborne Brothers. Jimmy Martin, Doc Watson and many others. You’ll find jam standards like Rocky Top, Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms, Nine Pound Hammer and Little Maggie plus Bill Evans’ banjo arrangement for Train 45 (with examples of possible variations), as well as Cripple Creek and Sally Goodin.

The book’s introduction covers important jam basics like using the capo, finding the best key for your voice, and how to transpose the chords shown for each song into a more suitable key for both men’s and women’s voices.

Bill shared a few thoughts about this new release.

“My hope is that this will be a real resource for the acoustic musician who is looking to expand their repertoire or catch up on some old favorites that they may have missed the first time around. You can listen to the CD track and then go to the sheet music to learn the chord progression and lyrics. The relatively simple banjo tab melody offers a way for you to begin to work out your own arrangement of the tune – rather than trying to learn and memorize someone else’s version.”

This 304 page book (with 2 audio CDs) is available wherever bluegrass instructional materials are sold, or directly from Bill Evans’ web site where you can also find a sample tab and audio.

The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook will be available soon in a mandolin edition as well.

Anytime I teach at banjo workshops - or spend time with serious beginner-to-intermediate pickers - I hear questions about the best way to learn something about music theory - the structure and “rules” that govern how we define musical tones as being in harmony with one another.

A new book from Wiley Publishing - the yellow Dummies books folks - may be just the ticket for bluegrass and acoustic musicians seeking an entry level guide to this topic.

Music Theory for Dummies was released earlier this month, and is described by the publishers as being…

Written for the nearly 30,000 college and graduate music students as well as working musicians and serious music buffs, this hands-on guide explains music theory concepts in plain English-from scales, intervals, tempos, and dynamics to chord progressions, phrasing, harmonizing, and arranging-and demonstrates how to apply them in compositions ranging from pop and rock to jazz and classical.

Music Theory for Dummies runs to 336 pages, and has a companion audio CD included with musical examples of the concepts described in the book.

The Wiley site now also shows Bill Evans’ Banjo for Dummies book with a July 2007 release date. Find out more about this widely-anticipated manual in an earlier post.

Bill Evans is surely one of bluegrass music’s most widely regarded banjo instructors, having taught hundreds of students, both privately and at camps and workshops all over the world. He has been featured in two popular instructional DVDs from AcuTab, and is the author of the upcoming Banjo For Dummies book from Wiley Publishing.

His latest AcuTab DVD, Bluegrass Banjo Master Class, is out this week, a project which Bill says formed in his mind after noticing that many of his students were encountering similar obstacles in trying to move forward on the banjo. He compiled the topics and exercises for this new DVD to help serious banjo players - at any skill level - jump start both their picking, and the enjoyment they derive from their time with the banjo.

From the AcuTab site:

Master Class is not a term you hear much in the banjo world, though it is quite common in the jazz and classical music worlds. Essentially, it is a chance to attend an instructional event with a noted master of their instrument. In this DVD, Bill Evans follows the same concept, presenting an overview of techniques that will benefit any banjo player.

Bill teaches essential bluegrass roll patterns and explores such topics as straight time vs. playing with a bounce, and how to practice with a metronome. His analysis is designed to help both new pickers get on the right track, and to refocus more experienced players on the importance of the basics – solid rhythm, big tone and bluegrass drive.

Bill also presents a series of essential bluegrass banjo licks, showing how to make slight modifications to create new licks, and a string of chordal exercises that run up and down the neck, based on familiar roll patterns.

Bluegrass Banjo Master Class runs 2 hours and 20 minutes, and includes a printed tab booklet. More details, screenshots and several sample video clips are available on the AcuTab site.

Look for it wherever quality bluegrass instructional DVDs are sold, from Bill’s web site, or directly from AcuTab.

AcuTab has announced two new bluegrass instructional DVDs for release this spring, one each for banjo and mandolin.

First up will be Bluegrass Banjo Master Class, featuring Bill Evans. This will be the fourth installment in AcuTab’s popular Power Pickin’ series, which to this point had been wholly dedicated to playing bluegrass banjo backup.

The new DVD has Bill going over a wide range of banjo techniques, focusing on the common errors and problems that he has found popping up most frequently in both private lessons and workshops. These include detailed anaysis of right and left hand positioning, pick attack and posture. He also demonstrates some of the most common licks and phrases in the Scruggs style repertoire, and how making simple changes to these licks can expand your own bag of licks, and start you on further explorations of your own.

Bluegrass Banjo Master Class will include material of interest to relatively new pickers, as well as seasoned players, and is expected in mid-to-late March. Anyone wishing to receive an email notice when the DVD is available, or when more details are posted on the AcuTab site, can request notification at acutab.com.

Serious students of the mandolin will celebrate this one - an AcuTab DVD featuring Adam Steffey, Mountain Heart’s mando monster. Adam will teach and demonstrate a number of tunes and solos he has recorded over the years, and discuss his approach to the mandolin, building solos, working in the studio and playing bluegrass mandolin accompaniment.

There is a discussion over at Mandolin Cafe where AcuTab solicited input from forum members as to which tunes and techniques they would like to see covered in the Steffey DVD. The video shoot is scheduled for February 21, so there is still time to get your suggestions and requests in. Do so by contributing at Mandolin Cafe, or by email to AcuTab.

You can also request notification by email when the Steffey DVD is ready at the AcuTab site.

The 3rd annual Midwest Banjo Camp is set for June 1-3, 2007 on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. The faculty includes many of the biggest names in bluegrass and old time banjo, such as Alan Munde, Bill Evans, Murphy Henry, Ken Perlman, Mike Seeger and Clarke Buehling.

The camp sets up a large number of highly specialized classes, with tracks for beginning, intermediate and advanced players. The instruction is designed to offer a mix of hands-on workshops and demonstrations of specific styles and techniques. Two faculty concerts are also on the schedule.

The full list of instructors is quite impressive:

• Old-time: Cathy Barton-Para, Clarke Buehling, Cathy Fink, Joe Newberry, Michael Miles, Ken Perlman and Mike Seeger.
• Bluegrass: Danny Barnes, Janet Beazley, Greg Cahill, Bill Evans, Murphy Henry, Gerald Jones, Ned Luberecki, Alan Munde and Mike Sumner
• Accompanists: Peter Knupfer (bluegrass fiddle) and Ron McKeever (bluegrass guitar)

Midwest banjo Camp is operated under the direction of Ken Perlman. Full details can be found on the MBC web site.

The Banjo Lounge is hosting another of their periodic online banjo workshops on February 11. This one will be conducted by Bill Evans, and will focus on playing bluegrass banjo accompaniment, or backup.

Bill has two popular instructional DVDs about banjo backup from AcuTab (Up The Neck Backup for Bluegrass Banjo and Playing Banjo Backup in a Bluegrass Band) and has held workshops on this topic for many years.

This will be a two hour workshop (3:00-5:00 p.m. EST, 2/11/07), with the first hour devoted to first position backup, and the second playing backup up the neck.

The Bill Evans workshop will be limited to 25 participants, and pre-registration and a $20 fee are required to hold a spot. You can find registration details on The Banjo Lounge site.

No one who has attended one of Bill Evans’ banjo workshops, or studied using one of his popular AcuTab banjo DVDs, would ever accuse him of being a dummy. In addition to his prominent work in music as a teacher, performer, composer, producer and booking agent, Bill holds a Master’s Degree in Music from UC Berkeley, and has taught courses in ethnomusicology at San Francisco State University, The University of Virginia and Duke University.

Now add “author” to the list of credentials for this erudite California banjo player. Bill is spending this winter writing Banjo for Dummies for Wiley Publishing, the ubiquitous yellow and black book publishers with sales in excess of 46 million worldwide.

“The first reaction I get from banjo players or bluegrass fans is that it’s a natural! We’re used to being perceived as being real dummies by the outside world, so why not a Dummies book?”

Banjo for Dummies is Wiley Publishing’s first venture into bluegrass and acoustic music and, like most of their titles, will be available at virtually every bookstore in the country following its publication in summer of 2007. The banjo book will follow the typical Dummies format, providing a whimsical and informal introduction to the world of the banjo in 380 pages while also imparting a lot of useful information and musical instruction.

“There will not only be beginners’ sections on clawhammer and bluegrass styles, but Wiley has also asked me to present short instructional sections on minstrel banjo, classic banjo and progressive bluegrass styles. This will hopefully make the book of interest to all players, not just newcomers. It should be a very inclusive introduction to the world of the banjo.”

Bill says that Banjo for Dummies will also include a buyer’s guide, a guide to accessories, an introduction to bluegrass festivals and the famous Dummies’ “List of Tens,” which in this case will include ten important, trend setting players and ten valuable resources to become a better player. A CD will accompany the book with a separate DVD in the works.

This is just the first book that Bill will be writing for Wiley. (more…)

The following is a contribution from Bill Evans, well-known banjo picker, educator and semi-regular contributor here on The Bluegrass Blog.

I’m just back - and completely exhausted! However, I wanted to share these pictures and relate a little bit of the magic that was day two of the 6th annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, being held this weekend in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California.

It’s hard for me to imagine a more interesting and eclectic lineup of Americana, folk, singer-songwriter and bluegrass acts at any other festival in North America - and the fact that it’s a free event makes it all the more special. Hardly Strictly is a gift to the world from Warren Hellman, a San Francisco investment banker and aspiring clawhammer banjo player. This year’s event brings together folks like Earl Scruggs, Emmylou Harris (with John Starling, Tom Gray and Mike Auldridge), Dry Branch Fire Squad, Del McCoury Band and Ricky Skaggs as well as Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson and T Bone Burnett. It’s not all bluegrass but it is all fantastic and the mixing of different styles and perspectives is truly marvelous. And did I mention it is free?

I was asked by Warren to put something together this year that would be truly special and, knowing his love for banjo music, I asked my good friends and mentors Tony Trischka and Alan Munde to join me in a set of music at this year’s event. We played several triple banjo tunes in three part harmony (including the Osborne Brothers’ Big Ben and Alan Munde and Byron Berline’s Deputy Dalton) and also performed tunes separately, including two songs from Tony’s upcoming double banjo CD to be released on Rounder Records in January, 2007 (this is going to be good!). For our last tune, Alison Brown joined us for a four part version of Dixie Breakdown.

Earl Scruggs and Friends followed our performance and the U. S. Air Force Blue Angels put on a dazzling display of aviation prowess above our heads while Earl and the band played. Last year’s weather on Saturday was somewhat marginal with heavy fog and temperatures in the upper 50s. That wasn’t the case this year, as it was bright, sunny and warm….well for San Francisco at least (temps were in the mid 60’s)!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is always held the first full weekend in October out here in San Francisco. Make plans now for next year’s event - it’s truly an unforgettable experience! Attendance was estimated at 230,000 people today with music spread out on four large stages located throughout the central meadow at Golden Gate Park.

Photos by Gretchen Snyder and Steve Stolzenburg

Earl Scruggs	Alan Munde	Tony Trischka	Bill Evans
Banjo Extravaganza Trischka, Evans, Brown Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Banjo player Bill Evans has worn a lot of hats over the years - as a teacher, writer, ethnomusicologist, IBMA board member, IBMM associate director, workshop leader and as a banjo player with Dry Branch Fire Squad. Next week, Bill launches his own all star band, Bill Evans String Summit, with three northern California performances.

The Bill Evans String Summit is Scott Nygaard on guitar (a former editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, and well known for his work with Laurie Lewis, Tim O’Brien, and the Darol Anger); LA dobro phenom Michael Witcher (who has performed with Dolly Parton and Herb Pedersen); bassist Cindy Browne (who has performed with jazz greats Mel Torme and Lionel Hampton) and four-time National Fiddling Champions Tashina and Tristan Clarridge. Tristan will also be playing cello with the band.

“Bluegrass is a meeting ground for a diverse group of musicians in the String Summit who have also been influenced by jazz, classical and various world music traditions. We’ve started on a path where we are performing a good deal of my own compositions, which for the most part are firmly within the bluegrass tradition. However, I’m hoping as time goes on that everyone will be contributing original tunes to the band. We’ll venture in whatever directions the tunes take us. Ultimately, I think that’s what all musicians do. I’ve been writing new tunes for this band and I hope we can go into the studio soon and do some recording.

Bill Evans String Summit takes advantage of the growing youth movement in acoustic music - Tristan, Tashina and Michael are all under the age of 25. The band makes its northern California debut with the following three shows:

You can find more info on these dates, and others with String Summit, on Bill’s web site.

California bluegrass banjo player Bill Evans has teamed with the legendary old-time and bluegrass musician Jody Stecher to present an all-banjo duo show that they call The Secret Life of Banjos. For these shows, the pair play on a dozen vintage and reproduction instruments in styles that range from bluegrass to old-time, including bits of classic, minstrel and more.

“Playing with Jody is one of most exciting things I’ve ever experienced in my entire career. Jody has influenced several generations of players, from Pete Wernick to Laurie Lewis and I consider myself lucky to count myself as another musician under his sphere of influence. His knowledge of the banjo, as well as the history of old-time and bluegrass music is simply astounding.”

You can hear Jody and Bill in conversation and making music online this coming Saturday, January 7 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. (PST) on Peter Thompson’s celebrated Bluegrass Signal radio show. This show can be heard locally in the San Francisco Bay Area on KALW 91.7 FM or streamed live on the web. The show is also re-streamed several times each week on bluegrasscountry.org.

You can learn more about The Secret Life of Banjos and hear concert excerpts on their web site. They plan to perform their show at festivals and concerts all over the world, mixing entertainment and something of a mini-banjo education in for good measure.

This post is a contribution from Bill Evans, a prominent West Coast banjo player, instructor and bluegrass entreprenuer. You can find out more about Bill and his various ventures on his web site.

Christmas in California isn”t really all that much different than Christmas in other parts of the country. It”s usually a little warmer in my particular part of the state at this time of year than it might be where you live but it”s also a good bet that the traffic is probably much worse here in the San Francisco Bay Area than where you are. However, some things remain consistent no matter where you live: wherever there are children and those seeking a renewal of spirit in these shortest days of the year, Christmas finds a home.

When I think of California, I think of diversity “? not only in our landscapes and climate but also in our people, our food and in our art and music (including bluegrass). It would just make sense that the holiday season is also celebrated in a myriad of ways. I want to share with you a special manifestation of California”s diversity that embodies the spirit of the season for me.

Not more than two miles from where I live in the town of El Cerrito (which Ron Thomason once translated into English as “the Cerrito”), is a vacant hillside that at this time of year serves as a home to a holiday display that attracts up to 70,000 visitors per year. I imagine that it must be like hundreds of similar Christmas displays around the country: shepherds tend their sheep in the foreground with three wise men forming part of a processional that winds up the hill to the town of Bethlehem, which is illuminated overhead by a bright star. Handel”s Messiah provides a soundtrack that rises just above the sound of the generators that keep the lights on until 9 p.m. sharp each night. By today”s standards, this display is simple and in fact much of its appearance is homemade.

It”s the story behind this particular Christmas display that makes it special and keeps me coming as a visitor year after year. Its creator was Sumar Shadi, a native of India born in 1900 who came to the United States and earned a degree in subtropical horticulture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1921. Rather than return to India, he remained in California, building a house for his family in the East Bay hills in 1937. (more…)

It’s a great pleasure to introduce Bill Evans as a Guest Contributor. Bill is one of my oldest friends in the bluegrass world, and I take a measure of personal pride in seeing the success he has achieved as both a performer, and an educator.

He and I were young banjo seekers together in Norfolk, VA in the mid 70’s, where we both were born and raised, and I have followed his career, and maintained a friendship since that time, ultimately featuring Bill in a number of banjo instructional DVDs with AcuTab.

Bill Evans has been involved professionally with bluegrass music and the banjo for over twenty-five years as a player, teacher, writer and historian. He occupies a unique niche in the banjo world: celebrated worldwide for his traditional and progressive bluegrass banjo styles as well as his outstanding original compositions, he also enjoys a reputation as a great teacher and workshop leader.

As if this isn”t enough, he is also an American music historian, with a master’s degree in Music from the University of California, Berkeley as well as being an expert player of 19th century minstrel and classic/parlor banjo styles. He currently performs with renowned old-time and bluegrass multi-instrumentalist Jody Stecher in a show called The Secret Life of Banjos, and will unveil his new band, the six piece Bill Evans String Summit, in early 2006.

Visit Bill online on his web site.

Following up on the success of their first two instructional DVDs on bluegrass style backup for banjo, AcuTab has announced the release of Power Pickin’ Volume 3 - Playing Banjo Backup In A Bluegrass Band, featuring Bill Evans. This new DVD combines the up the neck backup demonstrated in Bill’s first AcuTab video with aspects of the first position backup taught in Power Pickin’ Vol 2, showing the various techniques both in isolation, and with a full bluegrass band.

And not just any pickup band, either. Bill performs 7 bluegrass standards with Herschel Sizemore on mandolin, Kenny Smith on guitar, Warren Amberson (Acoustic Endeavors) on bass/vocals and Nick Reeb (King Wilkie) on fiddle.

Get more details on Power Pickin’ Volume 3 - including some online video samples - on the AcuTab web site.