A lot of readers were touched by the story of banjo teacher Patrick Costello regaining his hearing with an implant that transmits sound directly to the cochlea via bone conduction. After reading the story earlier this month, Mark Davies contacted us about his efforts to raise funds for hospice care and cancer research in Great Britain.

Davies is a social worker and long-time amateur rock musician who has undertaken a study of the banjo, and plans to walk the Great North Run on September 20 playing his 5 string. This half marathon is a very popular event which raises funds for a number of charities. Mark has dubbed his attempt as the Great North Strum and invites folks to sponsor him in his quest.

We think that our readers will enjoy his tale of taking up the banjo in mid life, and his quirky sense of humor. If you feel called to support Mark in his walk for charity, he can be reached by email.

“So this is how it is. I’m rapidly reaching Forty, and there’s a couple of things I want to be able to say that I’ve achieved by that milestone. One is to have completed a half marathon, and another is to learn to play the banjo (there are others, but I wont bore you with Playing the Albert Hall, with the Pixies as my back up band).

As Wham might have put it, last Christmas (08), my wife presented me with a lovely Godman 5 String Banjo, and away I went. By mid January I was informed that if I didn’t stop playing a dodgy version of (and I quote) ‘Duelling F*$!*&g Banjo’s’ that I would be acquiring a banjo shaped colonoscopy. But by then it was too late, I had heard Cripple Creek, Wildwood Flower, Wabash Cannonball, Foggy Mountain Breakdown and so much more that I’d previously been aware had existed, but never really listened to. I wanted to get into that place. I told my wife that there were other ways I could be having a mid-life crisis, she said she’d take them! (more…)

We’ve written about Patrick Costello before on The Bluegrass Blog. He has written several instructional books, and developed a system of braille tab for the visually impaired who wish to learn the banjo.

The man has spent most of his life helping others learn to play and appreciate the music of guitar and banjo. But apparently Patrick has suffered from some severe hearing loss for most of his life. He recently underwent an operation at John Hopkins to restore his hearing. He got what is called a

“Baha implant,” a hearing aid implanted into the skull, which transmits vibrations straight to the hearing nerve, skipping the ears altogether.

The Philadelphia City Paper has the details of Patrick’s story. It’s amazing to read of how he learned to play, not by hearing the instrument so much, but by feeling it vibrate.

You can read first hand accounts of Patrick’s experiences on his blog dailyfrail.com.

Here’s a youtube video of his experience having the Baha activated at John Hopkins. It’s over 30 minutes long, and it’s about 24 minutes into it when you’ll see him play his guitar and be able to actually hear it for the first time in many years.

Congratulations Patrick and we hope you enjoy hearing yourself play and much as we do!

We just received this report from our friend Lilly Pavlak.

The Czech bluegrass community has lost one of its greatest personalities – Mr. Milan “Stranger” Leppelt. He passed away after a wasp bite in his garden on August 18th, 2009, not even 50 years old.

He was a musician, singer, banjo player and teacher, songwriter, publicist, translator, secretary of the Czech Bluegrass Association, tireless promoter and good, kind and always a helpful friend.

His family and the European bluegrass community bid him the Last Farewell on Tuesday, August 25th in Police nad Metuji.

Milan’s biggest dream to visit the U.S. will never come true, but now he is playing in the Heaven Bluegrass Band with all his old heroes…..

Just in case you missed it, Op-Ed columnist Charles M. Blow wrote a piece in the New York Times about a month ago, indicating that the music industry has about 10 years of life left in it, before it is officially dead.

In the article, he talks about the recent trends among young people, to listen to streaming music rather than purchase, or even illegally download, that same music.

…13- to 17-year-olds “acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007.” CD sales among these teenagers were down 26 percent and digital purchases were down 13 percent.

…the percentage of 14- to 18-year-olds who regularly share files dropped by nearly a third from December 2007 to January 2009. On the other hand, two-thirds of those teens now listen to streaming music “regularly” and nearly a third listen to it every day.

This is part of a much broader shift in media consumption by young people. They’re moving from an acquisition model to an access model.

Accompanying his article was a graphic representation (see the image in this post) of the value of music sales in different formats over time. The image shows the decline of both vinyl and 8-track, and the rise and decline of both cassette and CD.

This graphic got a lot of attention in the last month. Some people ran through the streets crying out that the sky was falling, others calmly starting looking for new jobs…I’m kidding. It did get a lot of attention though.

The best analysis of the data represented by this chart, that I’ve seen, comes from New Music Strategies, who says You’re looking at it wrong.

His point is that the graph starts in 1973, but the music business was certainly around long before then and there was no crisis at that time. He points out that during that time period, a low point on the graph, new music styles flourished and found new audiences. He comparatively suggests that we could be on the verge of another such time.

The boom and bust pattern of each recorded music format adds up to an overall rise and decline of corporatism in the recorded music industries. Culturally, this could well be something to celebrate.

Personally, I’m hopeful for new and interesting musical forms and genres coming from the margins and being able to reach a significant audience.

Hmmm…how about bluegrass? It’s not new, but it is innovative. Perhaps this will prove to be a golden era for bluegrass music to reach new markets, find new audiences, and grow.

After all…

It’s cheaper to experiment now. It’s easier to reach an audience than ever before, and the economics are such that you don’t need for corporations to be making billions in profit in order to make a decent living at it.

…

My point is that the graph above only represents a crisis for a particular way of organising music business, and not for music business itself – and certainly not for music.

Put on your thinking caps folks, and let’s figure this out!