Tony Trischka was recently awarded for his CD, territory. The CD won the award for Best Americana Album at the territory was released in 2008 on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The CD contains 21 tracks including both 3-finger style and clawhammer style banjo playing. Many of the tracks are performed solely by Trischka, while others consist of fiddle/banjo duets or other duel banjo numbers with a variety of accompanying instruments.

Guests include Pete Seeger, Bruce Molsky, Bill Keith, Paula Bradley, Mike Seeger, and Bill Evans.

The CD contains extensive liner notes by Bob Carlin covering Trischka’s background and bio (titled: Tony Trischka Territory), and A Short History of the Banjo. Also included are Trischka’s notes on each of the 21 tracks. His notes detail the many alternate tunings represented on the recording, give background info on each song’s history, and stories of the collaborative efforts with his guests.

One highlighted quote from the liner notes is Tony’s explanation of why he plays the banjo.

It’s like the banjo chose me…

I didn’t really have a say in the matter.

territory is available from Smithsonian Folkways Records as a physical product or a download. The notes are provided as a free PDF download on the same page, along with audio samples of each track.