Thursday, November 8, 2007

Strummin' On A Bass Banjo!

Several posts back, I mentioned my fascination with the bass harmonica.
But a bass harmonica doesn't hold a candle to the bass banjo in this bit of vintage film.
I can't say that I'm familiar with the Duke Davis Banjo Band, but this footage knocked me right over.
It's divided up into four parts.
The first two segments feature the World's Biggest Banjo and it's pretty clear that no one in the band knows what to make of it. The banjo strummers in the background look like they're going to crack up any moment.
The third segment features two banjo players who seem to want to look a lot like Harold Lloyd. Watch the Harold on the left as he 's tryng to figure out what the one on the right is doing. They definitely get lost a few times. And then the Harold on the right starts bobbing his head and the song sort of frizzles out like they had no idea where to find the brakes on this runaway train.
The fourth, final and b far my favorite segment features some mighty fine plank dancing accompanied by a slew of fiddles and banjos.
Where in the world has this stuff been hiding all these years?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I play bass with a fantastic banjo player. I went looking for a bass banjo and finally settled on the Goldtone bass banjo. Not quite the acoustic wonder in these posts but still a lot of fun.