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Radio: Roots and Wings is archived, and can be heard throughout the week at www.wmuc.umd.edu
After you get to the url click on "Show archives" in the left frame. Next click on "Fridays" (left option). Then choose "Roots and Wings" and there you are.
The House of Musical Traditions @ A.Salon…. Well, for the afternoon, anyway…
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Following up on the successful Mick Moloney St Patrick’s Day concert at A.Salon, David Eisner discussed with A.Salon the possibility of holding some banjo workshops in the gallery there, and in the large next-door studio.
So there we were, trooping out of Adam Hurt’s deft negotiation of Cumberland Gap tuning, to witness Cathy Fink sitting in the hallway, legs outstretched, working out a final tune or two with her 11-year old student, Adam Vesserling, as Tony Trischka stood, ears alert, watching the display of careful teaching for which Cathy and her partner, Marcy Marxer, have become known around Takoma Park an the DC area.
No wonder Jim O’Conner, down from Syracuse, NY’s NPR outlet, microphone in hand, was eagerly soaking up snatches of interview and music all around, from Cathy’s just-concluded clawhammer workshop for beginners in the A.Salon Art Gallery (G tuning, 3 chords, and some basic right-hand technique – banjos available for the borrowing). And then Tony’s students trooped into the next studio, assembled in a circle around him, and he walked them carefully through a bluegrass banjo workshop, “playing the syllables” up the neck, syncopation and melodic style, with an emphasis on the Earl Scruggs’ method.
It was a richly satisfying afternoon of workshops, and makes further collaborations between A.Salon and The House of Musical Traditions look all the more plausible. Look out for Tony’s new CD on Smithsonian-Folkways, in which, among other treasures, he plays a duet with Pete Seeger, on “Leatherwing Bat.” Between ol’ Pete and young Adam Vesserling, the banjo traditions appear in good hands for the present – and future. Thanks to Adam Hurt, Cathy Fink, and Tony Trischka for taking time from their busy concertizing and touring schedules to share their skills with a delighted circle – or three – of Takoma Park banjo-pickers.
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