Working on a new painting the other night and listening to
RC Johnston (Ragtime Ralph), he has a new album of reworked, reinterpreted Fahey tunes. Before I started playing banjo, I listened (and still listen) intently to
Fahey,
Rose etc. These guitar players are immensely influential to me, to the point of affecting how I "hear" my paintings.
I know the banjo can be just as expressive an instrument as the guitar, really any instrument can be expressive if the player feels comfortable with the tuning and the layout of the instrument itself. I'm finding that I am becoming more able to play the banjo intuitively, knowing where certain sounds reside and which sounds create harmony or interesting dissonance, without having to stop and think about it. In that way, I see a direct connection between banjo playing and painting. The tuning of the banjo being equivalent to the palette I've set up to paint with, or the mindset I'm in when approaching a painting. The song or sound I follow equivalent to the image that is created on the panel.
This way of playing and thinking about playing reminds me of the aforementioned guitar players. And, the other night, I recorded myself following a song around. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and have decided to call it Take Me Back (posted below). To me the song sounds both hopeful and lost. A lament, a sad but joyous flight. I find that the most compelling banjo tunes to me sound like a conversation, and I think I captured that here.
Ducks on the Frogpond...hmmm. In my neighborhood lies a water treatment facility. Near which is a beautiful, reedy pond. I walk a lot at night, and when I near the facility, a block away if not more, I can hear the sound of many, many frogs. It's easy to get lost in the different sounds they make, and I'm hoping to play banjo there soon as I think the combination would be interesting. I didn't have access to a field recorder two weeks ago (when I recorded this) so, just to see what it would sound like, I played back a recording of the frogs, during which I played a song called Ducks on the Pond. I recorded this using my hand held cassette recorder. After recording, I played the cassette back into the mic and recorded that on my laptop. I like the sound a lot, and will definitely record this way again in the future though I'll probably cut out the middle man and just find a way to upload the analog recording onto the laptop.
There are at least two songs about ducks and ponds. Ducks on the Pond (the song played here) is a really interesting tune that to me feels both kind of sticky and sharp but also rolling and fluid. I learned it from the Miles Krassen clawhammer book, he learned it from the fiddling of Henry Reed.
The other is called Ducks on the Millpond. I am most familiar with Tommy Jarrell's playing of that tune. I've learned how to play it, but find the Reed version more interesting, though of course Jarrell's playing is amazing as always.
Later I'll post both versions and have a thing or two to say about them.
