Building New Banjos for an Old-Time World

by Richard Jones-Bamman

Book Overview

Banjo music possesses a unique power to evoke a bucolic, simpler past. The artisans who build banjos for old-time music stand at an unusual crossroads "asked to meet the modern musician's needs while retaining the nostalgic qualities so fundamental to the banjo's sound and mystique. Richard Jones-Bamman ventures into workshops and old-time music communities to explore how banjo builders practice their art. His interviews and long-time personal immersion in the musical culture shed light on long-overlooked aspects of banjo making. What is the banjo builder's role in the creation of a specific musical community? What techniques go into the styles of instruments they create? Jones-Bamman explores these questions and many others while sharing the ways an inescapable sense of the past undergirds the performance and enjoyment of old-time music. Along the way he reveals how antimodernism remains integral to the music's appeal and its making.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252082842
• ISBN13: 9780252082849
• Release Date: September 2017
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"