[78-L] "Give Me The Banjo" story

[warren moorman]

P.S. On our station, the documentary was followed by a rather irrelevant chat between Roseanne Cash and Rodney Crowell that was nevertheless clearly done to accompany the documentary. They sat with two guitars and talked mostly about how little if any banjo Crowell, Roseanne and Johnny Cash had in their backgrounds or recordings. They sang some of their own music, while only occasionally referencing the documentary, straining to say where the banjo echoes occur in their music. It was okay as a filmed piece about the two, but utterly inexplicable as an adjuct to the banjo documentary.
 
W
 


________________________________
From: warren moorman <wlmoorman3 at yahoo.com>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 5, 2011 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] "Give Me The Banjo" story

I saw that, Malcolm, and was wondering who that was; Charlie caught my attention so that I didn't study your image much (mostly in profile on the left of frame for 4-5 seconds, right?). Who shot/has the footage? How about telling a little more about your playing with Charlie...  
 
All in all, I thought it was a pretty good documentary as those things go. They could have included a bit more about the African and pre-minstrel American banjo history, I thought, and while understandable, it's too bad some really important figures went either scarcely or completely unmentioned, e.g. Harry Reser, Ikey Robinson, Polk Miller, Don Reno, etc. Did you notice when they made it seem like Gus Cannon was being heard singing and playing, only to cut to a contemporary young guy on Beale Street who was actually doing it? The Carolina Chocolate Drops are fine to show young black interest, despite their faintly Marsalis-ish approach, but the filmmakers could have gotten footage of John Jackson and/or his living nephew Jeffrey Scott, to also show recent black banjo playing. The sections on Cannon and Poole were good, if a bit tailored to the preferences of the modern  blues and country fan whose appreciation derives from records and
books.  I enjoyed seeing some of the folks I know, like Kinney Rorrer and Wayne Henderson, and of course images of our lovely Blue Ridge Mountains always make me proud.
 
Warren

 
 

________________________________
From: Malcolm Rockwell <malcolm at 78data.com>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 5, 2011 3:18 PM
Subject: [78-L] "Give Me The Banjo" story

I just saw the new banjo documentary "Give Me The Banjo" on PBS last 
night and there I wuz, about 2/3s of the way through it in Pete Seeger's 
interview/history section. Seems someone shot footage of me and Charlie 
Chin at the Bitter End c. 1962 and the footage survived. Zow! The clip 
is not a long one, but boy was I surprised!
Charlie was a Chinese banjo frailer who went on to record with one of 
Steve Stills' groups.
Malcolm
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