Introduction to Early Banjo History by Clifton Hicks
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- Опубликовано: 3 май 2020
- Introduction to Early Banjo History: a survey of the gourd banjo in early American folk culture
by Clifton Hicks
Sources:
BANJO ROOTS AND BRANCHES
ed. Robert Winans (2018)
AMERICA'S INSTRUMENT: THE BANJO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Philip Gura and James Bollman (1999)
SINFUL TUNES AND SPIRITUALS: BLACK FOLK MUSIC TO THE CIVIL WAR
Dena Epstein (1977)
BanjoHeritage.com
banjoheritage.com
Patreon
/ cliftonhicks
Bandcamp
cliftonhicks.bandcamp.com
Merch
BanjoHeritage.org
PayPal donations 👇🏿
paypal.me/cliftonhicksbanjo
Thanks for the great video, that was really interesting ❤
You mentioned the early gourd banjo being a combination of both African & European imports... I don't suppose you feel like sharing that side of things do you? Its so interesting to see how far back you can take things ❤
Early gourd banjos retained the short thumb string, gourd sound chamber, and animal skin sound table of earlier West African lutes. However, they incorporated the flat fingerboard and rotating tuning pegs of European lutes--features not found in West African instruments. Therefore, the early gourd banjo was not an African invention, it was an _Atlantic_ _Creole_ invention.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo Aw wow, thank you so much! That was so fascinating! 😄
I'm a fulltime student so can't do patreon, but do you have a "kofi" or some other small tipping service I can do a tiny one off donation? (It really would be small) Just thought I'd ask, cuz you really do seem to go above & beyond with this stuff :-)
Cheers either way, appreciate you sharing your knowledge 🌹🌈☀
@@CliftonHicksbanjo This is going to be a dumb question, but does the Akonting have any relationship at all to the early banjos? Or is it just the Caribbean derived gourd lutes that are the primary ancestors of the modern banjo?
@@sepulcher8263 Ekonting is definitely related, but is not _the_ direct ancestor, as many claim.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo os están comiendo la tostada
The modern banjo is a great example of American "melting pot" philosophy. It's a mix of different cultures that come together to make something greater than the sum of its parts.
Not really, more like white engineering.. Melting pot is a lie and it doesn't work anywhere.
Well the banjo is about as far is it goes then its downhill from there
No matter where my 1 and a half year old son is or what he's up to, anytime he hears clifton hicks playing "shortening bread" on the gourd banjo he drops what he's doing and starts dancing a jig lol
So do I.
same
I love that
It's magnificent.
Thanks for putting in the hard work researching this stuff. Also I want to give you props for having the courage to tread onto this challenging territory.
I think as a banjo player, it's incredibly important to know of its history.
Great video! Goes to show how often individual class solidarity was more significant than racial boundaries in the early days of the USA, at least among common people. Howard Zimmer wrote about the same thing, though more through stories of unions and uprisings rather than stories of art and families.
As financial disparity grows greater, our only solution is to return to those concepts of class solidarity.
As a small boy in suburban Australia I was captivated and entranced by the banjo the first time I saw Scruggs and Flat perform "Wreck of the Old '97" on the Beverley Hillbillies, back when it was still a new show. But I steered clear of banjos nearly all my life because somehow, I thought it was the other way round and that banjos were the cultural territory of those who like to wear bed sheets and burn crosses. Only about four years ago I learned better. Been learning for 3 and a half years now and never looked back. Thanks for putting this history out there for all Clifton. Perhaps some other aspiring, non-US, banjo players as mistaken as I was might be helped along by having things cleared up.
Bro, this is exactly what I thought! I always gave Country a wide berth because of the wrong cultural implications. Then I discovered "Sweetheart of the rodeo" by the Byrds (whose previous discography I knew like the back of my hand and loved unreservedly), which was the gateway album, my point of entry. From there I backtracked the music until I reached Appalachian Country, which was a revelation: every bit as compelling, primitive, earthy and for outsiders as the deepest Delta Blues. How much great music I missed because of stupid, useless preconceptions!
The anthropology report element - whoa, wonderful and pretty spot-on. Also, the sound bits for each (there were 3 I believe) were pretty well done, although who really owns a functional gourd banjo of period? Wonderful 10 minutes spent - very inspiring. Thanks ❤
That's some fine work there Clifton. You are an excellent documentarian, while the History Channel and PBS have nothing on you. Thanks for the history lesson. 👍😷
This was an incredibly interesting video. I love your passion towards banjos and their history. Thank you for the work you do!
Superb re-enactor image of you.
Thanks Clifton, I really appreciate all the historical etchings and illustrations you have found, they speak volumes.
Beautifully produced, informative, and heartfelt. Thank you for the effort you put in to making it.
Hey Clifton this stuff is so great thank you for putting all this together.
For someone from the UK who's just bought a banjo, this is fascinating.
As an aside. William Wilberforce lived just down the road from me. I'm sure you'll be aware of him.
Thanks for the vid. Superb. 👍🏻
This is great Clifton!
I am a Rev War Reenactor and play banjo. I am going to make a gourd banjo and play it in camp at night. Thanks for the research you have presented here!
Excellent work! Thanks for doing thorough research.
awesome history video! love the images you were able to find
Thank you so much for this video!
Commenting for the algorithm gods: I'm two minutes into this and stopped to immediately sub, found you through the Old Leatherstocking video which is in a playlist for me now because this is the haunting music of part of my childhood that I had forgotten, I had people in Louisiana bayous, I want to say outside Lafayette but it's been decades since the family fell apart. Thank you for this missing piece of my past. More people should see this, I'm 62 now. We lose so much each generation, so much time with hate when we should be sharing, and listening, and loving,, and holding onto the good things from each time. Life is more, it's the arts, it's the human experience through emotion.
wow great comment at 10:10 you have done way more historical research than most people that was heartfelt
Brilliant....Interesting and entertaining !....
Love it. Thank you
thank you for doing this
Thank you kindly for this
I actually just recently watched a video you made about 2 years ago on this subject. I've always been curious about the early days of the banjo, and this is really well put together. Thanks
An Excellent brief history of the banjo Clifton. Your comments about how humans treat other humans? Right on Brother! I celebrate all countries, cultures, arts, music, foods and traditions. We are one human family. I think of the great Joy the banjo has created for uncountable peoples for centuries? Wow! The Shakers said long ago, “That which has in itself the highest use, possesses the greatest beauty”. Thus the banjo! A gourd, some wood and rawhide and strings made from a byproduct of food, simple everyday things made from simple things that produced amazing Spirit made and Heartfelt Art! Indeed the highest beauty. And you Clifton certainly create art with this ancient instrument! Again KindThanks! DaveyJO in Pennsylvania
Thank you !
Thanks 4 the video. Do we have a idea of old tunning of the old gourd banza banjar from the 17e and 18e (before 1840) ? In your opinion and knowledge of history reconstitution : was it in open tuning (like DADf#) or modal (like (DADA or DADD) or Quarte (DGCF) or quinte (DAEB) ? Or something other like djeli n'goni (CDGC) or we dont know ? What i know is that old N'goni and banza use 1 or 2 drones (or more )
Thanks for posting Truth and History. Stay well. Subbed!
this the best vid i learned alot keep making good vids
Brilliant brilliant video! I am really fascinated by the early history of banjo and, by extension. North American music, and its melting pot of influences. If course, I have long followed your banjo videos which now my three-year old daughter adores too (after a long dalliance with ukulele, she has now taken to strum ceaselessly my banjo. Must be the 're-entrant tuning). The amount of research displayed in this video is astounding. I have learned so much! Thanks a lot bro!
Would really love if you posted a tracklist for all the songs used in this video!
Would love to know more about the songs used in this, I just love their sound
EDIT: Whats the song at 2:37 ???? LOVE IT
amazing documentary. I could listen to you for hours telling stories and accounts from the past. Brilliant.
I play Irish Folk usually travelling and busking with my girlfriend who plays fiddle. Discovering the Banjo and I love it, especially the old style with singing... cant wait to travel and play again with this amazing instrument with so much history behind it... both dark and joyful... and sometimes a mix ;)
Where can I get my hands on a gourd Banjo too? x
Thanks. That's "Cackling Hen" at 02:37 I learned it from George Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky. Banjo is tuned fB♭FB♭D (two notes below gCGCE).
Jeff Menzies usually has nice gourd banjos for sale: facebook.com/menziesinstruments/
Instruments travel. The banjo originates in Africa, the bazouki in Greece, so what on Earth are they both doing in Irish music? Well as I said, instruments travel.
You are so smart 💛 Meanstoanend
Wonderfully narrated and intelligently reflected. Tip - the book That Half-barbaric Twang - The Banjo in American Popular Culture.
New Patreon supporter here. Great work putting this together. I’m happy to support your work. I noticed in several of the photographs that the tuning pegs are facing down. Curious, do you think these players were left handed or possibly just posing for a photo not knowing the correct orientation? I initially thought the photos were reversed, but that wouldn’t account for the 5th peg facing down.
The one 7:25 certainly looks like a right handed person holding a left handed banjo.
Pretty cool.
Excellent Mr Hicks, greetings and salutations from the UK 👍
name of the fiddle tune repeated throughout this video? Thanks.
what is the song that starts playing at 10:18
What is the intro music?
What is the song at 5:53?
What is the song at 5:05 I love it!
"Shortening Bread" ~ gDGBD played on homemade gourd banjo. Full performance here: ruclips.net/video/duaitqwLjWE/видео.html
@@CliftonHicksbanjo thank you so much!
Sir!
👍🏽👍🏽
I love that this video is focused on the early ages but maybe a more in depth about the southern blues and bluegrass eras… love the vids man, new sub, Kyle Rittenhouse vid blew up!
That thumbnail though... who is it by? Who painted that neo-renaissance scene?
"The Old Plantation" by John Rose of Beaufort, South Carolina (circa 1790).
@@CliftonHicksbanjo Excellent! Thank you so much for placing this "evidence" in its proper context.
whats the song at 8:19
"Shortening Bread" from Lewis Hairston (gDGBD).
10:00you might be right our history is horrible but now its a even bigger push to let our people see thats where we came from so they won't turn on one another.and find the music that God put in their heart.
I always thought that Banjo was Indian instrument originate in India
And where country music originated.
“The Holocaust... everything I’ve researched- the transatlantic Slave trade is one of the worst things I’ve ever read about”
Now imagine.. American education/ society down plays the historical event and ignores it saying it “wasn’t that bad”. SMH. We should be taught ALL OF THIS.
Many states are actively erasing this from their curriculum nowadays unfortunately.
The idea the banjo comes from Africa is ludicrous - it’s like claiming the bagpipes came from Scotland for heavens sake! Its origins are beyond obvious …
Yes. The banjo comes from America.
The audio is intermittent / herky jerky cuts out comes back - - - --' like so many other You Tube videos ....
Like the history & passion to the banjo, but I don’t think you should list one particular thing humans have done to each other as the worst. We sprayed such heavy poisons, gases and chemicals on each other in the First World War that the world came together and agreed it was never to happen again in any country. They still do slavery here and there. Egyptian slave trade was nasty, Africa w/Africa was nasty. You should not claim one or the other was worse. It’s insulting to those who suffer from memories of such pain like surviving while watching their children be killed while they were tattooed a number on their arm and put to work (holocaust). Humanity is horrible. One day we will be eating soilent green. Get ready!
Maybe I was wrong, but I still can't imagine anything worse than those 4 centuries of racialized chattel slavery.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo It's the fact that people are effected by different issues in different ways. A women, man or child who grew up sold into sex trafficking that has been going on for thousands of years would probably think that is worse that the slave trade and rather be a slave in the fields than stuck in an 8-Motel being forced to be high on drugs while people pay their master's to have sex with them and they are tied to beds with nothing they can do but suffer. If time is what you rate it by, then sex trafficking has been going on longer and is another form of slavery. Chernobyl in Ukraine was horrific and leaves radioactivity and ghost towns in the world till 2028. Worse than the other? they are all horrific!
The Atlantic slave trade is the worst human spectacle that I can imagine. For example: the genocide of indigenous Americans went on even longer, and was far more deadly, but I'd rather go extinct than be born a slave; to watch my children be born slaves; to know that their children, too, will be born slaves.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo I don't know why you want to claim one thing is "the worse" since there is such horrible stuff humans have done to each other, but hey, everyone has different opinions, whatever. That's just your opinion. Mine is that there is no "The worse" because we've done such horrible stuff throughout history to each other.
"Everyone has different opinions, whatever. That's just your opinion."
No, the banjo is African, you'll always attach yourselves because you refuse to give us the credit. The reason Black people are able to create is because we come from the true creator. It had nothing to do with Europeans. The banjo is African culture a culture Europeans stole.
The banjo is American.
African Americans ain't African. You can't assume a person is from Africa just because they have dark skin and kinky hair. The average person has no idea what American Indians looked like in 1492. All we have is a Hollywood image of our history. In the 1700s, it was illegal to bring African slaves into the US. By 1820 it was punishable by death. In 1492 the banjo was clearly already here.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo it's not even American 😂 it's afro Caribbean based an African derived west African lute instruments
@@rawmilkmike knock it off with the pseudo Dane Calloway talking points! Black Americans are of African descent
@@kahlilboi The Caribbean Islands are American...