Destination Cleveland County (DCC) invites the public to a presentation of the work to date on Phase I Exhibit Design for the Earl Scruggs Center: Music & Stories of the Carolina Foothills to be housed in the 1907 Courthouse on the Square in Shelby. Four events will be held at locations around the county Monday and Tuesday.
Monday
Don Gibson Theatre: 10 a.m.
Lawndale Community Center: 1 p.m.
Boiling Springs Methodist Church Fellowship Hall: 5 p.m.
Tuesday
Kings Mountain Historical Museum: 10 a.m.
Cissy Foote Anklam, Washington, DC, who is serving as DCC’s team coordinator for the Center will present the preliminary walk-through of the new Center. Design work to date has been based on the master plan created in 2008, the Cultural Inventory by UNC-CH graduate researchers, the efforts of DCC volunteers in documenting Cleveland County’s treasured objects and artifacts, and the gathering of oral histories from local residents.
“Most of our work has been behind the scenes. Now, we have something tangible for our residents to see and we are so excited,” said Millie Arey Wood, history co-chairman.
“Once completed, in hopefully late 2011, the Center along with DCC’s other successful project, the Don Gibson Theatre, is projected to bring an economic impact to our county of over $180,000,000 over a 10-year period-that’s 18 million a year to our county’s bottom line and that’s significant!” said J.T. Scruggs, co-chairman of the capital campaign and the Earl Scruggs Center.
DCC encourages citizens to attend one of the events.
Destination Cleveland County, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 whose mission is to unite our county’s history, heritage, culture and arts to create a vibrant economy while embracing the future and preserving the past.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Happy 86th Birthday Earl Scruggs!
I want to wish Earl a very Happy Birthday and pray that he has many more years of continued health! Earl is a national treasure. I want all you banjo pickers out there to wipe off the dust and play one of Earl's legendary tunes today in honor of his contribution to bluegrass music! Also, share his music with this younger generation of music lovers so we can continue the legacy and the music won't be forgotten! Keep listening to Flatt and Scruggs and share your music with the world!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Bluegrass Legend Curly Seckler to Celebrate Two Milestones
Bluegrass music legend Curly Seckler has two reasons to celebrate coming up. A special Christmas finds Seckler celebrating his own 90th birthday. Then, as we enter 2010, seckler will celebrate his 75th year as a professional musician. Seckler began his career in music in 1935, performing with his brothers in a band called the Yodeling Rangers, on WSTP radio in Salisbury, NC. In 1939 he hit the big time, when Charlie Monroe recruited him to sing harmony in his new group after the breakup of the Monroe Brothers. Curly worked several stints with Charlie Monroe early in his career. He also teamed with various other bluegrass pioneers, including Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Mac Wiseman, The Sauceman Brothers, and The Stanley Brothers.
On December 25, 2009 bluegrass legend Curly Seckler will celebrate his 90th birthday! Curly was born in 1919 in China Grove, North Carolina. He began his musical career on WSTP radio in Salisbury, NC in 1935, in a family band called the Yodeling Rangers. He performed in pioneering bluegrass bands with Charlie Monroe, Dan Bailey, Mac Wiseman, The Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse McReynolds, and The Sauceman Brothers, but is best known for his dozen years as a member of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Boys. During his tenure with them, he played mandolin and sang tenor on well over 100 of their greatest recordings. After Flatt and Scruggs parted ways, Curly joined Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass. Following Flatt's death in 1979, Curly took over leadership of the group for another fifteen years, headlining at bluegrass festivals across the country.
In 1994, at age 74, Curly disbanded the Nashville Grass and ceased full-time touring. However he continued to write songs, to record, and to perform at selected events. In 2004 he was inducted into the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Hall of Fame. Rather than resting on his laurels, Seckler was inspired by that honor to embark upon a career resurgence of sorts. At age 84 he made a series of new recordings and began performing again at bluegrass festivals, concert halls, and on radio and television. His recent performances have included MerleFest, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, IBMA's Fan Fest and Awards Show, the River of Music Party in Owensboro, KY, Song of the Mountains TV show, UNC-TV's North Carolina People show, and Ernest Tubb Records' Midnite Jamboree over WSM radio.
In 2010, Curly Seckler will mark his 75th anniversary as a professional musician, a milestone accomplished by very few. In 1949 Curly joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, as tenor singer and mandolin player. Except for a couple of brief absences, he remained with Flatt & Scruggs until 1962. During that time he recorded well over 100 songs with them, including many of their best known and most popular hits (“Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” “Salty Dog Blues,” “I’ll Go Stepping Too,” “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke,” etc.). Several of Curly’s original songs were recorded by Flatt & Scruggs, including “No Mother Or Dad” and “That Old Book of Mine.”
The Lester Flatt/Curly Seckler duets from the 1950s are still considered to be among the best bluegrass performances ever. In addition, Curly’s rock-solid “chop” rhythm on mandolin was the foundation of the Foggy Mountain Boys’ instrumental sound during his tenure. Millions of fans are now able to experience the magic of this great band through the DVDs of classic Flatt & Scruggs TV shows which are being released by Shanachie Records in conjunction with the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Plans are underway for a series of events to commemorate Seckler's long and illustrious career.
On December 25, 2009 bluegrass legend Curly Seckler will celebrate his 90th birthday! Curly was born in 1919 in China Grove, North Carolina. He began his musical career on WSTP radio in Salisbury, NC in 1935, in a family band called the Yodeling Rangers. He performed in pioneering bluegrass bands with Charlie Monroe, Dan Bailey, Mac Wiseman, The Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse McReynolds, and The Sauceman Brothers, but is best known for his dozen years as a member of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Boys. During his tenure with them, he played mandolin and sang tenor on well over 100 of their greatest recordings. After Flatt and Scruggs parted ways, Curly joined Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass. Following Flatt's death in 1979, Curly took over leadership of the group for another fifteen years, headlining at bluegrass festivals across the country.
In 1994, at age 74, Curly disbanded the Nashville Grass and ceased full-time touring. However he continued to write songs, to record, and to perform at selected events. In 2004 he was inducted into the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Hall of Fame. Rather than resting on his laurels, Seckler was inspired by that honor to embark upon a career resurgence of sorts. At age 84 he made a series of new recordings and began performing again at bluegrass festivals, concert halls, and on radio and television. His recent performances have included MerleFest, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, IBMA's Fan Fest and Awards Show, the River of Music Party in Owensboro, KY, Song of the Mountains TV show, UNC-TV's North Carolina People show, and Ernest Tubb Records' Midnite Jamboree over WSM radio.
In 2010, Curly Seckler will mark his 75th anniversary as a professional musician, a milestone accomplished by very few. In 1949 Curly joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, as tenor singer and mandolin player. Except for a couple of brief absences, he remained with Flatt & Scruggs until 1962. During that time he recorded well over 100 songs with them, including many of their best known and most popular hits (“Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” “Salty Dog Blues,” “I’ll Go Stepping Too,” “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke,” etc.). Several of Curly’s original songs were recorded by Flatt & Scruggs, including “No Mother Or Dad” and “That Old Book of Mine.”
The Lester Flatt/Curly Seckler duets from the 1950s are still considered to be among the best bluegrass performances ever. In addition, Curly’s rock-solid “chop” rhythm on mandolin was the foundation of the Foggy Mountain Boys’ instrumental sound during his tenure. Millions of fans are now able to experience the magic of this great band through the DVDs of classic Flatt & Scruggs TV shows which are being released by Shanachie Records in conjunction with the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Plans are underway for a series of events to commemorate Seckler's long and illustrious career.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
From the Nation's Station to Herzog Studios
They are honoring a famous recording studio where Lester and Earl recorded:
Herzog was Cincinnati’s first commercial recording studio. Powers thinks its ultimate significance for the local music scene is “it turned Cincinnati into a recording town instead of a radio town.”
Groundbreaking tunes in Country, Bluegrass and R&B were cut at Herzog — songs that would become templates for their genres. Just to list a few of the seminal sessions:
• Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs recorded “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” one of the most recognizable Bluegrass tunes, in December 1949. • The Delmore Brothers cut “Freight Train Boogie,” bringing the boogie woogie Blues sound to the hillbilly market in what some call the first Rockabilly song.
• “The Honeydripper,” a song cited by musicologists as laying the foundation for R&B, was recorded in 1945 by Bullmoose Jackson.
• Other artists who recorded at the studio include Homer and Jethro, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Judy Perkins, Grandpa Jones, Red Foley and Moon Mulligan.
The Herzog story — its rise and fall — can’t be told without telling the WLW Country & Western story. By the late ’30s the “nation’s station” was booming out a signal of 500,000 watts, but owner Powel Crosley was under government pressure to justify why he deserved that much wattage.
“His argument was, ‘We are in the center of the population area of the country and there are so many rural areas that don’t have radio service. We are providing that for them,’ ” says Mike Martini of Media Heritage Inc. “Crosley realized he needed to beef up his rural programming to justify that argument.”
WLW began to hire the finest Country & Western singers and musicians in the land. At one point it produced two weekly barn-dance shows, Midwestern Hayride and Boone County Jamboree. One of the great session bands in Country music history, the Pleasant Valley Boys, moved here from Nashville in 1948, lured by the offer to be the house band for the TV version of Midwestern Hayride.
In 1945, WLW engineer E.T. “Bucky” Herzog started a little side project, opening a recording studio just around the corner from the station, which back then was at Ninth and Elm. He realized the cream of the Country music crop was coming through WLW every week to perform and thought maybe they’d want to record.
It was the same thinking that sparked Syd Nathan to found King Records in 1943. But Nathan wouldn’t have a recording studio at his Evanston complex until 1947, so he sent many artists down to Race Street and Bucky Herzog.
Hank Williams came here in 1948 specifically to record with the renowned Pleasant Valley Boys. He’d worked with them previously when they were in Nashville, producing a couple minor hits. He was still looking for the big breakthrough.
They cut three songs in a session booked for three hours. When Williams found he had extra time, he said he wanted to record “Lovesick Blues,” which he’d been performing in concert and on radio shows. His manager, Fred Rose, hated the song. When he learned Williams wanted to cut it, he fumed out of the studio saying, “You got 30 minutes left in the session. Don’t go over the time.”
One take was enough. In Williams’ yearning, pleading voice, it became a signature song.
Released in spring of 1949, “Lovesick Blues” was No. 1 for 16 weeks, earning Williams a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in June that received an unprecedented six encores. The song became the quintessential ballad of lost love, covered by dozens of singers across all genres, ranging from Little Richard and Arlo Guthrie to Linda Ronstadt and LeAnn Rhimes.
Williams would return to Herzog to recapture the magic with the Pleasant Valley Boys in August 1949, recording four more songs.
Meanwhile, Herzog continued to crank out recordings. Record labels like Columbia, RCA and Mercury would send their artists to town. Along with King — which was becoming the country’s most successful independent label — Cincinnati indeed had become Music City.
Herzog outlasted Hank ... barely
By the early ’50s, Herzog’s glory days were ending (although King’s were just beginning with its incredible R&B lineup). Studios had opened in Nashville and the emerging Country stars didn’t need to travel to record. And Nathan had built his own studio.
Most significantly, WLW began firing its live musicians, many heading to Nashville, removing the talent pool that fueled Herzog. Crosley sold his station to Avco in 1953, and the new owners started making cuts (in what seems to be a familiar story in corporate broadcasting).
“They looked at other DJs in town spinning discs and making all that money,” Martini says. “Here WLW was with this huge staff of something like 100 musicians. I’m sure they said, ‘Why are we spending all this money when one guy can spin discs?’ ”
Bucky Herzog sold the studio, and the new owner moved it to Mount Adams, mainly doing commercial production. It was gone by 1955.
Yet the studio survived Hank Williams, who would die at age 29 on New Year’s Day 1953, officially of heart failure, likely brought on by alcohol abuse and injections of vitamin and morphine shots. He passed away in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac on his way to a concert in Canton.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hank Williams Sessions at the E.T. Herzog Recording Company
Dec. 22, 1948
“Lost on the River”
“There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight”
“I Heard My Mother Praying for Me”
“Lovesick Blues”
Aug. 30, 1949
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
“I Just Don’t Like This Kind of Livin’ ”
“A House Without Love”
“My Bucket’s Got a Whole in It”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The historical marker recognizing Herzog’s studio and Hank Williams’ sessions will be unveiled at 1 p.m. Sunday in front of 811 Race St., Downtown. A reception will follow in the former studio space on the second floor. The 13th annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards start at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Madison Theater, Covington.
Herzog was Cincinnati’s first commercial recording studio. Powers thinks its ultimate significance for the local music scene is “it turned Cincinnati into a recording town instead of a radio town.”
Groundbreaking tunes in Country, Bluegrass and R&B were cut at Herzog — songs that would become templates for their genres. Just to list a few of the seminal sessions:
• Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs recorded “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” one of the most recognizable Bluegrass tunes, in December 1949. • The Delmore Brothers cut “Freight Train Boogie,” bringing the boogie woogie Blues sound to the hillbilly market in what some call the first Rockabilly song.
• “The Honeydripper,” a song cited by musicologists as laying the foundation for R&B, was recorded in 1945 by Bullmoose Jackson.
• Other artists who recorded at the studio include Homer and Jethro, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Judy Perkins, Grandpa Jones, Red Foley and Moon Mulligan.
The Herzog story — its rise and fall — can’t be told without telling the WLW Country & Western story. By the late ’30s the “nation’s station” was booming out a signal of 500,000 watts, but owner Powel Crosley was under government pressure to justify why he deserved that much wattage.
“His argument was, ‘We are in the center of the population area of the country and there are so many rural areas that don’t have radio service. We are providing that for them,’ ” says Mike Martini of Media Heritage Inc. “Crosley realized he needed to beef up his rural programming to justify that argument.”
WLW began to hire the finest Country & Western singers and musicians in the land. At one point it produced two weekly barn-dance shows, Midwestern Hayride and Boone County Jamboree. One of the great session bands in Country music history, the Pleasant Valley Boys, moved here from Nashville in 1948, lured by the offer to be the house band for the TV version of Midwestern Hayride.
In 1945, WLW engineer E.T. “Bucky” Herzog started a little side project, opening a recording studio just around the corner from the station, which back then was at Ninth and Elm. He realized the cream of the Country music crop was coming through WLW every week to perform and thought maybe they’d want to record.
It was the same thinking that sparked Syd Nathan to found King Records in 1943. But Nathan wouldn’t have a recording studio at his Evanston complex until 1947, so he sent many artists down to Race Street and Bucky Herzog.
Hank Williams came here in 1948 specifically to record with the renowned Pleasant Valley Boys. He’d worked with them previously when they were in Nashville, producing a couple minor hits. He was still looking for the big breakthrough.
They cut three songs in a session booked for three hours. When Williams found he had extra time, he said he wanted to record “Lovesick Blues,” which he’d been performing in concert and on radio shows. His manager, Fred Rose, hated the song. When he learned Williams wanted to cut it, he fumed out of the studio saying, “You got 30 minutes left in the session. Don’t go over the time.”
One take was enough. In Williams’ yearning, pleading voice, it became a signature song.
Released in spring of 1949, “Lovesick Blues” was No. 1 for 16 weeks, earning Williams a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in June that received an unprecedented six encores. The song became the quintessential ballad of lost love, covered by dozens of singers across all genres, ranging from Little Richard and Arlo Guthrie to Linda Ronstadt and LeAnn Rhimes.
Williams would return to Herzog to recapture the magic with the Pleasant Valley Boys in August 1949, recording four more songs.
Meanwhile, Herzog continued to crank out recordings. Record labels like Columbia, RCA and Mercury would send their artists to town. Along with King — which was becoming the country’s most successful independent label — Cincinnati indeed had become Music City.
Herzog outlasted Hank ... barely
By the early ’50s, Herzog’s glory days were ending (although King’s were just beginning with its incredible R&B lineup). Studios had opened in Nashville and the emerging Country stars didn’t need to travel to record. And Nathan had built his own studio.
Most significantly, WLW began firing its live musicians, many heading to Nashville, removing the talent pool that fueled Herzog. Crosley sold his station to Avco in 1953, and the new owners started making cuts (in what seems to be a familiar story in corporate broadcasting).
“They looked at other DJs in town spinning discs and making all that money,” Martini says. “Here WLW was with this huge staff of something like 100 musicians. I’m sure they said, ‘Why are we spending all this money when one guy can spin discs?’ ”
Bucky Herzog sold the studio, and the new owner moved it to Mount Adams, mainly doing commercial production. It was gone by 1955.
Yet the studio survived Hank Williams, who would die at age 29 on New Year’s Day 1953, officially of heart failure, likely brought on by alcohol abuse and injections of vitamin and morphine shots. He passed away in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac on his way to a concert in Canton.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hank Williams Sessions at the E.T. Herzog Recording Company
Dec. 22, 1948
“Lost on the River”
“There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight”
“I Heard My Mother Praying for Me”
“Lovesick Blues”
Aug. 30, 1949
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
“I Just Don’t Like This Kind of Livin’ ”
“A House Without Love”
“My Bucket’s Got a Whole in It”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The historical marker recognizing Herzog’s studio and Hank Williams’ sessions will be unveiled at 1 p.m. Sunday in front of 811 Race St., Downtown. A reception will follow in the former studio space on the second floor. The 13th annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards start at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Madison Theater, Covington.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Flatt and Scruggs Memorabilia Collection to be at White’s Mountain Chimney Corner Celebration October 31, 2009!
I will be displaying my Flatt and Scruggs memorabilia collection, probably the largest one in existence on October 31st. Here is a link to the location:
LINK
LINK
Monday, October 19, 2009
Presentation to Jim Shumate - First fiddler with Flatt and Scruggs
Several years ago I got to introduce Jim Shumate at a festival in Raleigh NC. I had framed a collage of the photos from Flatt and Scruggs first songbook which featured Jim as the fiddle player. He was deeply moved and was very appreciative. Jim is a great person and still can wear a fiddle out and entertain a crowd with his playing and singing!
Framed photo I did for Earl Scruggs
This is a framed collage I did and presented to Earl at the Country Music Hall of Fame. It is a very large picture.
It shows all the groups Earl ever played with. The one square without a photo was for the Carolina Wildcats but no photos of Earl with that group have surfaced.
He really liked it and said he was going to hang it in his home. It was great getting to meet him and Louise.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Earl Scruggs Video Interviews from Gibson
Here are links to some great interviews with Earl:
Earls banjos
Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys
The Flatt and Scruggs Era
The Beverly Hillbillies
Earl's influences and styles
Earl Scruggs Review
Earls banjos
Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys
The Flatt and Scruggs Era
The Beverly Hillbillies
Earl's influences and styles
Earl Scruggs Review
Friday, September 18, 2009
Hylo Brown Bluegrass Festival is this Saturday in Mechanicsburg
The annual Hylo Brown Bluegrass Festival is slated for Saturday, Sept. 19 at Goshen Memorial Park in Mechanicsburg, PA.
Honoring the legacy of Frank "Hylo" Brown and his impact on the bluegrass music industry, the event will showcase bands from several states including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Brown earned his nickname because of a wide vocal range that became his trademark. Born in 1922 in River, Ky., Brown started performing in radio in Ashland, Ky., when he was just 17. After moving with his family to Springfield, Ohio, in 1949, Brown began an association with country singer Bradley Kincaid, which included working at Kincaid's radio station and playing in his band. Brown's songwriting credits include "Lost to a Stranger" (Capitol Records), his signature song that made it to the pop radio charts in 1954, and "Grand Ole Opry," which Jimmy Martin made a hit.
Brown went to work as a featured artist for Flatt & Scruggs in 1958, later forming a second band called The Timberliners. With Brown as front man, the band included Red Rector, Jim Smoak, Clarence "Tater" Tate and Joe Phillips. The band toured extensively throughout the South.
After the advent of video and television syndication, The Timberliners disbanded and Brown re-joined Flatt & Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Boys. He signed with Starday in 1971 and performed as a solo artist through the 1970s, continuing to record. He retired to Mechanicsburg and died Jan. 17, 2003.
Brown will be honored posthumously with a Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association during a special awards luncheon on Oct. 1. It will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. during the IBMA Business Conference. Others to receive awards include Pati Crooker, Jody Rainwater, Dick Spottswood and Joe Wilson.
Brown's accomplishments and legacy are survived through his family and the annual festival in Mechanicsburg.
Featured at this year's festival is the only surviving member of the original Timberliners: Jim Smoak. Smoak will appear for the first time at the festival, along with his band, the Louisiana Honeydrippers. The evening lineup will include Mike Daniels, who was the last banjo player to tour with Brown. As a friend and colleague, Daniels actively promotes the music and legacy of Brown. Also featured at the festival are bluegrass legend Vince Combs with his band, Shadetree Bluegrass, as well as teenage bluegrass sensation McCoy Grass.
"We're really excited about this year's lineup, especially since we are able to have some of those who shared in Hylo Brown's career," said Matthew Smith, festival manager. "We work hard all year long to see that this event will be successful."
Smith explained that booking these individuals for the festival had to occur over nine months ago to ensure that they would be available.
"Also, we have the support of Brown's family, so we want to make sure that the day properly honors his legacy," added Smith.
On display throughout the day will be Hylo Brown memorabilia, including his performance suit, guitar, original albums and awards. Brown's recordings will be available for purchase, as well as recordings of the bands throughout the day.
The event will include food and retail vendors throughout the day, allowing an opportunity for lunch, gifts or a snack. Those attending are invited to bring a lawn chair or blanket to fully enjoy the surroundings of the park's natural amphitheater. Disabled parking and restroom facilities are available at the event. Although the event is free to the public, donations are requested to offset the expense of the bands' fees.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Banjo legend, Earl Scruggs, makes stop in Oklahoma City for opening of the American Banjo Museum
Bricktown Thursday became known for more than a hot spot for clubs and hip restaurants as Banjo legend Earl Scruggs led a who’s-who of musicians in celebrating the opening of the American Banjo Museum. The $5 million, 21,000-square-foot museum completes the attraction’s move from Guthrie where it was started by Midwest City attorney Brady Hunt and Indiana industrialist Jack Canine.
Buddy Wachter, a renowned four-string banjo player, noted that for years the history of banjos was stored away in collectors’ closets, leaving the art form hidden from later generations.
"Now we’ve got this place, which is filled already — and we’ve got far more than you can see, just like the Smithsonian, which has far more than you can see,” Wachter said.
The museum showcases more than 300 instruments, the largest collection on public display in the world. Examples include replicas of primitive banjos developed by African slaves in the Old South, Minstrel Age instruments from 19th century, post WWII instruments used in bluegrass, folk and world music, and museum’s core collection of ornately decorated banjos made in America during the Jazz Age of the 1920’s and 30s.
Once the ribbon was cut by Canine, whose own banjo collection started the museum and whose donations made the new museum possible, visitors made their way inside where they saw a display of the sort of slave shack where banjo music got its start. Other displays included a recreation of a vintage Shakey’s Pizza, which celebrated banjo performances and ragtime music.
"When you hear a banjo, you can’t help but smile,” said Johnny Baier, American Banjo Museum executive director. "Museum guests will be transported to a whole new world of sound and history as they walk through the doors of the magnificently renovated Bricktown warehouse. The banjo truly is America’s instrument.”
The dedication ceremonies had just ended when a full tour bus pulled up to the curb with travelers set to dine at the adjoining Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant. Jim Cowan, director of the Bricktown Association, was happy to inform the tour guide the museum was open and ready for his passengers to add an unscheduled visit.
"With additions like the American Banjo Museum and the recent opening of the Academy of Contemporary Music, we’re showing that Bricktown is about more than just restaurants and nightclubs,” Cowan said. "I believe even more is possible, and I’d like to see us add even more attractions like the Toy and Action Figure Museum (which is currently in Pauls Valley).
Lt. Gov. Jari Askins agreed the museum is a great addition to Bricktown.
"The music and instruments on display at the American Banjo Museum are unique treasures, and Oklahoma is honored to add a collection of this caliber to our state,” Askins said. "Fans of all music will be drawn to the museum. It is a major win for Bricktown and Oklahoma.”
Buddy Wachter, a renowned four-string banjo player, noted that for years the history of banjos was stored away in collectors’ closets, leaving the art form hidden from later generations.
"Now we’ve got this place, which is filled already — and we’ve got far more than you can see, just like the Smithsonian, which has far more than you can see,” Wachter said.
The museum showcases more than 300 instruments, the largest collection on public display in the world. Examples include replicas of primitive banjos developed by African slaves in the Old South, Minstrel Age instruments from 19th century, post WWII instruments used in bluegrass, folk and world music, and museum’s core collection of ornately decorated banjos made in America during the Jazz Age of the 1920’s and 30s.
Once the ribbon was cut by Canine, whose own banjo collection started the museum and whose donations made the new museum possible, visitors made their way inside where they saw a display of the sort of slave shack where banjo music got its start. Other displays included a recreation of a vintage Shakey’s Pizza, which celebrated banjo performances and ragtime music.
"When you hear a banjo, you can’t help but smile,” said Johnny Baier, American Banjo Museum executive director. "Museum guests will be transported to a whole new world of sound and history as they walk through the doors of the magnificently renovated Bricktown warehouse. The banjo truly is America’s instrument.”
The dedication ceremonies had just ended when a full tour bus pulled up to the curb with travelers set to dine at the adjoining Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant. Jim Cowan, director of the Bricktown Association, was happy to inform the tour guide the museum was open and ready for his passengers to add an unscheduled visit.
"With additions like the American Banjo Museum and the recent opening of the Academy of Contemporary Music, we’re showing that Bricktown is about more than just restaurants and nightclubs,” Cowan said. "I believe even more is possible, and I’d like to see us add even more attractions like the Toy and Action Figure Museum (which is currently in Pauls Valley).
Lt. Gov. Jari Askins agreed the museum is a great addition to Bricktown.
"The music and instruments on display at the American Banjo Museum are unique treasures, and Oklahoma is honored to add a collection of this caliber to our state,” Askins said. "Fans of all music will be drawn to the museum. It is a major win for Bricktown and Oklahoma.”
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