Old-Time Banjo with Dusty Lee Elmer

How cool is this? Super cool. Listen peeps - banjo music makes me smile. So I am really happy to have Dusty on my show. Dusty is a first-rate banjo player and a great guy too. And he knows his shit when it comes to history, too. We get down to business about some of the old stuff and have some laughs about a interpretive take on a modern song... We discuss:

• The origins of minstrel banjo style

• Tracing the instrument back to Africa and its use by slaves on plantations

• Changes in playing styles in the nineteenth century

• Banjo music and national identity

• The social media revolution

Dusty has some of his banjos on hand to offer a few musical selections, so you will want to have a listen and then follow him on Instagram, YouTube, and ReverbNation.

It turns out, Dusty is something of a Civil War guy - so we talked about one of our favorite films and a few important books: Company Aytch by Sam Watkins and Hardtack and Coffee by John D. Billings. What's more - Dusty has some great advice for aspiring musicians out there...so you had better pay attention!

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Music by Advent Chamber Orchestra is licensed under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/