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Paul Brown
Paul Brown is an award-winning musician and journalist who’s been involved with traditional music since childhood. He picked up his first traditional songs and tunes from his mother, who learned them from piedmont Virginia African-American and European-American musicians in the 1920s and ‘30s. He started playing banjo at age ten, followed by fiddle and guitar. Paul studied intensively with National Heritage Fellowship recipient Tommy Jarrell of Surry County, North Carolina, in the 1980s. Into the early 2000s, he also immersed himself in the styles of Luther Davis, Benton Flippen, Fred Cockerham, Fields Ward, and other senior players of northwest North Carolina and southwest Virginia. He produced several albums documenting senior musicians and created the Across the Blue Ridge public radio program. He received the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Brown-Hudson Award and was named a master artist at the Appalachian String Band Music Convention in West Virginia, where he won the banjo contest three times, placed third in the adult fiddle contest, and won the senior fiddle contest. His radio documentary, Breaking Up Christmas: A Blue Ridge Mountain Holiday, won a Silver Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Paul began his radio career at Mount Airy, NC, commercial station WPAQ in the early 1980s. He later moved to public radio, where his work through 26 years spanned management, music recording, news, and production at WFDD Public Radio in Winston-Salem, NC, and then at NPR in Washington, DC. While at NPR, Paul worked as an executive producer, reporter, and newscaster. He also reported and produced numerous feature stories on arts and culture, including old-time music, bluegrass, and blues.
"Cacklin’ Hen, or Hen Cackle is what the late Uncle John Patterson of Carrollton, Georgia called it. I heard a recording of him playing it on Arhoolie 5018, which I found here at home today. So, that was one of my inspirations for that tune. Others too. Mr. Patterson plays the tune in standard G tuning, where I’m playing it in gDGDE, I believe, also in the key of G. I’m surprised how different our versions are. I’ll often change tunings for the way I think a tune would sound good." - Paul Brown, 4/21/2024
Click here for Paul’s website
Stephen Wade
Stephen Wade in performance at the White House, and afterwards with President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter. September 3, 1979
Subsequent to my interview with Stephen Wade, he reached out to me about our recording a duet. Of course I said “yes!” Here are his remarkable arrangements of “Rickett’s Hornpipe” and “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” presented as an arresting medley. Stephen played his all-original 1910 Tubaphone 3 with a Rogers hide head that is seen in the interview. I’m keeping time on my trusty Huss & Dalton guitar. Enjoy!
Interview Links:
Stephen Wade, Across the Amerikee: Showpieces from Coal Camp to Cattle Trail
All Things Considered interview about Across the Amerikee
Texas Gladden, Texas Gladden Sings Blue Ridge Ballads
Pete Seeger, How to Play the 5-String Banjo
Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, IL
Time Magazine review of Stephen’s show Banjo Dancing
This WETA-TV documentary on Stephen entitled Catching the Music
Stephen Wade, Dancing in the Parlor
Guy Carawan and Candie Carawan, Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?: The People of Johns Island South Carolina—Their Faces, Their Words, and Their Songs
Guthrie T. Meade, Country Music Sources: A Biblio-Discography of Commercially Recorded Traditional Music
Hobart Smith, In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes
Morning Edition interview about In Sacred Trust
Stephen Wade, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience
a short film about “The Beautiful Music All Around Us”
a short film about Stephen’s album A Storyteller's Story: Sources of Banjo Dancing
Nora Brown
Matt Brown’s Patreon supporters at the Groundhog tier and above have exclusive access to his tablature for three of the songs Nora plays in this interview. To view that tab or to pledge on Patreon, click here. To follow Nora online, check out her:
In this interview, we discuss:
Lee Sexton (and check out this short video of Nora as a twelve year-old playing with Lee!)
banjo maker Pete Ross
Rick Good of the Hotmud Family
Continuing a tradition I began with Nick Hornbuckle, Nora rattled off a list of her favorite banjoists:
John Haywood (see above!)
Nick Hornbuckle
To access the tab for the music Nick plays in this interview, click here. To buy Nick’s albums or tablature, head over to the store on his website. Make sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel and follow him on Instagram and Facebook. In this interview we discuss:
Dirk Powell's version of "Hop High My Lulu Gal" that features the singing of Jim Miller
two-finger banjoist Will Keys
Nick's episode on the Picky Fingers Banjo Podcast
The New Lost City Ramblers playing "Chinese Breakdown"
Kirk Sutphin's album Old Roots and New Branches
The Amazing Slow Downer app
The Banjo Newsletter interview of Nick by Pete Wernick in two parts (1 & 2)
clawhammer banjoist Chris Coole
This amazing YouTube video featuring Jack Devereux, Rayna Gellert, John Herrmann, John Doyle
The interview ends with Nick giving us a list of his favorite banjoists: