The Banjo Project horizontal line

Sule Greg Wilson
Sule Greg Wilson

Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger

Steve Martin
Steve Martin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Our popular music asks for staccato effects, for almost a stenciled style. The rhythms of American music are more or less brittle; they should be made to snap, and at times to cackle. The more sharply the music is played, the more effective it sounds.

~ George Gershwin

NOW IN PRODUCTION

About the Film

Flat and Scruggs The banjo has shaped most American musical forms: the minstrel show (the most popular form of entertainment in the 19th century), ragtime and early jazz, old-time folk and the folk revival, as well as bluegrass and country. During its long career, the banjo has been a potent but ever-shifting symbol, evoking images of patriotism and protest, authentic roots and entertainment hokum, rural primitivism and urban sophistication, nostalgia and prejudice.

Its history is complex and full of ambiguity, for the banjo is closely associated with some of the most painful issues in our history—slavery, racism and class stereotypes, as well as significant ongoing tensions—city vs. country, and commercial "pop" music vs. folk music. The banjo's hybrid origins and cross-cultural wanderings have made it easy to relegate it to the margins of American cultural life, where today it's usually dismissed as an idiot's or clown's prop—the grinning darkie, the mugging vaudevillian and the boy on the bridge in Deliverance.

The Banjo Project explores these issues through the music, its players and their historical contexts.

minstrel The Banjo Project documentary weaves together rare archival footage and recordings with the narratives of historic banjo figures such as Joel Walker Sweeney, Dan Emmett, Lotta Crabtree, S.S. Stewart, Vess Ossman, Dock Boggs, Gus Cannon, Charlie Poole, Uncle Dave Macon, Elizabeth Cotton, and Elmer Snowden. Contemporary banjo masters — Earl Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Taj Mahal, Tony Trischka, Mac Benford, Cynthia Sayer, Bela Fleck and others—provide the commentary.

Performances include:

Young Doc Boggs

Throughout the program, experts in cultural history, folklore, popular music and instrument design supply additional analysis and historical context: Bob Winans, Mike Seeger, Neil Rosenberg, Lowell Schreyer, Ron Cohen, Cece Conway, Philip Gura and Jim Bollman, Pete Ross and George Wunderlich.

Of course, there's too much good music, too many good stories and colorful characters to fit into a two-hour documentary. We're also planning a comprehensive DVD, to include additional performances, historical profiles, interviews and archival footage.

So Far: