Bickford's Banjo Players Favorite

[Joel Hooks]

Ask and I shall receive (evidently).  So here it is!

Directly from 1918 it is the "Banjo Players Favorite", a collection of seventy familiar melodies progressively arranged by Zarh Myron Bickford in C notation.

Mostly "short pieces," I love this sort of thing for a relaxing evening of light reading.

There is something for everyone here and it is worth the cost you'll have to pay to get it-- only one "click!"

https://archive.org/details/BanjoFavoritesBickford

First person to post a video of "Spring Song" wins (a free digital copy of the book and the title of Champion Banjoist of the Ning Classic Site).

As it is in the public domain you can do what you want with it.  You can even try to sell it to suckers who don't know how to use google on Etsy and Ebay as a "digital download."  

[Jody Stecher]

"In the field" means not in a recording studio. Not in controlled conditions. The field in this case is not a place with vegetation underfoot and the sky overhead, although it may be. Field recording is analogous to documentary filming. There is an attempt to record things as they are. This may be done indoors or out. 

I did some field recording in the Bahamas in 1965 along with Peter Siegel (not Pete Seeger). We recorded people singing in our hotel room in Nassau, in the living room of Rev McPhee, in the back yard of Raymond and Edith Pinder, and in a dark alley at midnight.  All of these were field recordings. 

There was, in my opinion, a measure of dishonesty in the way the Lomax's presented what they recorded, but they never meant to convince anyone that an indoor recording was actually made in an open field. That's not what "Field Recording" means or ever meant.

Joel Hooks said:

I was of the impression that the Lomaxes, etc., set their recorders up in buildings and homes.  I write "field recordings" because they were not in a field doing the recordings.

Unless they were?

[Joel Hooks]

Got it-- I was quoting the term.

[John Cohen]

Didn't Spaulding travel to Europe during the Great War to entertain the troops? She could have encountered English banjo music there. Alternatively, some English banjo compositions (including some of Morley's) were published in the USA. That combined with players traveling back and forth across the pond could explain it.

[Jody Stecher]

The Great War began when Shirley Spaulding was 15 years old. It ended when she was 19. Some soldiers were no older but it's hard to imagine this scenario. 
John Cohen said:

Didn't Spaulding travel to Europe during the Great War to entertain the troops? She could have encountered English banjo music there. Alternatively, some English banjo compositions (including some of Morley's) were published in the USA. That combined with players traveling back and forth across the pond could explain it.

[John Cohen]

The story goes that she was brought around a kid from camp to camp to play for the soldiers. Her father traveled with her.

[Jody Stecher]

I would have *loved* to have witnessed that. She played with such verve and life.

John Cohen said:

The story goes that she was brought around a kid from camp to camp to play for the soldiers. Her father traveled with her.

[John Cohen]

Agreed, she is one of my favorite players. It's a shame there aren't more recordings of her.

[Joel Hooks]

In one of the 5 stringers Eli published her account of making those recordings in her own words.

[Shawn McSweeny]

The site's Shirley Spaulding biography (originally penned by me) mentions she played in her late teens, at camps, hospitals and canteens. There was no suggestion this occurred overseas.  

After her banjoist days had ended, she travelled overseas as Shirley Spaulding DeVoe, decorative arts researcher and author.

Her experience as recording soloist virtually terrified her, which may explain why there aren't more than the initial four recordings.

[F. Chris Ware]

Since coincidences probably happen for a reason, a couple of weeks ago I was just reading this very issue (Spring 1981, right after the "all Farland" number) so I've scanned the pertinent materials here, excepting the photo, which is already fairly widely circulated online — if photographs of classic banjoists online may be considered to be "widely circulated."

It's a vivid recollection, and I especially like the detail about the blister. It makes the recording all the more human, if not humanly painful, to listen to. Also gives some insight as to her technique.

[F. Chris Ware]

And to add to the amusement, here’s a recording of, I believe, Lloyd Longacre on banjo with E. J. Smith on improvised accompanying guitar in Longacre’s hotel room at the May 1958 Lewistown, PA (I think it was) ABF rally, playing “Footlite Favorite” as well as discussing the “elevated bass,” Shirley Spaulding, et al. Something about the informality of it, hearing their banter and the sounds of the passing trucks make it all very evocative, and though it’s a little late for the time period Joel and Jody started discussing here I think it’s still “of interest,” as the (we?) enthusiasts say. Thanks once more to my friend Pat Doyle for so kindly providing.

LLOYD LONGACRE on banjo 1958 ABF rally

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g1tni13dtscce5o/FootliteFavorite.mp3

[Shawn McSweeny]

Thanks for posting the recording Chris. Indeed it sounds like Lloyd Longacre's playing. Even when he hadn't played a piece in a while, as was the case here, his playing had great musicality. I can't be sure of the guitarist, but Lloyd's frequent rally guitar accompanist was Cecil Boyd .