Resources

American Banjo Fraternity - Formed in 1948, the ABF promotes the classic banjo via their magazine, the 5 Stringer, and twice-yearly rallies. They also have a vast library of classic banjo music available for purchase at a nominal fee.

Banjo Clubhouse - Tim Twiss' site is a mine of information and musical examples. The great and oft-cited Converse Analytical can be downloaded from here as a PDF.

Classic Banjo - Hal Allert - The first web site - and still one of the best - to serve as a resource for Classic Banjo. A great place to read up on some history, and browse through some songbooks and tutors.

Grimshaw Exercises - Our own Rob MacKillop demonstrating some of the exercises from Emile Grimshaw's tutor, "How To Excel on the Banjo."

Recordings

Clarke Buehling - See The Old 78s and The Skirtlifters

Douglas Back - The Banjo Goes Highbrow - Featuring characteristic banjo works & virtuoso classical pieces as arranged and composed by the great 5-string banjo masters of yesteryear: Farland, Bacon, Hunter, Van Eps, Morley, etc.

Geoff Freed's Black Tie Banjo - A modern banjo-piano duo made up of Geoff Freed on 5-string banjo and Ann Frenkel on piano.

New Criterion Banjo Orchestra - Their first recording, A Banjo Oddity, is a fine example of the NCBO's stated goal to "preserve orchestrated banjo music of the late Victorian, early Edwardian eras. "

The Old 78s - Modern trio featuring Clarke Buehling, Curly Miller and Carole Anne Rose. Several different CDs.

Phonozoic Recordings - Here you can find a CD called "Acoustic Recordings of the Banjo, 1898-1924." Two CDs with over two hours of acoustic-era recordings featuring banjo performances by Fred Van Eps, Vess Ossman, Harry C. Browne, "Black Face" Eddie Ross, Shirley Spaulding, and others.

The Skirtlifters - The Skirtlifters authentically recreate the music of the 19th century riverboat, stage and parlor.

UCSB Cylinder Preservation - UC Santa Barbara has over 8.000 cylinder recordings that they are work working to preserve through digitization.  Not everything is classic banjo oriented, of course; but there are some examples if you search the site.

Vess Ossman Playlist - A playlist created by Lucas Gonze as part of his blog Soup Greens.

Vintage Banjo Mania - Another collection of original recordings by some of the classic banjo masters.



Heroes
Joe Morley
William J. Ball
Emile Grimshaw