PSB Channel

[Steve Harrison]

From Tuesday, in the UK, the American Public Service Broadcasting channel is being shown on Sky channel 166. (What was the Information Channel). At the moment there are no listings shown for PSB but it may be worth monitoring as the Banjo documentary, due to be seen on 5.11.11 in the USA  may well be shown at some time over here.

[Adam]

Hi Folks,

 

I've been absent from this board for a long time now but I hope to have the time to get back into things soon.  In the meantime, I want to add to thispost about the banjo doc. showing on PBS in the US this weekend.

Here's a bit more info:  I'm thrilled to hear that it's intended to cover ragtime as then there might be some classic banjo included in the show.

 

If it doesn't broadcast in the UK, I'm sure it'll end up on YouTube toot suite!

 

Enjoy.

 

PBS Arts from the Blue Ridge Mountains: Give Me The Banjo

Give Me The Banjo

Narrated by Steve Martin, "Give Me the Banjo" is a musical odyssey through 300 years of American history and culture by way of the banjo - from its African roots to the 21st century. Guided by modern banjo masters such as Earl Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Bela Fleck, Taj Mahal, Mike Seeger, and Abigail Washburn, "Give Me The Banjo" explores American music from minstrelsy, ragtime and early jazz to blues, folk, and bluegrass. In addition to musicians, a mix of folklorists, historians, instrument makers and passionate amateurs tells stories of America's quintessential instrument in all its richness and diversity.

 

[thereallyniceman]

Welcome back Adam!! We have missed you.

Best

Ian

[Sylvia]

There is a link on Minstrel Banjo to the " Give Me the Banjo "  show.  I have just finished watching it on my lap top,  90mins. long and I enjoyed every minute.  Worth a look over there to get the link and read the other guys comments.

[Steve Harrison]

I watched it on line this evening and I was very disappointed. It was full of the 'usual suspects' and said nothing that hadn't been said before. There was a passing reference to Osman and Van Eps and that was about it as far as classic banjo was concerned. Classic was referred to but with no examples of any actual music apart from a few seconds of what may have been Osman.  There was no mention of the banjos contribution to ragtime.  Most of the historical video clips I'd seen before in other documentaries and in my opinion  it was at least 30 minutes too long.  On the whole I found it a bit of a yawn.  Sorry to sound so negative but it was  a good opportunity wasted.

[Joel Hooks]

Speaking of passing Ossman reference, this is the second doc to show that silent footage of Vess playing.  Does anyone have the full length?  I'd like to watch it a couple hundred times.

[Jody Stecher]

I think Eli Kaufman has the entire existing Ossman footage —but —if remember correctly, without sound.

 I found the broadcast to be not as bad as I feared it would be and about as good as I dared hope. As a provider of context for the average viewer who is NBO (Non banjo obsessed) it did a pretty good job with chronology and engaging visuals.  I noted about half a dozen factual errors. That's more accurate than the evening news on any network and  better than the average music documentary which tends to be JPW (just plain wrong). Not too bad. I thought that from a musical point of view the documentary provided no insight at all and presented too much music that was Not Too Bad, but not enough that was inspirational.  I dare say that a documentary purporting to be about the  five-string banjo whose most musically outstanding "example" is a singer accompanying himself on a four string banjo played with a plectrum, had failed its mission. 

[Trapdoor2]

If there were factual errors, I missed 'em. I was disappointed in most of it...but enjoyed several of the segments. I have nothing on Charlie Poole and enjoyed that segment. Based on that, perhaps someone with limited banjo experience (but enjoy the instrument) probably enjoyed the whole thing.

It could have used some Akonting and/or someone actually playing in the stroke-style (Greg Adams would have been a likely candidate). As much as I like Gus Cannon, he should have been a footnote rather than a segment...and I would have truncated the whole "folk scare" section down to Pete S. and his book.

I think they really missed the boat with the tenor banjo in country music; Smoky Montgomery, etc.

Rosanne Cash and Co. should have simply had been duct-taped after the show. "Flailing", pah.

[Jody Stecher]

I thought the Rosanne/Rodney segment was fascinating because the further their feet got in their mouths and the more garbled their facts got the more fundamentally accurate they were in spite of it all. In fact "frailing" literally means "flailing".  In fact all the songs they cited as being rhythmically indebted to five string banjo actually were in spite of the overlay of surface nonsense as they described it. But maybe I'm just too forgiving because I think she's a wonderfully tuneful singer. How in the world she thought that Pete Seeger's term "hammering-on" denoted a right hand motion is inscrutable. But I happily extend several square miles of wiggle room in the Fact Department to anyone who sings so unaffectedly and fake-free emotively. She's earned the right to spout nonsense I reckon.

[Russ Chandler]

Saw this online and really enjoyed it. Nothing earth shattering but the denizens of this board and others like it are specialists and as such I wouldn't expect to learn much I didn't already know from a program for the casual viewer. When I get funding to do my twenty four part definitive series for BBC4 things will be different!

But I reckon in covered all the important topics, gave the classic style a decent shout and most importantly made a decent stab of sharing the joy and power that makes the banjo so special.