What You Missed at The Fall ABF Rally (2016)

[Joel Hooks]

We had a fantastic American Banjo Fraternity Rally!  The turnout was huge, one of the biggest in years.  Everyone was playing fantastically.

There will be a full write up in the next "5-Stringer" but I wanted to give a brief synopsis.

Three days of solid classic banjo playing-- some members even got blisters on their fingers!  Jamming went until 1 and 2am.  The Round Robin had great participation with a very high level of playing all around.  The group numbers were played at a brisk clip with very few sour notes.

Bernunzio music set up a table Saturday with many high level classic era banjos for sale.

The venue turned out to be great.  Rooms were cheap and clean and the conference room large with area for separate jamming and practice.  The hotel staff was great and let us play as loud as are banjos could for as long as we wanted.

The banjo "orchestra" sounded great-- the best yet.

Speaking of loud banjos!  Here is a passel of FVE banjos that showed up...

Yep, there are two original flush frets on that table.  My banjo is second from the left in the photo above (not a FF).

Jack Werner even brought his early prototype FVE banjo...

The big treat was the evening concerts.  Dan Colombo playing solos with Drew Frech on 2nd banjo and Becky Schneider on cello banjo (listen to her thunder).  There is a taste below. This was the encore piece from Sat. evening.

Don't miss the next rally!  Date is set for May 18th-20th 2017 in Newark, NY. Mark your calendars.

[Trapdoor2]

Look up "stentorian" in the dictionary and you'll find that clip..."cello banjo" indeed!

[Richard William Ineson]

Very well played a joy to the ear.