Classic-Banjo

A Site Dedicated to all enthusiasts of Classic Style Banjo

OUR NEW DATABASE OF ORIGINAL RECORDINGS IS NOW LIVE !

Over the years I have been collecting original cylinder and 78rpm recordings of the great players of the Classic Banjo style. With the help of site members, too many to thank individually, I have today made my database of tunes available for everyone to play online or use the FREE download to play on their computer in their favourite software.

Included here are both Commercial and LIVE recordings by amateur and professional players.

There are even RARE recordings of great players possibly not heard before!

and how many people have heard this Fred Van Eps Interview before??

Simply chose a "Performer" or select from the "Album" list to view the tracks. If you are looking for a particular track use the "Keyword Search" to locate the recording.

I hope that you enjoy this NEW resource and I would particularly like to thank all those who have supplied tracks and offered their help in the "proof-reading" of this mammoth task!

If anyone can help identify the tracks that are still untitled, particularly in the "Fred Van Eps plays Live Vol.1" album, I would be delighted to hear from you!

I hope that you enjoy all these recordings, as much time, sweat and many tears have gone into producing this collection!

Ian,

thereallyniceman

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Trapdoor2 on September 1, 2019 at 20:18

Fred Van Eps plays live Vol 1...

#10 is Chopin's "Grande Valse Brillante Op. 18."

#11 is a medley and the last tune is "Oh By Jingo" https://youtu.be/bBmQpR2HqFU

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Permalink Reply by Trapdoor2 on September 1, 2019 at 20:43

And, of course, this is an amazing thing Ian. Bravo! Well done!

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Permalink Reply by thereallyniceman on September 1, 2019 at 20:49

Thank you Marc, for the kind words and the FVE Track info. It is now updated :-)

Plenty of CB music to keep everyone busy for a while.

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Permalink Reply by F. Chris Ware on September 1, 2019 at 22:01

Wow, many thanks for gathering this all together, Ian. There's a lot to listen to here.

As for the FVE Birthday party tracks, I believe they are as follows:

5. Crackerjack
7. La Premier (Eno)
8. Banjomania (FVE original composition)
9. Galloping Dominoes (FVE original composition)

This is what's written on the original tape box; "La Premier" is definitely correct since he recorded that Eno piece on his 1950s album; the others are uncertain, but there's really no reason to doubt the titles, other than perhaps Robert Thornburgh, whom I believe annotated the recording, didn't identify the Chopin piece correctly. The fantastic pianist is Fred's son, Robert Van Eps, and in attendance was also Dominic Frontiere, a talented accordionist who later composed the theme for "The Outer Limits" and went to prison for tax evasion.

The last two tracks, 11 and 12, I'm not sure of — I think they might be from an early banjo meet at the Green Gables, though I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure it's not from 12-30-1954, though. (The birthday tapes are dated the 30th, not the 31st, incidentally.)

Pretty sure this is at Robert Van Eps' home, as well — that's him at the piano, brother seven-stringer guitarist George on the ottoman facing the camera and Fred, of course, with the banjo.

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Permalink Reply by John Cohen on September 2, 2019 at 14:57

This is great Ian- thanks!

I'm Getting some errors when trying to download the tracks. For example, I get the following message when trying to download Sycopatin' Shuffle played by Brenda Auden:

<br />
<b>Notice</b>: Undefined index: