Banjo Man

My how time flys. There was a time when playing music nearly supported me. Weekly gigs and all. Like so many good things those times passed and I let the ball roll for a while.

In the 80s I moved from Hawaii to New England. I found a very different attitude toward music here. There was a strong sense of the right and wrong way to play certain songs. A sort of ingrown tradition. I did make an effort to find some where to plug in with my self taught style but over the course of 10 years I slowly faded out of performing and eventually stopped playing altogether. Picking up the guitar or banjo became an infrequent ocurance. The tunes seemed old and rut bound. I couldn't break out and I had lost the incentive.

This summer (2005) I was asked if I would be willing to put a few Shakesearian lyrics to the banjo for a production of "As You Like It" that was being set in the "summer of love." Because my daughter was to be in the production I agreed to give it a shot and found myself putting in quite a bit of practice and rehearsel time. The production went well but more than that, I was left with a new inertia and a new willingness to let new things happen in terms of sensativities.

I have been putting in a lot of time ever since the play in early September. New tunes and new approaches to playing some of my own standards have reawaken some of the excitement I used to get from playing. Even thinking of working up a set or two and going public again.

Playing Griselda on the old Vega Ranger