Concert review: Banjo king Tony Trischka absorbs at Listen Live

« Rapping with Gym Class Heroes: Their sound, their future, and Travis's solo
projects | Back to Main Page | Good Comic Book Heroes, The Cringe typify Fetzer
Fest III »
March 28, 2010
Concert review: Banjo king Tony Trischka
absorbs at Listen Live!
ABOUT THIS BLOG
From Musikfest to Riverfusion ... Croc Rock to Godfrey
Daniels ... Mayfair to the Allentown Fair — welcome to
the Lehigh Valley Music Blog! Check in regularly for Hps on
worthwhile nocturnal acHviHes and one-­‐of-­‐a-­‐kind concert
and record reviews from our resident pop music
aficionados.
Total People in Discussion: 0
Categories: Concert Reviews, Music
Posted by Jodi Ducke+ at 12:20:11 PM on March 28, 2010
Dave Howell Special to the Morning Call
Two hours of solo banjo
might even challenge the
paEence of music geeks,
but not when the show is
by Tony Trischka. Trischka,
one of the world's best
players, absorbed the
audience of 120 at the
second Listen Live Music
show last Saturday night in
Zionsville.
Trischka dedicated the first
half to the history of the
banjo, using five different ones with five strings each, including a lower
pitched cello banjo and a mbanza, a predecessor of the instrument using a
gourd for a soundboard and a fretless neck. His easygoing style and inclusion
of stories and jokes made this an entertaining exploraEon of the past.
He began with styles where banjo was strummed instead of picked, as in
minstrel shows. He used the frailing/clawhammer style for "Old Joe Clark,"
and fingerpicked the Sousa tune "Washington Post March".
Trischka brought back the techniques of many famous banjo masters,
including Gus Cannon, Elizabeth CoWon, and Pete Seeger. Seeger is best
known for folk music, but Trischka recreated his jazzy version of Irving Berlin's
"Blue Skies" taken from a '50s recording. He also showed the picking wizardry
of Earl, who like Elvis, does not need a last name to be recognized.
This was not exactly a solo
performance. Trischka's
son Sean joined him on
mandolin for a few
bluegrass numbers, and
played snare drum on a
few more.
The second half put aside
the "walk through history",
but conEnued with many
medleys, including those
with songs by John
Har[ord, Bill Monroe, and
the Beatles. Trischka also did his own tunes, including one called "Rainbow
Yoshi" and others that were unEtled.
He ended with a "shameless pandering" medley of songs banjoists cannot
escape, including the "Theme from the Beverly Hillbillies" (with sing-­‐along),
"Rocky Top," Dueling Banjos" (with more sing-­‐along), and "Foggy Mountain
Breakdown".
http://blogs.mcall.com/lehighvalleymusic/2010/03/concert-revi...
Chris Murphy (guitar) and John Pospischil (banjo) of Fellswoop opened with a
25-­‐minute set of bluegrass/Americana. Their high spirited songs had clever
and ocen quirky lyrics, including those from the group's 2009 release
"Against the Odds".
ABOUT THE WRITERS
GARY BLOCKUS He bought his first album at
age 14: Bread's "Baby I'm A Want You." The
next day, he bought Black Sabbath's
"Paranoid" and Deep Purple's "Machine
Head." He's covered everything in the
metal/hard rock genre, from Motley Crue to
Papa Roach to Ted Nugent and Aerosmith to the soYer
side like Bon Jovi.
JODI DUCKETT As The Morning Call's
assistant features editor responsible for
entertainment, she spends a lot of Hme
surveying the music landscape and sizing up
the Valley's fesHvals and club scene. She's no
expert, but enjoys it all — especially arHsts
who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, SHlls,
Nash, Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.
KEITH GROLLER Our local sports editor
strays from his post on Groller's Corner for
another of his passions. He's a^racted to the
sights (Shania, Faith, Carrie, MarHna) and
sounds (Paisley, Strait, Adkins, Keith) of
today's country music scene and likes to add
a li^le twang to the conversaHon.
ARLENE MARTINEZ Her music was
influenced by her mom, who hasn't turned
the radio off since Arlene came home from
the hospital. She's a top-­‐40 kinda girl with a
special place in her heart for hip-­‐hop, R&B,
rancheros and musical soundtracks.
Favorites include the Bee Gees, Jill Sco^, Neil Diamond,
Q-­‐Tip, Juan Gabriel, T.I., Britney Spears and all of "Les
Miserables." She is used to people making fun of her
taste.
JOHN L. MICEK caught the rock bug young.
The TMC Harrisburg Correspondent bought
his first record, U2's "Under a Blood Red Sky,"
at age 13 and hasn't looked back. Besides
listening to arHsts ranging from The Ramones
2/20/11 7:55 PM
http://blogs.mcall.com/lehighvalleymusic/2010/03/concert-revi...
2/20/11 7:55 PM