Customer Reviews

Dr. Banjo Steps Out

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This is the 1992 re-issue of banjo player Pete Wernick's first solo album from 1978. It also features Tim O'Brien on half of these tracks. The following year these two would form the nucleus of the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize. Fans of that band will find much here to enjoy.

While much of this is essentially straight-ahead bluegrass, Wernick throws in a few new wrinkles--phase-shifted banjo here, a flute there, even a synthesizer on one track ("Wichita Lineman"). As Tony Trischka says in the liner notes: "The thing that knocks me out is Pete's ability to work within a bluegrass context and still come up with new sounds."

Though he may not be as well known as fellow banjo pickers Bela Fleck, Bill Keith or Tony Trischka, Wernick is one of the instrument's major innovators. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This is the 1992 re-issue of banjo player Pete Wernick's first solo album from 1978. It also features Tim O'Brien on half of these tracks. The following year these two would form the nucleus of the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize. Fans of that band will find much here to enjoy.
While much of this is essentially straight-ahead bluegrass, Wernick throws in a few new wrinkles--phase-shifted banjo here, a flute there, even a synthesizer on one track ("Wichita Lineman"). As Tony Trischka says in the liner notes: "The thing that knocks me out is Pete's ability to work within a bluegrass context and still come up with new sounds."

Though he may not be as well known as fellow banjo pickers Bela Fleck, Bill Keith or Tony Trischka, Wernick is one of the instrument's major innovators. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Review by Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE