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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Let the banjer ring, February 7, 2004
This cd is a collection of tunes and gourd and/or hoop banjos being played by some of the best musicians in this genre... Joe Ayers, Clarke Buehling, Bob Winans, Bob Flesher, Bob Carlin, and Tony Trischka.First of all, I will say that I had the opposite reaction to the inclusion of the lyrics/burlesque tunes. All too often in America, history is white-washed. Minstrelsy is something that most of White America is no longer aware of. If by chance an unaware person does stumble upon this cd (or others like it), to not include the uglier tunes would be to change history and present a false picture of reality to that person. There is already the white tendency to think hey, slavery and Jim Crow weren't THAT bad. To stamp the name "minstrel" on a cd and then omit all the ugly lyrics and stereotypes that were at the very heart of minstrelsy would be one more way for White America to be misled by itself. It'd be like teaching America's middle and upper-class children American History while giving them little or no understanding of the evolving, brutal history of race relations in this country. Woops! We already do that. The truth of American history is that it's an ugly, painful history. No one learns anything by having all the uglier moments forgotten, deleted, or politically-corrected out of the collective consciousness of the ruling class. I've long been of the opinion that there are too few "story" tunes on this cd, but being that the title and emphasis is specifically on the banjo playing styles, I understand why there are only a few of these songs represented. Lyrically, there are absolutely more hate-filled minstrel tunes out there than those presented here, but you can still come away from this cd with a bit of an understanding of the mockery and buffoonery that was a cornerstone of minstrelsy. Oh I'se So Wicked is lyrically the heaviest tune of this disc, what with the slave character being beaten but stating that she deserves it because "I'se so very wicked". White America should remember that for us white people, minstrelsy was the most long-lasting form of mass-entertainment this country has yet seen. This is a great disc, filled with excellent tunes and banjo playing. The recording quality is very high and the various tones of these great old and replica banjos are a joy to hear. When you hear the full-bodied, resonant tones of the old gourd and hoop-styles banjos, you (or at least I) can't help but wonder why so many people moved to the Gibson Mastertone sound. Aside from in the hands of Dock Boggs and a handful of others, the Mastertone sound is thoroughly inferior to the gourd and hoop tones. That African resonance is gone from the Mastertone sound, while it is in full bloom on the gourd and hoop replicas.
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by Joseph Weidlich
~ Various Artists
by Joseph Weidlich
by Frank W. Sweet
