The oldtime banjo blog from Kiel

Twas an amazing journey through North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia (with a few days added in New York). We met great people, had inspiring sessions and saw stunning sceneries. Unforgettable. You may find some fotos here:   https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBQMs8 With this post I am closing the banjo blog from Kiel. I will leave it online for quite a while in case google will guide someone to this part of banjoland. Bye y'all!

Flights are booked. On Friday 27th September I'll be flying to Charlotte NC and then hope to enjoy two weeks of Appalachian mountains and music. Driving along the "Crooked Road" and hopefully joining some jam sessions there will be fun and was a dream of mine since long.

Quite some time I was thinking  about putting a natural hide on my Karsten-Schnoor-Banjo  (which had a Renaissance head). Finally I managed to order a John Balch head (no pun intended). Changing the head was no big deal.  I put on the Super Nylgut strings from Aquila. Now the instrument is sounding mellower and I think I now got rid of  the piercing overtones which are so typical for many banjos. I now like my KS banjo  even more than before. You may compare the sounds here: Renaissance head, Nylgut strings John Balch head, Nylgut strings Perhaps there´s little difference due to technical issues like recording equipment, speakers used and so on. But in real life I (and even the most trusted banjo freak I know) hear a significant difference in sound.  I love my "new" banjo!

Not only did I bring Covid19 (not so bad at the moment, just a positiv test) from Gainsborough back home, but also wonderful memories. We had lots of jams, concerts and a scratchband. The "Chips and Mayo Stringband" were Stuart on fiddle, Olley on mandolin, Ludwig on guitar and vocals, Tim on bass, Paul the dancer and yours truely on banjo. As Ludwig came from Belgium, our band´s name was a must (chips, Belgium, you understand?). To give you an idea what happened at the festival, here are some  videos. Now I´ve got one year to practice for next Gainsborough.  Squaredance with the Empty Bottle String Band:

Tomorrow #FOAOTMAD's festival in Gainsborough will start. Happy days are here again 😁 Meanwhile in London: