BANJO PLURALITY

Just recently (October 2013) the New York Banjo Summit Tour 2013 came to a close. As expected, the tour was a great success, selling out many of the venues it appeared in during it's 13 day run. The tour consisted of banjo Masters Eric Weisberg, Bill Keith, Tony Trischka, Bela Fleck, Noam Pickelny, Richie Stearns, and Abigail Washburn. The all star backing band consisted of Russ Barenberg (Guitar), Corey DiMario (Bass), Jesse Cobb (Mandolin), and Casey Driessen (Fiddle). In addition they were joined by various special guests along the tour such as Darol Anger and Matt Glaser. It was, as anticipated, an epic tour.
 I mentioned in an earlier post  here that I was extremely disappointed to miss this event. As much as I would travel great distances to see these folks play, I also was looking forward to seeing Casey play with this group, especially after his work up at Grey Fox this past summer. I was so excited when his participation was announced because Casey is one of my top 3 favorite fiddlers. A master of his instrument he has found new and exciting ways to create music with it and blending in new technologies, he creates pieces in a manner that I have never heard or seen before. Casey is also a very fine gentleman and I have had the chance to chat with him briefly after a few Flecktones concerts. One of the hardest working musicians you will ever find, Casey is always on the go and into something. Then there is that chop he has. If you have never seen what Casey can do with his chop, then you have a huge hole in your musical experience.
 A lesser known attribute Casey carries is his photography. As Casey travels around, he collects photos of varying subjects showing points of view that many of us would have missed. I like his stuff and his 'perspectives'.
This brings me to the point of this post. What is a fiddler who is trapped on a tour bus for 2 weeks with a bunch of banjo players going to do to keep his sanity? Well, apparently, if your name is Casey Driessen, you pull out your camera and take advantage of the situation by documenting a few of the most classic banjo jokes you can think of, using the cream of the crop in northeast banjo players as your subjects. These photos were published by Casey on Face Book as part of the tour promo's and having a little fun while 'keeping the public informed' of the tour's progress. Some of the photos have grown legs and are showing up all over while others are being missed. I even missed one myself and I was looking for them each day. With Casey's gracious permission, here is probably my favorite of the series:

For the actual joke this is based on, well, you will need to go to Casey's page to get the answer, I am not going to spill the beans here, but I will say that this is one which I instantly 'got'. If you don't, then we know you are not a banjo player, but we know that not everyone is., or understands the malady's that affect the average banjoist.

 So we wanted to preserve these in so far as is possible in a place where they could be enjoyed and found easily. I believe these will circulate for years in various forms and I wanted to make sure that Casey retained credit for the creativity shown in these. I contacted Casey with this proposal, and coincidentally, he had been thinking the same thing.  Casey has graciously added these to his website for us all to enjoy. So if you got to Casey Driessen's page found here, you will be able to view the whole series.
 The photos themselves take the form of a riddle in that the observer must ascertain from the scene what the classic banjo joke is. For fun, he has posted the questions and answers at the BOTTOM of the page so that you can work out the tougher ones for yourself before checking the answers. If you are not a banjo person you will probably find these challenging. Unfortunately for me, I guessed most of them in a few seconds, but a couple kept me going for minutes on end.When you are done, check out the other stuff he has waiting under the tabs along the top of his page. There is a lot to see, read, and hear, and it's all good stuff.
 Thank You Casey. I hope you had as much fun on the tour as those who came to see the show.
Keep The Beat,
Tom