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I got obsessed with the idea of learning to play banjo in the first lockdown of 2020. I built a banjo from a vintage cookie tin, a bit of wood I found in a skip and some pre-made parts (finger board, bridge, machine heads). I have since acquired a five string bluegrass style banjo with a big ol' resonator.

 

the banjo: I love the twang, the richness of the sound, the variety of tunings, the undeniable personality of the instrument

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the music that comes along with the banjo: murder ballads, love songs, songs about barbara allen, silly songs, nonsense songs, songs about death, songs about chickens, songs passed from singer to singer, from mouth to ear to mouth

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the singing that so often comes along with the banjo: intimate, personal, uneven, unclassical, honest, rough, direct(all the things I wish my voice could do that have gotten lost with training)

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I'm on a banjo adventure with an unknown destination - I'm learning folk songs, dowland and Jennifer Walshe and I hope at the end of it to find some of the agency I've been looking for as a singer. Watch this space for a project - there's an eventual plan afoot for commissioning and recording and composing.