Jens and his brother Uwe started singing and playing instruments at a very young age. Growing up in a family where music was an important part of life, they were exposed to a wide diversity of musical influences. The brothers were performing regularly by the time they were eleven and twelve years old, and they began their professional career in 1979.
While Jens has written and continues to write the music for all of The Kruger Brothers’ original tunes, in 2006, Jens began his “official” venture into the themes and forms of classical music when he was commissioned to write Music from the Spring for banjo, guitar, bass and full symphonic orchestra. Since then, he has received three commissions to write classical pieces which The Kruger Brothers have performed with various orchestral ensembles: Appalachian Concerto with string quartet; Spirit of the Rockies with a small orchestra, and most recently in 2013, Lucid Dreamer, a chamber music piece written specifically for and commissioned by the Kontras Quartet and debuting in 2014.
Jens is a member of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2011. In 2013, he was awarded the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music. Jens is the first winner of the award who resides in North Carolina and the first born outside of the United States. Happy Traum, guitarist, folksinger, teacher, and writer for aspiring musicians, has described Kruger as, “One of the world’s most musically sophisticated and technically accomplished five‐string banjo players.”
While Jens plays in a melodic style that has roots in bluegrass, his music is distinguished by long, melodic passages and a complex compositional foundation, often building on jazz or classical themes and techniques.
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Band(s):
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn
Website:
belafleck.com
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Scott did not start playing the banjo until he was about 19 or 20 years old. As Scott put it:
"When I did begin inquiring about playing the banjo, and thinking of it as something I might want to play, I instantly felt connected. I think I started playing it because it was reflective of my voice and my need to write songs. There was a presence that’s undeniable about the volume and the shape of the sound that comes out of a banjo, and that presence being so potent and so solid." - Scott
Ultimately, The Avett Brothers joined together to present songs about experiences that they as humans have known. Subject matters are tragic, joyful and inexhaustible. Straddling the lines between classic rock, bluegrass, and pop-leaning folk, The Avett Brothers’ discography constantly evolves. When you see them perform live, they are transcendent. Their energy, stage presence, and musicianship are unrivaled, and every show feels like a near-religious experience.
Scott is also an accomplished artist and print-maker. He owns his own gallery in Concord, NC and has had his work displayed in the Envoy Gallery in New York City.
Websites:
Music theavettbrothers.com
Art scottavett.com
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Since 2008, she has been a member of Grammy-nominated and two-time IBMA Entertainers of the Year, The Grascals. Kristin is one of the nation's top bluegrass banjo players, exhibiting impeccable taste, timing, and tone. With an attentive ear to back-up, she is known and respected as a true team player among her peers.
Benson now plays a very special custom Deering banjo that came about after trying a number of different Deering banjos and is an amalgamation of all the different models in Deering's Golden Series; the Golden Wreath, Golden Era, and Rustic Wreath.
“It's like a canon and it does exactly what I need it to do - it punctuates and cuts through a bluegrass band. It isn't mushy and it doesn't get lost. That's my main issue with new banjos. It's like the sound just gets absorbed. They sound great by themselves, but if you need to function within a full-band context, you've got to have clarity and this one has it!”
Custom Deering Golden Wreath with curly maple neck and speed finish neck
Watch Kristin Scott Benson talk about her banjo on Deering Live!
]]>John won Grammy awards in three different decades, recorded a catalog of more than 30 albums. As well as being a regular guest and contributor on the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour and the Smothers Brothers Show, he added music and narration to Ken Burns’ landmark Civil War series, and was an integral part of the hugely popular "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack and "Down From The Mountain" concert tour. But that hardly explains John Hartford.
He was a man through and through who did what he loved in life. From captaining Riverboats such as the Julia Belle Swain, sketching and drawing, to simply spending time with people he enjoyed. To this day John's music is inspiring new generations to pickup instruments and learn to play.
The Deering Family became friends with John in the 1980's and bonded over a love of banjos. Together they designed the John Hartford Deering Banjos, with Riverboat style scrolls inlaid into the neck, to the Grenadillo Wood Tone Ring that gives John's signature deeper tones, and a lighter weight option for him to dance with. These are John's banjos.
See more about John's legacy and the John Hartford Memorial Festival his family is carrying on at www.johnhartfordmemfest.com .
]]>Website:
tonytrischka.com
She is an American musician, composer, and producer and has won Grammy awards for her work. In her music, she blends jazz, bluegrass, rock, blues as well as other styles of music.
Although banjos typically play “tunes” or “breakdowns,” in Alison Brown’s hands, the banjo truly sings. It’s her unique musical vision. Brown never wastes a note, never launching into banjo tsunamis just because she can; stopping her precision three finger roll to leave space for a lyric or other instrumental voice when appropriate. Don’t mistake it, there is plenty of jaw-dropping virtuosity on The Song of the Banjo, but it’s always in service to the melody at hand. The great tenor saxophonist Lester Young had to know the lyrics before he played a song, even as an instrumental. Like him, Brown always plays the words as well as the melody.
The Julia Belle low banjo, release in Sept 2017, is a unique collaboration between Deering and Alison. The 24-fret low tuned banjo features John Hartford’s hand drawn artwork on the fingerboard as well as design aesthetics and features customized by Alison herself. The result is an absolutely gorgeous and unique instrument that reaches across time and generations for its inspiration.
It all started with Greg and Janet Deering’s friendship with John Hartford, a friendship that began over 30 years ago when Greg worked with John to design and build his first signature Hartford Model banjo. John’s Deering low banjo was an iconic part of his sound for many years and was an inspiration for many banjo players. Alison was one of those inspired by John’s unique voice on the banjo. As a proud owner of John’s prototype Deering low banjo, a long time friend of the Hartford family, as well as a fellow San Diegan, it seemed fitting for Alison to reach out to the Deerings to collaborate on an updated version of John’s original low banjo.
Website:
alisonbrown.com]]>DaRosa already an experienced touring bass and guitar player joined the band back in 2007, when James the guitar player of Dropkick Murphys called him and asked “do you want to learn a bunch of crazy instruments, banjo being one of them?” and Jeff replied “yep!”. He officially joined the band and learned them all in about a month. He now plays tenor banjo, the bass guitar, piano, mandolin, the bouzouki, the tin whistle, drums, and has started playing around on the 5-string banjo!
Dropkick Murphys started playing in the basement of a friend’s barbershop with the goal to blend the musical influences they had grown up with (Punk Rock, Irish Folk, Rock, and Hardcore) into one loud, raucous, chaotic, and often out of tune mix that they could call their own. The bands’ main goal is to play music that creates an "all for one, one for all" environment where everyone is encouraged to participate, sing along, and hopefully have a good time. They accomplish this in their shows and more.
Website:
http://www.dropkickmurphys.com/
]]>In addition to her work with the Drops, Rhiannon has a strong solo career with two released albums Tomorrow is My Turn released in 2015, and Freedom in 2017. Additional to other projects she has been part of Rhiannon was invited to be a contributing member of the acclaimed Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes album produced by T Bone Burnett featuring a collective of musicians recording songs based on uncovered lyrics handwritten by Bob Dylan in 1967.
Website:
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Mark's unique style doesn't really fit into a strict category. It's very bluegrass but has overtones of traditional folk, progressive acoustic, new-grass and old-timey all mixed into one. It's authentic. It's unique. It's Clawgrass!
Website:
]]>Banjo(s):
Eagle II Acoustic/Electric
Before Mumford & Sons became established, Winston ran a jam night at Bosun's Locker, a tiny music club, where musicians who had an affinity for acoustic music hung out and played music together. He had started playing electric guitar at age 13, but later had a singularly intense O Brother, Where Art Thou? experience. As he said, "Watching it was fucking the end of me. It was like, 'That is the music I want to make' ". And so he took up the banjo. Since then he has been one of a handful of banjo players to bring the instrument a new life and appreciation in mainstream music. There are many banjo players today who will tell you they were inspired to play by Winston Marshall.
In the second decade of the 21st century, Mumford & Sons have managed to push acoustic instruments and crowd-around-the-mic harmonies toward the center of pop culture, no small feat!
Collaborating with Deering, Winston and all of Mumford & Sons have also been passionate about given back to the areas they perform. Custom one of a kind banjos have been made for locations they played all over the world, from Australia to South Africa, the United Kingdom to the United States. A local charity for the region was chosen by Deering and the band, one that focused on human needs (such as homelessness, mental health, education, elderly, etc) and each banjo was personally signed by the band and auctioned off with the proceeds going to these charities. Over $150,000 has been raised for human needs assistance through this wonderful collaboration. We couldn't be more honored to have had the pleasure to work with the genuine lads, and team, of Mumford & Sons.
]]>In a list of "summer must-haves" he gave to Entertainment Weekly, Item #4 on his list was ..."a 6 string banjo I've had since probably 1995 that I use on all my records. Banjo goes on everything, it's a bit like whipped cream really. Well I guess whipped cream shouldn't go on fried chicken. But it does seem to fit really well on anything that's got a groove. I mean you can play it on 'Hey Ya!' by OutKast."
This banjo is his Deering Boston 6 string you can see in his photo above.
Website:
]]>Zac was given his mother's guitar at age 8, and he started taking lessons in classical guitar. He completed two years of lessons, but soon after developed a love for bluegrass music while playing with his father and brother on weekend visits.
Zac is a country singer, songwriter, and bandleader, one of the brightest stars in a generation of performers changing the paradigm of the country music business. He's also a record producer, record label head, and philanthropist set on making the world a better place for as many people as possible. With his winning combination of country, bluegrass, reggae, and Caribbean music, he appeals to country fans and jam band hippies, and could well cross over to lovers of world music and pop. He sold over 30,000 copies of the first two self-produced albums he made for his own Southern Ground label, and "Chicken Fried," the Zac Brown Band's first single to get national distribution, went platinum and he hasn't stopped since!
Website:
]]>Tray is a member of the rapidly growing Wilkes region bluegrass band Cane Mill Road, who are up for IBMA's New Artist of the Year for 2019!
]]>Ryan Cavanaugh's innovative ideas of how and what is played on the 5-string banjo are occupied by few musicians alike.
"One of the best technical players ever."
- Béla Fleck, Elmore Magazine, 2011
Under the wings of jazz sax man Bill Evans, Cavanaugh meticulously developed a technical approach and songwriting craft entirely his own, while not compromising his instrument to play new genres.
"One of the best technical players ever."
- Béla Fleck, Elmore Magazine, 2011
Deering Tenbrooks Legacy 5-String Banjo
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In addition to making numerous critically acclaimed recordings, Holt is host of popular television programs including the PBS series David Holt’s State of Music, Folkways and Great Scenic Railway Journeys. He was featured in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou and was host of the Nashville Network’s Fire On the Mountain and American Music Shop. In 2016 David was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
We are honored to make David's Signature Deering banjo. It was designed together with his old time style of playing in mind. It is an openback with a 4" Deep rim, over an inch deeper than the average openback banjo and a Grenadillo wood tone ring. This gives the deep warm tones we like to hear in the old time Appalachian music.
Website:
davidholt.com
In 2008, Deering Banjos introduced the Terry Baucom Signature model banjo, while the Dunlop company also uses Baucom as an endorser, offering Terry Baucom custom sets of banjo strings. A testament to his influence is evident when you listen to countless younger generation banjo players who use Baucom signature licks and emulate his driving technique.
In addition to playing on numerous recording sessions and producing instructional materials, Baucom teaches banjo, face to face - both privately and in camp and workshop settings.
To hear more of Terry's music and see when he is playing near you head to http://www.terrybaucom.com/index.php
In 2019, Flemons was chosen to be a "Spotlight Artist" at the "Soundtrack of America" event curated by the World Renowned Quincy Jones, EMMY Award Winning Director Steve McQueen and their team. He was featured in the Bank of America and Ken Burns ‘Country Music’ commercial that airs regularly on PBS.
In 2018, Flemons released a solo album titled “Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys” on GRAMMY Award-winning record label Smithsonian Folkways and received a GRAMMY Nomination for “Best Folk Album” at the 61st GRAMMY Awards. This recording is part of the African American Legacy Recordings series, co-produced with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
The “Black Cowboys” album peaked at #4 on the BILLBOARD Bluegrass Charts and Flemons has been nominated for “2018 Artist of The Year” at the International Folk Music Awards, “Best Acoustic Album” at the 2019 Blues Music Awards, “Best Folk Album” at the 2019 Liberia Awards, and has won a 2019 Wammie Awards for “Best Folk Album”.
In 2018, he had his major solo debut on the Grand Ole Opry, on a night with Carrie Underwood and Old Crow Medicine Show, and has been included in the 2018 class of American Currents at the Country Music Hall of Fame Exhibit alongside Reba McEntire, Jeannie Seely, Chris Stapleton, Molly Tuttle, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Kane Brown, Dan Auerbach, Dan + Shay, John Prine and more.
Flemons was nominated for TWO EMMY's at the 2018 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Mid-America Awards for PBS Episode: Songcraft Presents Dom Flemons and for the co-written song “Good Old Days” with Songwriter Ben Arthur. He was the first Artist-in-Residence at the “Making American Music Internship Program” at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in the summer of 2018. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Folk Alliance International, Music Maker Relief Foundation and is a Governor on the Board of Directors for the Washington, D.C Chapter of the Recording Academy.
In 2017, Flemons was featured on David Holt’s State of Music on PBS and performed as bluesman Joe Hill Louis on CMT’s original television show “Sun Records”. In 2016, Flemons released a DUO album with British musician Martin Simpson titled “Ever Popular Favourites” on Fledg’ling Records. He launched a podcast, American Songster Radio, with two seasons on WUNC Public Radio and filmed two instructional DVD’s through Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop. In 2007 Flemons had an acting role as a Juke Joint Musician in and recorded songs for the Golden Globe nominated, Oprah Winfrey executive produced, Denzel Washington directed feature film The Great Debaters, starring Denzel and Forest Whitaker.
]]>Already known for her work alongside her father, country legend Glen Campbell — who, during his final years as a touring musician, leaned heavily on his youngest daughter as a banjo player, keyboardist and harmony vocalist — Ashley is now stepping out on her own. Her music is a mix of her wide-ranging influences, combining the old-school country sound popularized by her father during the '60s and '70s with contemporary Americana, rootsy folk and country-pop.
There's no denying her icon-ic country pedigree, but Ashley is attracting the spotlight these days with her style, talent and a unique sound all her own.
]]>Hank Smith grew up in South Carolina, and was a relatively latecomer to music, picking up the banjo at age sixteen. However, once he started playing, he was a man on a singular mission, studying the music of Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck with extreme tenacity.
“I was the kind of kid who would write research papers that were not assigned”, he laughs. “So, I kind of did my own independent study in banjo music”.
After completing an undergraduate and then a master’s degree in Middle Eastern History, Smith gave up the academic path to join the burgeoning jamgrass band Barefoot Manner, which brought him to the Raleigh area.
He fronts progressive acoustic & bluegrass related band, Hank, Pattie & The Current with fellow bandleader, Pattie Kinlaw, touring all over the US and beyond. Hank plays banjo in a neo-classical guitar & banjo duo act, Resonator, with HP&C guitarist, Billie Feather. He is also on faculty in the Music Department at The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, teaching banjo and bluegrass guitar as part of the recent Bluegrass Initiative.
Deering Maple Blossom 5-String
Eric was a school teacher, but by the time he and his brother reached their early 20’s the frequent requests for them to play shows and festivals made a decision inevitable. Eric took a leave of absence from teaching. “It was a hard decision,” he says, “You take the safety net out from under you. We couldn’t have accomplished what we have done if we hadn’t gone into it full bore. To be a good teacher, it has to be your passion, but music is my passion. I always felt pulled by the music. I felt I had to make the choice".
It turned out to be a wise choice. In 1998, The Gibson Brothers won the 1998 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year Award and that would not be the last! They later took home awards for Song of the Year, Album of the year, Vocal Group of the Year, Entertainers of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year through 2009-2017!.
To date the Gibson Brothers Band have successfully recorded 10 albums.
Many would say Eric and Leigh Gibson might have, pound-for-pound, the most impeccably fine-sounding traditional bluegrass band on the contemporary scene. ...the reason these guys can’t lose is that, quite simply, they sound so great. Eric and Leigh sing bluegrass’ tightest harmony blend, and, instrumentally the group plays with unmatched alacrity and taste.
Find out more of what The Gibson Brothers are up to and when they will be playing near you at gibsonbrothers.com
Banjo(s) Eric Plays:
Deering Tenbrooks Legacy
His custom Deering banjo known as "The Banjosaurus" was used for The Kingston Trio's CD Live At The Crazy Horse (released 1994).
The "Tom Dooley Banjo" was used for the Trio's Christmas album, Glad Tidings (released December, 2009). And his "Vega Kingston Trio 'George Grove'" was used for their CD Born At The Right Time (released February, 2012).
George says that his only problem with his Deering banjos is "which one shall I use? Each banjo has a distinctive voice and personality -- I wish I could tour with all three banjos!"
George has moved on from the Kingston Trio and putting together a new project called The Great American Folk Songbook.
In addition to his own albums, Worsham is a frequent studio collaborator and songwriter, having worked with Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Luke Combs, Vince Gill, Kacey Musgraves, Marty Stuart, Carrie Underwood, and Keith Urban among several others. Charlie was honored with the 2022 ACM Award for ‘Acoustic Guitar Player of the Year’, launched his Apple Radio show 'Pickers’, and is currently playing in Dierks Bentley’s touring band for the Gravel + Gold Tour.
Charlie is currently a member of Dierks Bentley's tour band. He is a former member of the band Old Crow Medicine Show.
His life to that point—his youth spent in Corinth and Clarksdale; his brief stay at Mississippi State University, where he dabbled in philosophy; and his stint traveling Old Man River with the Merchant Marines—were all preamble to the real Jimbo Mathus, the person he began looking for sometime between thumbing a borrowed paperback of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” and dropping out of college.
The ingredients were all there, thanks in part to Mathus’s father, who taught him the ropes of bluegrass, honky-tonk and gospel music. Not to mention the blues he absorbed on visits to Clarksdale where his grandfather, Tony Malvezzi, ran the Conerly shoe store chain. He motored through California, New York and Alaska, using his time off from the river barges to find a place where he fit in. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was funky and Southern enough, he thought, and it had a real music scene supported by local record labels and the University of North Carolina student body.
“I had a vague idea of what my career could be, but it was unformed,” Mathus says. “Chapel Hill just resonated with me. As soon as I found that, just on one of my travels on shore leave, I called back to Canal Barge Company on the pay phone, said ‘I quit,’ and stayed there. It was just one of those instinct things, I guess you'd say.”
Mathus’s intuition proved correct. Chapel Hill was not only a hotbed of musical activity, but also an intellectual enclave where he could learn all he wanted for free at the UNC library. Rents were cheap and minimum wage was relatively good for the era—$80 a month for a place to stay and five bucks an hour for his labors—and he set out to find the like-minded musicians who would eventually join him in his new band, Squirrel Nut Zippers.
“When I got up there, I was just wide-open,” he remembers. “I was trying to learn and trying to understand American music, how I fit in and what I was going to do with it. So, all the resources up there from literature to the music, it all helped me figure it out pretty quick.”
Built around an unlikely but infectious melding of American music styles, Squirrel Nut Zippers drew from be-bop jazz, bluegrass, Dixieland, swing and rock ‘n’ roll and became a surprise hit in the mid-1990s. The band’s 1996 album, Hot, sold more than a million copies in the U.S. alone, and the 1997 follow-up, Perennial Favorites, posted another half a million in sales. The Zippers played the White House, made the late-night television circuit and toured the world. But the band was swept into the short-lived swing-music revival, and when the fad ended their fortunes began to erode, culminating in Mathus’s divorce from bandmate Katharine Whalen and a hiatus beginning in 2001.
Mathus had been making trips back to Mississippi for years by then, where he immersed himself in Delta and Hill Country blues. He also learned of his connection to Charley Patton, one of the most influential blues artists of all time, through family friend and housekeeper Rosetta Patton, who Mathus learned was Charley’s daughter. The 1997 album Songs for Rosetta, credited to James Mathus and His Knockdown Society, paid tribute to her with a set of Delta blues songs.
“Rosetta is somebody I consider a relative, [and] I'm still close to her family,” he says. “Lo and behold, after all these years, I find out that she was the daughter of Charley Patton, the king of the Delta blues.
That's when I really staked my claim and thought, ‘Okay, I'm up here in North Carolina. I'm very much known for this retro band Squirrel Nut Zippers, but I'm going to go ahead and stake my claim to Mississippi music, where I'm from. I may not be living there right now, but I will be back there someday.’ Songs for Rosetta was like a manifesto for my future self.”
His dedication to learning the craft of the blues landed him a gig backing Buddy Guy, which is where he retreated when the Zippers imploded. Mathus threw himself into the work of touring on neutral ground, so to speak, until decamping for Clarksdale in 2003 to start his next chapter as owner of Delta Recording, a studio he set up in the storefront of the former Alcazar Hotel, where as a kid he watched Early Wright, the first Black radio disc jockey in Mississippi, spin records for WROX on the AM dial.
By Mathus’s account the building was in disrepair, with power that barely worked and drafty windows that blocked only some of the weather. In other words, “it was the perfect studio,” he recalls, and he recorded some 200 albums in the space. One of his highest-profile clients was Elvis Costello, who brought his band down from Oxford, where he was recording with Dennis Herring, and cut Delta-Verité — The Clarksdale Sessions, a seven-song bonus disc to Costello’s 2004 release The Delivery Man.
“It was just a really cool place with a lot of history to it,” he says. “I don't think anything like that could ever happen again. I got it at a cool time so it had the spirituality, the history of Early Wright being right there above it, and just a renegade vibe that really can't be replicated.”
Since those days in the early 2000s, Mathus has released more than a dozen solo albums and reactivated Squirrel Nut Zippers, which has become a popular draw across the U.S. His latest release, These 13 [2021], is a collaboration with former Zippers bandmate-turned-solo artist Andrew Bird.
Following a central tenet of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” that encourages a balance of rational and romantic impulses, Mathus spurned a scholarship to the U.S. Naval Academy to pursue his own path. That journey has taken him many unexpected places, but none more important than his self-discovery of the artist Jimbo Mathus.
“I guess my whole thing has been like some sort of serendipitous, a fool following his folly,” he says. “It's not like I calculated anything, you know?”
The Squirrel Nut Zippers
As a multi-instrumentalist (banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle) and solo entertainer, John has made over 40 albums (six solo) that have earned four platinum and four gold recognition awards, Grammy nominations and awards, CMA and ACM awards, Western Heritage Award, Emmy nomination, and IBMA record of the year award. In addition, John has performed on another 25 albums as guest artist. As 'a presenter', McEuen has produced over 250 concerts (his first one was Bob Dylan in 1965 at a long Beach high school).
John has known and worked with Steve Martin since high school years to the present. They both worked in Disneyland's Magic Shop as teenagers. John scored Steve's television specials, and arranged his music; The NGDB was the band on Steve's hit song, "King Tut. Recently, John's production of Steve's album The Crow - New Songs for the five-string banjo won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass album.
In celebration of John's 50 year career as a banjoist having played a Deering 30th Anniversary Banjo along with his Florentine for the past 10 years, John worked with Greg and Janet Deering to create a unique and special John McEuen Signature Model Banjo!
Find out more about what John is up to and when he will be performing near you at www.johnmceuen.com
]]>When in junior high Zambicki was hit by a car and fell into a coma, and once he woke, miraculously learned violin in 4 days through a rare brain trauma reorganization now known as Acquired Savant Syndrome: “If I could go back, I’d throw myself in front of the car,” Zambricki chuckles. Later on he began writing and one of his first songs was featured in the Sundance-awarded film Paper Heart.
Zambricki now plays Harmonica, Banjo, Mandolin, Fiddle and several other instruments, and is an energetic performer to boot! Magic Giant's album In The Wind threads together a musical cartography of alternative, pop, and folk. The instrumentation includes (get ready…) orchestral drums, banjo, trumpet, saxophone, harmonica, synthesizers, electric bass, cello, viola, violin, dobro, lap steel, mandolin, and more.
As a longtime guitar player Eric had not picked up the Banjo until May of 2013, when a solo Bela Fleck concert in San Francisco became the straw that broke the proverbial camels back, convincing him to go out and buy one the very next day. Since then he has been devoted to the beautiful craft of the Banjo, playing in both 3 finger and Clawhammer styles learning on his own and from Banjo great and personal hero Tony Trischka.
Nefesh Mountain has three recordings to date featuring friends and bluegrass greats Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tony Trischka, David Grier, Mark Schatz, Scott Vestal, and Rob Ickes among others. As a proud sponsor of Deering Banjos, Eric is devoted advocate for the 5 string banjo and it's importance and relevance in American music. Though the banjo has seldom been associated with or used in a Jewish context, Eric's innovative and modernized use of it with Nefesh Mountain is bridging the gap between American and Jewish traditions for generations to come.
Find out more about Eric & Nefesh Mountain, and when they will be playing near you at nefeshmountain.com.
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