Deering Live RSS

Mark Johnson is the creator of the Clawgrass style of playing clawhammer banjo which allows him to play in the clawhammer style in other genres than old time, such as bluegrass and more. In this episode Mark will be playing some tunes and talking about how to incorporate triplets and other licks in double tunings such as double C, D, and E. Be sure to tune in!

Ketch Secor is a founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show, a Grammy Award winning group that has been inducted as members of the Grand Ole Opry. Ketch is a mutiinstrumentalist whose first instrument was a banjo but is also...

International Banjo Champion Kyle Tuttle is shredding his way through the jamgrass scene. Since moving to Nashville in 2012 Kyle has shared the stage with many epic performers, most notably as a member of the Jeff Austin Band for 3...

Evie Ladin’s polyrhythmic clawhammer banjo style, resonant voice, and percussive dance have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Celtic Connections, Lincoln Center to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Known as a driving force behind San Francisco’s Stairwell Sisters, Evie has four solo CDs that feature her banjo playing and songwriting. Raised on fiddlers’ conventions and square dances, Evie’s playing is firmly grounded in tradition, while taking the instrument into new territory. A popular instructor at many music camps, Evie is also a clawhammer banjo instructor for Peghead Nation .

We are happy to have songwriter, singer, 5-string banjo player, and banjo uke player Valerie June back on Deering Live. Valerie recently wrote a children's book that is published by Third Man Books called "Somebody To Love: The Story Of...

We're happy to welcome Catherine BB Bowness, from the band Mile Twelve, back to Deering Live to give where she is going teach us about "Movable Harmonic Shapes" on the 5-string banjo. These are shapes such as chord positions or...

Michael Miles is back on Deering Live to demonstrate and teach us about how rhythmically versatile the clawhammer style of playing the 5-string banjo can be and how this style can be utilized to play many different genres of music....

Jake Blount is an award-winning musician and scholar. He is a recipient of the prestigious Steve Martin Banjo Prize, and a two-time winner of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival (better known as Clifftop).

He is a specialist in the early folk music of Black Americans, and his latest record, The New Faith, was released on September 23, 2022 as part of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings' African American Legacy Series, in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

On this episode of Deering Live we will dig into the life and music of 5-string bluegrass banjoist Rudy Lyle. Rudy Lyle played banjo with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys and made major contributions to bluegrass banjo but has largely been forgotten. Banjoist and member of Peter Rowan's Bluegrass Band, Max Wareham decided to help change this and wrote a book that talks about Rudy's career and banjo style and includes easy to read banjo tab of Rudy's playing.

Deering Live is honored to host the Steve Martin Banjo Prize 2022! Jamie and David from Deering Live will be joined by special guest Alison Brown as we reveal the 2022 Steve Martin Banjo Prize winners.

This episode of Deering Live is presented by the Freshgrass Foundation and Compass Records. 

Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe's acclaimed "latingrass" band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants.

With his summer 2021 release of GRIT & POLISH Mark Schatz once again proves he’s true a ‘renaissance man’ of the acoustic music world. A two-time winner of the IBMA Bass Player of the Year Award, Mark is best known...

We're glad to feature Enda Scahill from We Banjo 3 on Deering Live this Thursday, Oct. 6th at 4pm ET/1am PT.

Colton Crawford is the banjo player from Canadian roots music four-piece, the Dead South - A rock band without a drummer, a bluegrass band without a fiddler. Their sound, built on a taut configuration of cello, mandolin, banjo, and guitar,...

Making her long-awaited debut on Deering Live, Mean Mary James joins us to talk about her new album 'Portrait of a Woman (Part 1)'. Mary has a truly fascinating story and as well as being a fantastic banjo player also boasts guitar and fiddle in her resume and is equally skilled on all three. This promises to be a truly entertaining episode!

Tune in this week on Deering Live to see multi-award-winning bluegrass banjo icon, Kristin Scott Benson as she will have a special announcement!

Jake Sawicki is the banjo player for the self-described thrash grass band, The Native Howl who hail from Leonard, MI. Their 2016 release of "Thrash Grass" unleashed the newly-coined genre of the same name, combining the aggressiveness and intensity of thrash metal with the melodicism and precision of bluegrass. Jake is here to talk about pushing the boundaries of how a banjo can be used, appearing on the TV Show "No Cover" and spending the last few months touring with shock rockers GWAR.

We're very excited to feature the longtime banjoist for Alison Kraus & Union Station, Ron Block, on Deering Live. When it comes to bluegrass banjo, Ron is simply one of the best in the business. His feel, tone, and timing drive the music that is rooted deeply in tradition but continues to push it into the future.

Dan is a long-time Deering artist and if you are not familiar with him, he has a fascinating approach to playing banjo. This episode will be well worth tuning in for!

Trajan "Tray" Wellington joins us on Deering Live on the eve of his greatly anticipated solo effort, "Black Banjo", which is available from May 13th! In this episode, Tray talks to us about the inspiration behind "Black Banjo", and discusses his own experiences as a black banjo player in bluegrass music.

Michael J Miles is a composer and musician who grew up in the heart of urban Chicago and teaches at the infamous Old Town School of Music. His inner jukebox spins with 500 years of pop songs on late night radio, infused with conversations about poetry, politics, and singing around the piano with his Irish family. These songs turn into setlists, and compositions and as they say, the rest is history.

Michael is an electrifying performer, educator, and bender of genres. You simply have to hear him play.