Sugar Cane Dance

June 30, 2013 6:06 AM

An elegantly arranged banjo piece composed by Frank B. Converse for his 1886 Analytical Banjo Method.

posted by usonian (3 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

What a sweet tune. And well-played, although I say that as someone who knows precisely zip about banjo technique! It sounds lovely to my unrefined ear :)
posted by greenish at 3:47 AM on July 1, 2013


I love this. Is this a gourd with nylgut strings? Tell us about your banjo! I love the BWONG sound of the low fourth string and how these stroke-style tunes like to land on it at the end. You nail the rhythm too - all those triplets make it really interesting.

This is awesome and I hope you record more.
posted by fritley at 12:11 PM on July 3, 2013


Oh, thanks fritley! Yeah, that fourth string has a little bit of a buzz that I haven't chased down yet; I find fourth strings in general to be squirrely by virtue of being tuned so low for this music to begin with.

This was played on this tackhead banjo, which was made for me by Jeff Menzies. The rim is actually 3-ply laminated maple, which is not technically "period accurate"... but then neither is the figural peghead! The strings are nylgut.
posted by usonian at 5:01 AM on July 4, 2013


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