Wabash Minstrels

[Tim Twiss]

Anybody seen this one before?

http://vanishedhand.blogspot.com/

 

Scroll down and look for the musicians on the ship.

[Ian Bell]

What a great photo. If one wanted to re-open the A/G tuning can of worms, the presence of the flute might suggest pitch the banjo might have been tuned to. (on that day, anyway) In the hands of most folk musicians (like myself, and the guy in the picture too judging by his posture) simple system flutes are awkward to play in A major and even more awkward to play in E major. D and G  are their home keys. So if these guys were really playing together and not just posing I'll bet the banjo was tuned to G - on that afternoon. If these fellows were the crew of that impressive gun behind them, they were probably deaf as fenceposts anyway.