"Funnily, I was contacted by Tim Twiss yesterday. He's finally retired and just completed a new book/compilation of early banjo tunes... For me, the loss of the Antietam Early Banjo Gathering meant steep decline in my early banjo playing. I…"

"I'm only 4 months behind, but I thought I'd mention that it seems to have worked! ;-}"

"I still check this site now and then. Been playing mostly 3-finger style and claw-hammer banjo lately but still pick up my early banjo once in a while to keep my hand in. I have run into a couple of young folks (late teens to early 20's) at…"

"I believe Facebook groups has diverted much attention away from these old style message boards.  Sadly, Facebook groups are impossible to search for old discussions and info and they glitch out often.  The whole experience is designed to…"

"“Nulla dies sine nota.” Stop by for a visit if you feel like it.... https://youtube.com/@pauldraperbanjo"

"It didn't take long.  As soon as a song gained some popularity, song sheets came out using that melody about news events of the day.  The song sheets must've had a very short window of sales opportunities as, when the next news…"

"Al, thanks for that!  I had not thought about later musicians applying new non-rascist lyrics to the older melodies. That makes sense. Like Brian, I usually played only the melodies anyway without singing.  Lately I have been into some of…"

"I'll add that even the Hutchinson Family Singers, who felt the minstrel show and songs vulgar and racially distasteful, used minstrel melodies to which they added abolitionist words."

"A lot of topical songs of the era (in the form of song sheets) used minstrel melodies to fashion their words to.  Some of them are not so nice either but that is one way to get around minstrel lyrics if you still enjoy the melodies....and I…"

"Brian, yes I still run my mountain dulcimer site at  https://fotmd.com/ - fifteen years now, and it's still quite active and fun.  😀"

"Strumelia, It is sad that you have stopped playing music.  Some of those old tunes are nice tunes if you just drop the lyrics. I have been playing Whistling Rufus for a number of years now, but did not even know that it had lyrics. I just…"

"I confess I've not been playing music. Life has set me to various new or revisited focuses. Those weird cycles we go through in life! Though this bothers me, it doesn't seem to bother me enough to do something about it right now. 🤷  I…"

"I've kinda floated over to playing more clawhammer. Admittedly, I've neglected the minstrel. But hey, this gives me reason enough to pick it up again & start posting more videos."

"LOL. "Hoist with my own petard""

"(_)=='=~If only the best bird sang, the forest would be a very quiet place."