Finding Banjo players in your area

[Bell Banjos]

Wouldn't it be great if this site had some kind of state-by-state map or bulletin board or something to connect us lonely minstrel banjoists?  Hey, great to see you guys enjoying your banjos!

[Anthony G Spangler]

Say, sign me up!  I'm working with a couple of very good books, and I have some recordings to go with them, and I even have some software that lets me slow the music down, but I can't help but think nothing would be better than actually seeing someone playing one on one!

For what it's worth, I'm in the Indianapolis area.

Tony

[Al Smitley]

Terry.  I think that is a great idea as well, but as I found with my vintage base ball club, members are reluctant (and with good reason that I didn't consider)  to give too much personal information for fear of ID theft.

Maybe the state of residence would be alright, though......not sure.

[Anthony G Spangler]

That's a good point, Al.  As you've suggested, state of residence, and optionally, a relatively close metropolitan area (just so's the Cincinnati folks don't have to ride the canal all the way to Chicago :)  )  , and then members can PM each other to set things up, and not broadcast too much personal data?

Tony

Al Smitley said:

Terry.  I think that is a great idea as well, but as I found with my vintage base ball club, members are reluctant (and with good reason that I didn't consider)  to give too much personal information for fear of ID theft.

Maybe the state of residence would be alright, though......not sure.

[Bell Banjos]

Yes, Al, the identity theft is a big concern ( the State cops were at my house a couple weeks ago, someone got me for $600).  I had a map (I can't keep up anymore) of banjo buyers, and there are hot spots in the U.S. and strangely enough, these people in these 'hot' areas didn't even know any other minstrel players.

[Nicholas A Bechtel]

Yeah, It would be great to hook up with other players of the same style. I'm in Santa Barbara, Ca.

[Patrick Haas]

I also would like to find out about players in my area.   As Tony said, seeing someone play one on one and attempting to play with them would be of great benefit, at least to me. There are always those little tricks or techniques that show up in those sessions.  Have a couple of historic sites close by, (not as old as east coast or mid-west) that I think would be great places to have a small gathering of Minstrel banjo players.  I'm in Tacoma, WA.

[Nicholas A Bechtel]

Nice Gourd Banjo Patrick,..where did you get it?

[Patrick Haas]

Thanks.  Made by a friend, John Salicco, of Banjofactory.com.  Plays very nice

[Scott Johnson]

Most of the profiles of the members here have their city and state listed. I noticed that you can search for members by the latest ones to join or by alphabetical names. I wonder if you could set up a member search by state?

If not, someone would have to put the member list in a spreadsheet and do a sort by state.  That would be a bit of work, and not all members are still active.  But that is one possibility.