CW’s Old Time Banjo Page

Have some old time banjo at your party or event!

Old time banjo works well outdoors and without amplification. Or I can bring a mic. Email: nevadamusic.com@me.com

At the height of the early minstrel era, the mid 1860s, banjoist Charley Rhoades enjoyed huge popularity in California.

You will enjoy the banjo’s unique sound. And you will help keep alive one of America’s fundamental root music forms. I play a mixture of old time dance tunes and instrumental version of old-time songs. Some of the material goes back to the time of the American Revolution.

By the 1880s, Lotta Crabtree had become one of the top entertainers in the nation. She learned old-time banjo in California as a child during the late 1850s and early 1860s.

You can read about the old time banjo during California’s early minstrel era–the 1850s and 60s–in my book: The Strychnine Banjo. Read that book and my other books at Nevadamusic.com For discussion of the old time banjo today, see my essay: “Memories Of The Five String Old Time Banjo.”

Most of the tunes I play are well-known in the old time banjo world…tunes like:

  • Boatman
  • Snowy Deer
  • Little Rabbit
  • Colored Aristocracy
  • Shove That Pig’s Foot A Little Further In The Fire
  • Ebenezer
  • Pigtown Fling
  • Little Liza
  • Red Haired Boy
  • Turkey In The Straw
  • Spotted Pony
  • Liberty
  • West Fork Gals
  • Chinese Breakdown
  • Forked Deer
  • Tam Lin
  • Cold Frosty Morning
  • Bonaparte Crossing the Rockies
  • Cumberland Gap
  • ………………………………………and lots more.