Tag: banjo

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Iron Giant Free Association Record Release

Iron Giant Free Association is celebrating the release of their first record, Terry Riley’s In C with a free, in-store performance at Seasick Records on Thursday. I’m one of the special guests invited to join the group for the performance. Other guests include John Albea, Mika Carpenter, Jim Fahy, Justin Greene, Davis Little, Melissa Noble and more.

Thursday, September 4, 2025 6pm
Iron Giant Free Association plus special guests
Seasick Records
3131 5th Ave South
Birmingham AL
Record release party for Terry Riley’s In C

Seasick will host an album listening party for David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? at 5pm on the same day. Byrne’s tune “The Avant Garde” makes a great intro to the event:

“There’s only one place, that’s the avant garde
I wanna go there
I wanna go there
I’ll take you with me
The things that we’ll see
Just look around and you will observe
It’s a passionate life, it’s ahead of the curve”

Come for Byrne; stay for Riley.

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Guitar Fest

The East Village Guitar Festival kicks off this weekend. The event will feature over 20 local and regional guitarists. On Friday I’ll be bringing my banjo/electric guitar hybrid to perform a set of improvisations similar to the pieces on my 2021 Tell A Gossip recording from Tape Drift Records. Also playing Friday will be Killick & Klimchak. Saturday’s event will feature Taylor Hollingsworth and Jupiter.

Friday and Saturday April 4-5 2025
East Village Guitar Festival
East Village Arts
7611 1st Ave N
Birmingham AL 35206

YouTube player

This event was originally scheduled for mid-March but had to be postponed due to weather. Read more at Bham Now and Birmingham365.

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Gravity Clocks

Close up of an electric guitar with a hand resting on top of it. The image has a shallow depth of field so the body of the guitar and the hand are the only elements in focus.

I’m looking forward to performing tomorrow on a concert highlighting free improvisation and electronic music. The show will include Sam Herman, Aaron Johnson, and LaDonna Smith.

Tuesday, March 18, 2025 7pm
An Evening of Free Improvisation and Electronic Music
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Hulsey Recital Hall
950 13th Street South
Birmingham AL

I’ll be performing material similar to the pieces on my 2021 Tell A Gossip recording from Tape Drift Records.

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Twelfth Day of Christmas

It’s Epiphany, the last day of Christmas, so it’s my last chance this season to share the Composer’s Voice Holiday Show presented by Vox Novus.

YouTube player

My banjo tune “Shepherd’s Crook” kicks it off. Stay tuned for vocal music, chamber music, arrangements of holiday favorites, and even a piece by Stockhausen!

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Smoot’s Good Foot

Here’s a funky tune from my recent collaboration with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis. We’ve been working for the last year on a group of new old-time tunes. We’ve performed them in a series of concerts beginning in Spring 2024, and we plan to release a recording of them soon. Here’s a performance of my tune “Smoot’s Good Foot” from our concert at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega.

YouTube player
Smoot’s Good Foot; Esther Morgan-Ellis, fiddle; Holland Hopson, banjo

Here’s the tablature for the banjo part and a representative melody line.

Download Tablature for Smoot’s Good FootDownload

Notes About This Tune

  • “Smoot’s Good Foot” is in D, played in Double D tuning (aDADE) using the clawhammer style.
  • This is a deeply crooked tune that nonetheless has a great groove.
  • I usually play the quieter, groovier, unpredictable A part as many times as I like, before signaling to move to the louder, straighter B part.
  • Esther and I have been playing “Smoot’s Good Foot” as the closing tune for a set.
  • The tune gets its name from MIT student Oliver R. Smoot, for whom the smoot unit of measure was named. See Robert Tavernor’s Smoot’s Ear: The Measure of Humanity for more.

Give the tune a try, and add a comment to let me know what you think!