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LISTEN: Stephen Wade’s Banjo Diary

The roots music expert’s latest album is finger-picking good

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  • By Leah Binkovitz
  • Smithsonian magazine, January 2013, Subscribe
 
Steven Wades new CD <i>Banjo Diary Lessons from Tradition</i>.
Steven Wade's new CD Banjo Diary Lessons from Tradition. (Smithsonian Folkways)

Audio Gallery

Sneak Preview: Banjo Diary: Lessons from Tradition by Stephen Wade


It’s hard to think of anyone who knows more about the banjo than Stephen Wade, the roots music expert who has played, studied and evangelized the instrument for five decades. He developed the one-man song-and-dance theatrical show Banjo Dancing (and performed it at the White House in 1979). On his debut CD for Smithsonian Folkways, Banjo Diary: Lessons from Tradition, released
in September, Wade passes on what he has learned from a lifetime of seeking out American music
at its roots, from his native Chicago to deep in the Appalachians.


It’s hard to think of anyone who knows more about the banjo than Stephen Wade, the roots music expert who has played, studied and evangelized the instrument for five decades. He developed the one-man song-and-dance theatrical show Banjo Dancing (and performed it at the White House in 1979). On his debut CD for Smithsonian Folkways, Banjo Diary: Lessons from Tradition, released
in September, Wade passes on what he has learned from a lifetime of seeking out American music
at its roots, from his native Chicago to deep in the Appalachians.

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Related topics: Folk


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Comments (2)

I echo comment #1. What happened?

Posted by dawn wyman on January 11,2013 | 06:55 PM

After reading the Smithsonian magazine and the banjo article, I went to listen to the banjo. Guess what? Nothing. Thanks.

Posted by Tom Upton on December 31,2012 | 05:31 PM



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