Joel Mabus - Banjo Monologues

Joel Mabus on the banjo: Butt of jokes, mother of popular instruments.

Next time you think of telling a banjo joke, remember that the instrument you're maligning has long been a part of American music.

Joel Mabus realizes that the banjo is "the butt of all the jokes,'' he said.

Mabus, a nationally known singer/songwriter and expert picker who lives in Portage, will be giving a lecture on the history of the banjo as well as a banjo workshop at Saturday's Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival. He'll also perform selections from his upcoming CD, ``The Banjo Monologues,'' during his lecture.

Most modern banjo stereotypes involve rural folk, like the big-eared picker in the movie "Deliverance,'' or jokes such as this one, found in a list of hundreds on bluegrassbanjo.org: "How many banjo players does it take to eat a possum? Two, one to eat it and one to watch for cars.''

But banjo jokes go back to its early days as an African-American instrument and its use in blackface minstrel shows of the late 1800s. "A lot of them, and I've heard them all, are basically jokes about poor people, or poor black people,'' Mabus said. "A lot of them are just fill-in-the-blank with who you want to make fun of.''

You can listen to clips from his forthcoming CD here: The Banjo Monologues. You'll also find transcripts of the lyrics and monologues, liner notes, and even the banjo tunings.

Who might this CD appeal to? Well, if you are a fan of the banjo, especially in the clawhammer style, this was made for you. If you are a fan of oldtimey country music in general, you would like to hear the stories of WLS barn dance and my folks working for them doing road shows in downstate Illinois. Also stories of the Crazy Water Crystal folks and other characters. I also talk about the "inner life" of a tune and the questions of repetition and variation -- again, why the banjo matters.

Must have this CD.