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Nashville, Tenn. — Hadley Music Group Records has announced the release of Red Grass by Ilya Toshinskiy.

Toshinskiy, who moved as a teenager to Nashville from the former Soviet Union, rapidly worked his way up as a top session musician in Nashville, performing with a who's who of Nashville music stars on guitar and banjo. Although primarily employed as a guitar session musician, he considers banjo his first instrument. ...

Milwaukee, Wi. — Hal Leonard has released The Banjo Pub Songbook. The book features a collection of rousing Irish folksongs that have been sung in pubs for generations.

The arrangements in this 35-song collection include the vocal ...

Kansas City, Mo. - Clawhammer banjo author, performer and instructor Dan Levenson will be holding a banjo workshop in Kansas City on May 24, 2016. The event is being held at Bradford & Franzke Fine Instruments Fret Shop and is co-sponsored by B&F Fret Shop and Banjo Cafe. ...

Winchester, Va. — The 4th Annual Murphy Method Women's Banjo Camp will be held July 29-31 at the Courtyard Marriott Winchester Medical Center. Led by Murphy Method artists Murphy and Casey Henry, the camp is an all women, all levels ...

Pacific, Mo. — Mel Bay Publications is set to release Beyond the Waterfall: Extraordinary Tunes for Fiddle and Clawhammer Banjo, a new book by Dan Levenson.

The focus of the book is on lesser played tunes. It contains a collection of 40 challenging, ...

The highly anticipated new album by clawhammer player and singer/songwriter Kaia Kater is being released in May 2016.

The album, titled Nine Pin is Kaia's first full-length studio album. It contains 15 tracks and to a large extent showcases her own ...

When it comes to all things banjo, Bill Evans is the consummate triple threat. The guy plays, teaches, and is a historian of the banjo. He continues to maintain a busy touring schedule these days with the likes of such luminaries as flatpicking legend Dan Crary and banjo master Alan Munde. And in addition to his frequent workshop teaching gigs across the country as well as giving private lessons (not to mention being the bluegrass banjo instructor for Peghead Nation), Bill literally wrote the book for budding new banjo players wondering how to unsort it all: his immensely popular Banjo for Dummies, followed by the equally well-acclaimed Bluegrass Banjo for Dummies. As an ambassador of the banjo, few people are equal to Bill Evans.
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It wasn't hard to locate banjo players among the singer/songwriters roaming the crowded halls of the most recent Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City. Just about everywhere you looked, you'd see aspiring young musicians, often women, with an open-back banjo flung over their shoulder. But if you were hoping to hear skilled players amidst the banjo-toting crowd, that required a bit more effort to find.
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Joe Spann is a life-long card carrying banjo player with a professional background in genealogical and historical research, staff and facility management, fiscal planning and collection development. He is the author of Spann's Guide to Gibson 1902-1941.
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The Evie Ladie Band is set to release a new CD on May 6, 2016 that showcases the talents of well-known clawhammer banjo player and instructor Evie Ladin. Ladin fronts the band and writes the lyrics for the original songs featured on the CD, titled ...