That's right, we're having a banjo workshop here in beautiful East Nashville at the East Nashville School of Music on Saturday February 28, 2009.

Instuctors will be the amazing Tony Trischka and yours truly... All banjo related topics to be covered. Bring your banjo!

Cost is $65 in advance and $75 at the door. Space is limited so sign up now!

To sign up - email ned@nedski.com or contact the East Nashville School of Music.

More info at nedski.com too.

Hope to see you there!

Ned

Ned Luberecki will be conducting a banjo workshop in association with the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS Wednesday, September 17 from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM.

Topics will include:

·         Tone and timing – right hand technique

·         Creating solos based on melody

·         Blending Scruggs, melodic and single string styles

·         Practice Tips

·         Banjo set-up

·         Stuff you ain't supposed to do on a banjo and more!

The workshop will take place at the First Baptist Church at the corner of Millington and 11^th in Winfield.

 For intermediate and advanced players. The Banjo workshop runs from 10:00 am. to 4:00 pm. with a 1½ hour lunch break. The cost is $60 per student with a maximum of 20 students.

For more information check the Walnut Valley Association's website at: http://www.wvfest.com/events/workshop.html or email ned for more details.

Hey look:

I made the cover story of Banjo Newsletter this month! Ian Perry did the interview and there are a few tabs in there too. "Last Chance" and "And Take Your Brother With You".

If you're not a BNL subscriber, you can go to their website at http://banjonews.com and request a free sample first issue. Do it this month (September 08) and maybe you'll get my issue.

If you're thinking of subscribing, allow me to encourage you. I've been reading this magazine for nearly 30 years and always find something interesting in its pages. Some of the top names in the banjo world write weekly columns (Like Tom Adams, Casey Henry, Jack Hatfield and Ken Perlman) with guest contributors like Tony Trischka, Alan Munde and yes... sometimes even me.

There are always tabs in both 3-finger and clawhammer style. Product reviews of the latest banjo gear, instruction, inspiration and feature articles about your favorite banjo players... yes... maybe even me!

I do want to take just a second and correct two typos in my feature story: first are my weekend hours on Sirius Satellite Radio's Bluegrass Channel. In the interview it shows my weekends hours from 4 AM to 9 PM (ouch) That should actually read 4 PM to 9 PM. Also the title of one of the songs from the CD is misspelled. In the article it lists "Ode To Earl" which is actually called "Owed To Earl". Pronounced the same, but with a slightly different meaning.

See ya on the radio,

Ned

Hey Gang,

Just a quick blog to let everyone know that I'm doing a few dates this January with Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time. Check my date list on the main page to see where and when... I've also included websites (when I could find them) for more info.

We get started this week in a few old haunts of mine. This Friday (1/11) is at the Pennyroyal Opry House in Fairview, OH. I used to play the Pennyroyal with the Rarley Herd and it's also the first road gig I ever played with Chris Jones and the Night Drivers. http://www.pennyroyaloperahouse.com/ for more info.

Next on Saturday night (1/12) it's the Mountaineer Opry in Milton, WV. I haven't played here since the Herd days, but this was a regular stop back in the old days with Paul Adkins and the Borderline Band (does anybody remember that band?). In fact, I remember one of the first times I played there with Paul, our opening act was a then unknown Rarely Herd (it may have been one of their first gigs!). http://www.mountaineeropry.com for more info.

Next week there are a few more dates in NC, KY and TN (Including the Blue Plate Special at WDVX in Knoxville). Check the date list for more info.

Allright... Better get back to practicing. Cordle doesn't do too many standards in his set (he IS a songwriter you know!). Although, some of his songs are standards now (Highway 40 Blues, Murder on Music Row, etc.) This is gonna be fun!

Ned 

A couple of weeks ago, while I was on tour with Tony Trischka, Tony showed me a CD that I hadn't seen yet. It was Alan Munde's latest called "Old Bones". So we got in the car to drive to Pennsylvania and put it in the CD player... I'll bet we listened to it 4 times straight through. We dug it so much we even called Alan and left him a voice mail. Something to the effect of "We're not worthy".

The CD is a collection of a bunch of stuff that Alan had recorded through the years, some with the Country Gazette, some recorded at South Plains College (Where Alan was a banjo professor for 20 years) and all of it filled with the coolest Alan Munde banjo playing you ever heard!

A few of my personal favorites are his second solo in "Miles and Miles of Texas", "Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie" (I'm a sucker for those Bb without a capo tunes) and of course the title cut "Old Bones" featuring the soulful singing and amazing rhythm guitar playing of Adam Granger and easily the coolest jazzy/swingy/chock-full-o-melancholy style banjo playing I've ever heard by Alan. I know that my banjo has those same notes on it... by my fingers and brain can't seem to find them.

The reason I'm writing this today is that I just got my copy in the mail today (thanks Alan!) and am listening to it all over again. If you're an Alan Munde fan, you gotta get this one. 

Later,

Ned

So last night, on the Tony Trischka Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular Tour we played at a club in New York called "The Cutting Room" and who shows up as our special guest? Steve Martin! Yes, THAT Steve Martin, to pick a few on the banjo with us.

For those of you who might not know, when I got my first banjo for Christmas (I think it was 1978) I also got my first two Steve Martin albums ("Let's Get Small" and "Wild and Crazy Guy"). And have actually been a big fan of Steve's banjo playing my whole banjo playing life. (And, of course a fan of Steve's comedy and acting too)

Steve played a couple of songs on Tony's Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular CD, and since then Tony has appeared a few times on TV with Steve (Letterman and Ellen). Tony and Steve still stay in contact.

So yesterday, Tony emailed Steve to let him know that we were performing in New York on the off-chance that Steve might be in town. As luck would have it, he was!

Steve arrived at the club just before showtime and we rehearsed "The Crow" (Steve's tune from Tony's CD). On TV Steve played this with Tony doing the second harmony part and Bela Fleck playing the high third part (Back in October Tony, Bela and I played this on stage with me playing Steve's part). This time I got to play Bela's part in the triple banjo extraviganza. We asked Steve if he wanted to play anything else and he started into a tune from his "Steve Martin Brothers" album (which was one full album side of banjo tunes) called "Pitkin County Turnaround". After Steve played his solo, I played a solo on it too... Steve seemed surprized that I knew it, and I explained to him that I had learned it years ago, from his record.

We got Steve up on stage near the end of the first set and played "The Crow" then had a 'dramatic reading' of a poem/song that Bela, Tony and Steve had written about double banjos, then we played "Pitkin County Turnaround".

Steve must have been enjoying himself because he stayed through the break and for the whole second set. He even got back up with us and played "Shuckin' the Corn"! How cool is that?!?

I'm still in shock a little bit about this whole summer... Not ony have I been touring with my biggest banjo hero ever (Tony) but he has also had me play on stage with two of my other biggest heros Bela and Steve.

Thanks Tony! And Bela and Steve... This has all been a whirlwind for me (I suspect that later this winter I'll get over the initial shock of it all). There's a few photos here on the myspace page of the show. As for now... we're heading out to Fairfield CT for another big double banjo show. This really is living a dream for me. More later,

Ned

Ok banjo fans... This time I am typing this from Tony Trischka's living room. I've been on the road with Tony since the Friday after Thanksgiving (it's Wednesday night now) and we've still got a few shows left to do.

The first part of the tour was with a different band than usual, with Luke Bulla on Fiddle, Lincoln Meyers on guitar and Skip Ward on bass. Talk about a treat! Luke Bulla is amazing on fiddle and a great singer too. Luke regularly plays with Jerry Douglas' band and I've known him for a while now, but this is the first time we've gotten to play, or really to spend any time together. Nothing like being thrown into a road trip to see how you'll get along with somebody! (We got along fine by the way).

And Lincoln Meyers... Wow! What a find there! Great guitarist from the Northeast who I first met in Holland a few years ago while he was on tour there with the New England Bluegrass Band (whom he still tours with). Lincoln is joining April Verch's band soon and I'm looking forward to hearing him with her. Great player and a great guy... He has a website too: lincolnmeyers.com

The first few shows that I played with Tony, my old buddy Jon Weisberger was the bass player... This time it was Skip Ward (from NYC) who has been playing with Tony for a while. Again, a great player and a great guy to hang with. It's always a better trip when you enjoy the people you are travelling with... Don'tcha think?

Anyway, that was the first half of the tour. Tomorrow we play in New York City at the Cutting Room with Tony's "regular" band and the one that I played with in TN and KY with Michael Daves on guitar and Brittany Haas on fiddle. This is mostly the same band that we played IBMA with (except that Skip is on bass instead of Jon W.) If you haven't heard Tony with Brittany and Michael yet... Go see them! Even if I'm not playing (really!). Michael is one of the most poweful singers you'll hear and Brittany's fiddling is just amazing! I'm really thankful to Tony for inviting me along in the first place... but also for getting me out with all these great musicians, whom I might not have ever played with otherwise.

Well, I've got an early day at Sirius in NYC tomorrow... so I'd better get off to bed. There's a few pictures from the Trischka tour earlier this year in my photo album and I'll try to post more from this trip soon. Maybe even another blog if I get the time.

Later,

Ned

Well, here I go... On the road again. Here I go... Up on the stage (that really ought to be a song)

Ain't technology wonderful? I'm sitting in the passenger side of a borrowed SUV as I'm writing this, on the way up Interstate 95 through the state of Maine on-route to Rogersville New Brunswick, Canada with the Mark Newton Band. Mark called me a while ago to fill in on banjo on this tour which took us from Nashville to East Hartford, CT and then to Ogunquit ME and finally on to Rogersville NB before we head back home in a few days. It's been a lot of traveling for me... I had just returned home from 4 days in Newfoundland with Chris Jones and the Night Drivers on Monday night. Got home, did some laundry and got right in a van (at 4AM) to drive right back up to northeast Canada! (All this after a Caribean cruise to start the year, a trip to Europe, New Mexico and west Texas... Whew!)

The band has been a lot of fun to travel with. Along with Mark it's Clay Hess on Guitar (Clay is leaving soon to replace Clay Jones in Mountain Heart) Beth Lawrence on Bass and Sierra Hull on Mandolin. These are some GREAT players and I'm just doing my best to hang on! Mark has some great material (I know some of it from what I play in Sirius, but I've had to learn some songs as we go too). Also, look for a new CD from Sierra soon. She's a fantastic mandolin player and quite a singer as well. Keep and eye out for her... I'm expecting great things.

Here's the hard part of the tour... We played tonight in Ogunquit until about 10:00pm. Now we're driving all night to Rogersville in order to play a set at the festival tomorrow at 3:00pm. 500 miles... Ouch! This is the real glamorous part of the job. One bright side, I still have some Canadian money left from last weeks trip to Newfoundland with the Night Drivers.

Not a lot to say really... I just had the laptop out and plugged into the phone so I HAD to check my MySpace. Just two days at the festival and then we pile back into the van and point it south again to Nashville for our long journey home... Hey, wait... That's another song lyric right?

Sleep well...

Nedski