Portraits 3

Click on image for larger view Mike Hoppley old time frailing banjo player 08. Frailing is an old style often associated with Amercan settlers and hillbilly dance music, long before bluegrass and jazz banjo. Mike studies these styles and plays a banjo from the 1830s. These original banjos (which came to America with the African slaves) have gut strings, no frets (like a fiddle) and animal skin drums. My banjo was made in 1885 and frailing takes years to master, if ever.
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'You spend your whole life learning to frail then you die'.
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'I'd rather be an old timey frailer than a frailing old timey'.
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Listen on UTube by entering Old Time Banjo.