#thatbanjobusiness

[kingofthewilderwest]

My country music record collecting obsession contributing to Gravity Falls meta was not on my 2024 bingo card but here we go.

One of the earliest country musicians with some sway in the 1920s was Riley Puckett, though I highly, highly doubt that "Pluckin' Jim" Puckett references him.

They used an image of George Jones. Pretty dang famous and respected to this day. Nnnnot exactly some classic yodeler, but known for his Great Voice.

"Hillbilly" was the official name of the genre until the mid-1940s. Yodeling was big in the 1920s and 30s because everyone wanted to be Jimmie Rodgers, but it had a mainstay with the singing cowboy movies - the Gene Autries and Roy Rogerses. They stretched yodeling through the 40s, but by the 50s, yodeling wasn't Country Central. But rock-and-roll was breaking out of country at this time.

George got rolling in the mid-50s and broke out by the end of the decade, so we're not out of the ballpark for some of the joke references. And hey! I will take the George Jones Easter Egg!

George Jones's presence doesn't feel targeted - they tossed him on to make sure their "Cipher is Real" cover was distinct from The Real Deal. See, The Book of Bill is referencing a notorious album cover. Notorious. 75% of what you see is cut-and-paste from the real deal. I love the reference and it's inspired. But in "Cipher Is Real" being an imitation, it's almost a downgrade. "Haddock, what can be zanier than Bill the Over-Toasted Demon Nacho usurping a country album?" May I burn a fantastic new image in your mind.

Move over, "Cipher Is Real." Make way for "Satan Is Real."

This is not parodic. They did this cover. Please give it up for the (highly talented) Louvin Brothers with their 1959 album Satan Is Real.

Let me stress that this masterpiece is not edited. The brothers painted, crafted, and erected sixteen-foot-tall plywood!Satan themselves. Then they just. Set fire to kerosene-drenched tires in an old rock quarry behind their house and posed.

[thatbanjobusiness]

What piece of bluegrass do you think best fits the description of "banjo music plays menacingly in the distance"?

After months sitting here being like, "I need to think of a better answer..." I suddenly remembered.

Oh duh.

Banjo Odyssey, The Dead South.

Not prototypical bluegrass but people can eat my Scruggs rolls, this is a fantastic answer.

[peachdoxie]

@thatbanjobusiness

me when i hear a single pluck on a banjo:

[kingofthewilderwest]

top 5 songs featuring a banjo

Oh. Oh. AUGH. What a prompt. What a PROMPT. Oh this is hard. I love this. This. This is good. But AUGH!

I will be sitting here in pained indecision forever unless I create my own restrictions.

I am taking the brash liberty of changing this to top 5 songs featuring Earl Eugene Scruggs on banjo. And rapidly writing some of the first songs I recall before I get into debates with myself over the top 300 songs I love.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown (1949)

Flint Hill Special (1952)

Brother, I'm Getting Ready to Go (1951)

Dear Old Dixie (1952)

Shuckin' the Corn (1957)

I'm a basic bitch but I regularly scream and collapse into a puddle of crying Haddock at these ones so I think that's a great list.

Also gotta shout out the iconicness of Molly and Tenbrooks, the sweet sweet juiciness of Earl Boi playing Sally Goodin unaccompanied, Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms (HOW IS THIS NOT ON THE TOP FIVE AUGHHH????!?!?! IT SHOULD BE! FIVE IS A SMALL NUMBER! FIVE IS AN OFFENSIVE NUMBER! UGH THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BL--- [voice fades into garbled cries of Haddock outcries]), Polka on a Banjo because it's just so happy, My Saro Jane though that's more about the energy of the song as a whole, and Nashville Blues for being the first song I tried learning on banjo (and did good for my newbness, for the record! yaaaaay~)

And now I'm going to be listening to Flatt and Scruggs all day at work THANKS A LOT ughhhh why does the banjo have to BE SO DELICIOUS I WANT TO CONSTRICT AND SWALLOW IT WHOLE LIKE A PYTHON AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[thatbanjobusiness]

I caved and bought a novel that combines two of my passion areas. I'm not expecting a masterpiece, but you had me at "an encounter with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys makes the POV character realize he has to time-travel back to his previous life as a samurai" because that's a sentence you read every day

[kingofthewilderwest]

Watching the ATLA chibi shorts for the first time in my life. It's hard to concentrate on the events of the swamp skiing. I'm distracted by the fact this entire soundtrack is Scruggs-style banjo.

[peachdoxie]

@thatbanjobusiness

[thatbanjobusiness]

One of the funniest ways to start a war would be to go to bluegrassers and tell them harmonica is the forgotten bluegrass instrument

[kingofthewilderwest]

I assume

You like banjo

assumption meme

Me????????????? NOoOOoOooooo not at all, I've never looked at a banjo in my life, I've never cradled one in my arms, I've never cried in the direction of a well-timed forward roll, I've never gazed at photographs of banjos with longing, I've never gone to craiglist and marketplace to look at banjos, your assumption is most certainly false.

[thatbanjobusiness]

Was watching a video of a pole dance routine and made me curious: what bluegrass song would be the best for a pole dance routine?

I have been sitting on this for a month, trying to think of hilarious songs to combine pole dancing with. Sadly, my creativity has failed to produce a winner response. But I will say:

All of them.

All of them.

There is not a single bluegrass song that wouldn't be fantastic with pole dancing.

It's fantastic you say this,,, because my sister's been learning pole dancing. Whether she likes it or not, I think I'll have to invade her space with bluegrass. >:D

[peachdoxie]

@thatbanjobusiness

for your consideration: kermiku.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Given your learning of the banjo, have you ever been pleasantly surprised to 'encounter' a banjo in a song outside the expected genera? I still have to remind myself there's one in Dropkick Murphy's Rose Tattoo lol.

Heck yeah, absolutely! <3 I expect banjo in Celtic or Americana-related material, but there's nothing as satisfying as catching banjo in pop punk or soundtrack scores. Even if it's played poorly, I appreciate the inclusion. As a newly-annointed banjo obsessee, I take note so I can show friends that banjo is more diverse than they think it is, and more omnipresent.

The ones that catch me off-guard tend to be media I'd known a long time but didn't notice the banjo due to my youngness. Watching an Arthur episode after 20 years, and noticing how much banjo was in their music, was a hilarious surprise to me.

The ones that pleasantly intrigue me come from musicians knowingly taking the banjo new grounds, like Bela Fleck's jazz and symphonic works (to be clear, banjo was in jazz in the 1920s, but we've long since forgotten that) or Abigail Washburn's collaboration album with guzheng-player Wu Fei, in case you wanted to hear American and Chinese folk melodies played simultaneously with one another.

There's no reason for banjo to be pigeon-holed. So I am the biggest fan of hearing banjo outside its unfortunate hole of pigeon.

[thatbanjobusiness]

Fun facts with Haddock #109:

When the music store sales associate is hot enough, you can forget how tuning pegs work, what note the open G string is, or talk with the vocabulary of a first grader instead of someone with a music degree.

[thatbanjobusiness]

New Flatt & Scruggs footage just droppppppppped.

[thatbanjobusiness]

Comedienne and banjo picker extraordinaire Roni Stoneman, of the groundbreaking Stoneman family, has passed away this morning at 85 years of age. RIP, you shall be missed.

[thatbanjobusiness]

I am not a snobby record collector. The "snobbiest" thing I do is

"Can't buy that copy of the record I've been hunting for years. It's the wrong label."

The difference between the labels: