Ring The Banjar! Bullard Farm Banjo Concert and Lecture

Musician-Historian to Present the History of the Banjo in America

             The banjo has been called America’s “own” musical instrument. How it came to be so is the subject of a musical concert and lecture program at the Bullard Memorial Farm in Holliston on July 15.

            Robert Lloyd (Bob) Webb, an internationally acclaimed musician and historian of the banjo will present “Ring the Banjar!: How the Banjo Became America’s ‘Own’ Musical Instrument” at the Bullard Memorial Farm at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 15.

            Though owing its birth to antecedents in Africa, the banjo accompanied America’s early popular music in the 1830s and 1840s. It travelled with both armies during the Civil War, and later became a parlor favorite in many of the wealthiest homes in the nation.

            It began as a gourd-bodied instrument, Webb says, but rapidly evolved into a mass-produced metal and wood instrument that underpinned American roots music, minstrelsy, and jazz. Banjo factories in Boston, New York and Philadelphia created beautiful instruments that are highly prized by collectors and musicians today.

            Webb will exhibit a rare Boston-made Thompson & Odell banjo, recently found in the attic at Bullard Memorial Farm and restored to playing condition. He will perform on several other banjos, including replicas of 18^th Century gourd-bodied instruments, a gut-string minstrel banjo replica from the 1850s, a Victorian-era banjo, a homemade “fretless” Appalachian Mountain instrument from North Carolina, and a modern factory-made banjo.

            After his program, Webb will sign copies of his book “Ring the Banjar!: The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory,” and answer questions related to the history of the instrument. The Bullard Memorial Farm is located at 7 Bullard Lane, Holliston. Tickets are $5 per person; children are free. To reserve seating, please e-mail bmfaprograms@gmail.com, or call 508-429-1638.