Don Reno – Luegra

The Scruggs/Buckingham Connection

A few months ago, my buddy Ken gave me some food for thought: Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham has stated in a few interviews that bluegrass banjo hero Earl Scruggs was a big influence on his playing.

That thought has stuck in the back of my mind for a while. The more that I thought about it, the more it made sense. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album has always been one of my favorites. Buckingham’s playing style is finger picking instead of using a pick, which he has done since he started playing in folk bands in the 1960s. When he and Stevie Nicks joined the band in 1974, the melding of folk-rock with the British blues style rhythm section was magic. The first album with this lineup was the self-titled disc from 1975.

On that album, listen to “Say You Love Me.” Yes, Buckingham throws banjo onto the track, which gives it a great country music feel. Then check out “Rhiannon.” He plucks the strings similar to what banjo great Don Reno was doing on some of Reno & Smiley cuts.

Then we go to Rumours. “Gold Dust Woman” not only has Buckingham picking banjo style, but he even includes some dobro. His bluegrass-tinges playing can also be heard on “You Make Loving Fun” and “Don’t Stop.” Check out his more folky picking with “The Chain.”

While Tusk from 1979 was a bit more experimental, Mirage from 1982 had Buckingham implementing his picking style into a few tracks, namely “Hold Me” and “Gypsy.” One cannot see the similarities of his guitar playing with instances that Scruggs picked up a six-string on some of the Flatt & Scruggs recordings.

As for Mr. Scruggs, the Earl Scruggs Revue did cover Fleetwood Mac’s song “Landslide” as a country-rock number. The band did a number of live shows with Fleetwood Mac in the early 1970s (before Buckingham and Nicks were members). On his 1983 Top of the World album, Scruggs recorded a composition titled “Lindsey.” He claimed that it was not about Buckingham but instead about his granddaughter. Fast forward to today, Lindsey Scruggs is now a singer-songwriter and performs a number of Fleetwood Mac songs in her live performances, as well as recording a version of “Gypsy.”

Chew on it and comment.

Is the Six-String Banjo Really a Banjo?

What constitutes a “banjo”? Why I bring this up is that I am seeing a lot of pop and rock stars claiming that they are playing a banjo, when in reality they are strumming and plucking a six-string instrument tuned like a standard guitar, with the strings going over a banjo head and resonator.

Now, 20 years ago, these instruments were referred to as banjitars, and the band Old Crow Medicine Show would call it a “guitjo” on its liner notes. These instruments have been around for decades, but popularity was mostly underground. I remember the first time that I saw someone playing one was guitar wizard Joe Satriani on an early episode of MTV Unplugged.

Usually when someone says, “I play the banjo,” we assume they are talking about the five-string variety, with the high G string droning, and played either clawhammer or Scruggs style. We tend to forget about the four-string plectrum banjo (popular with Dixieland bands), the shorter-neck four-string tenor banjo (used by many Irish bands), and of course, the many variations of gourd banjos. The one thing that they have in common is that the body or resonator part of the instrument has a top of skin or thin plastic stretched over the resonator pot (much like a drum head), and the strings being plucked will strike the head via a bridge to create the sound (unlike a guitar that produces sound through the sound hole). I am not going to get too technical here.

One of the most famous performers of the four-string variety was multi-instrumentalist Eddie Peabody. During the 1920s through 1950s, Peabody performed on stage, film and television on the four- and five-string banjos. His playing style was more of stroking the strings either with his fingers or a pick. He was a great entertainer, but his brand of music faded out as popular music turned to crooners, then country, then rock and roll. Toward the end of his career, Rickenbacker Guitar Company made him electric guitars with banjo necks. So, did this constitute the he was playing an “electric guitar”? By the way, Peabody was a whiz on guitar and fiddle as well.

Getting back to the six-string variety, is it an actual banjo? If one were to look at the entire lineup of banjos, as well as consider the sound that it produced and how it was produced, then technically, it is a banjo. For the fingerpick-style guitarist, it can be a new sound to songs, especially those using s drop-D tuning. As far as chord playing, it sounds way too washy (in my opinion). Yes, the those players of the plectrum and tenor varieties use a pick, but they usually either play a form of cross-picking, or the strumming is quick and semi-muted, so it is more rhythmic. Add to that the design with the strings draped across the bridge lying on a drum skin, this does not allow for sustaining tones.

Now if you were to ask a long-time bluegrass banjoist, or even a bluegrass enthusiast, he/she would probably have a set idea of what the banjo is. Five strings, played Scruggs style, ‘nuff said.

As for my opinion, I like to call it a “six-string banjo” and not just a banjo. Let the pop stars think that they are being cool, but we all know that when you say “I play the banjo,” the five-string variety is the standard. Now let’s get a taste of my favorite banjo player, Don Reno.

Chew on it and comment.