Top tracks
- The Dragonfly
- Paddy On The Railroad - The Reel With The Beryl
- Touch A Name On The Wall
- The Cherry Tree Carol
- How Like The Holly
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Put your hands on the remote! browse music »The Banjo Monologues by Joel Mabus
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fave it Traditional Folk | Bluegrass
18 tracks | 69 minutes
Released Mar 2007
on Fossil Records
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for a 30-second preview. All tracks are 192kbps high fidelity sound quality. Protected WMA $0.77 or unprotected MP3 $0.88.
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:34 Foreword Looking Back lyrics BUY MP3 02:34 Foreword Looking Back lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:34 Foreword Looking Back
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:15 The Dragonfly lyrics BUY MP3 02:15 The Dragonfly lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:15 The Dragonfly
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 06:07 Cindy - Gerald & Jerald Lee lyrics BUY MP3 06:07 Cindy - Gerald & Jerald Lee lyrics "GIFT MP3" 06:07 Cindy - Gerald & Jerald Lee
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:04 Three Nights Drunk lyrics BUY MP3 03:04 Three Nights Drunk lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:04 Three Nights Drunk
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 06:51 Cripple Creek - The Desert Island lyrics BUY MP3 06:51 Cripple Creek - The Desert Island lyrics "GIFT MP3" 06:51 Cripple Creek - The Desert Island
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:56 Whistling Rufus lyrics BUY MP3 01:56 Whistling Rufus lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:56 Whistling Rufus
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:31 The Uncloudy Day - Leonard Lively lyrics BUY MP3 05:31 The Uncloudy Day - Leonard Lively lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:31 The Uncloudy Day - Leonard Lively
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:00 Wondrous Love (Captain Kidd) lyrics BUY MP3 02:00 Wondrous Love (Captain Kidd) lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:00 Wondrous Love (Captain Kidd)
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:26 No More Cane On This Brazos lyrics BUY MP3 03:26 No More Cane On This Brazos lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:26 No More Cane On This Brazos
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:51 Roll Down The Line lyrics BUY MP3 02:51 Roll Down The Line lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:51 Roll Down The Line
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 08:17 Liza Jane - WLS & Prairie Farmer lyrics BUY MP3 08:17 Liza Jane - WLS & Prairie Farmer lyrics "GIFT MP3" 08:17 Liza Jane - WLS & Prairie Farmer
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:25 Uncle Joe lyrics BUY MP3 02:25 Uncle Joe lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:25 Uncle Joe
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:17 Crazy Water Crystals lyrics BUY MP3 03:17 Crazy Water Crystals lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:17 Crazy Water Crystals
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:32 The Other Rock The Cradle, Joe lyrics BUY MP3 01:32 The Other Rock The Cradle, Joe lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:32 The Other Rock The Cradle, Joe
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:23 Down In The Willow Garden lyrics BUY MP3 04:23 Down In The Willow Garden lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:23 Down In The Willow Garden
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:26 John Henry's Hammer lyrics BUY MP3 03:26 John Henry's Hammer lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:26 John Henry's Hammer
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:23 Paddy On The Railroad - The Reel With The Beryl lyrics BUY MP3 03:23 Paddy On The Railroad - The Reel With The Beryl lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:23 Paddy On The Railroad - The Reel With The Beryl
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 06:00 Cluck Old Hen - One Gentleman's Opinion lyrics BUY MP3 06:00 Cluck Old Hen - One Gentleman's Opinion lyrics "GIFT MP3" 06:00 Cluck Old Hen - One Gentleman's Opinion
This is a unique album of old time banjo (clawhammer 5-string) with traditional songs and tunes wedded with storytelling. The monologues tell of 1930's radio and my family's career as professional "hillbilly" musicians.
Bio / Background
David Higgs, host of Nashville Public Radio's Bluegrass Breakdown calls this album "a Masterpiece."
Higgs writes, "It's rare in this day and age when everybody and their brother is churning out one CD after another to encounter something that is truly original. 'The Banjo Monologues' is one of those wonderful rarities."
Ron Olesko, DJ from Fordham University Radio had this to say about "The Banjo Monologues" :
"The CD is a grand tribute to the banjo and to old-time music. Modern audiences may not understand why 'hillbilly' music was so popular in its day. Early record producers gave the style the 'hillbilly' moniker, which unfortunately created an image that has detracted from the music. In 'The Banjo Monologues,' Joel celebrates the true beauty and significance of the music, enabling modern audiences to understand the connection the music had with its audiences. Listening to the CD from beginning to end is a unique experience.
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"I imagine this what Mark Twain or Garrison Keillor would sound like if they played the banjo. 'The Banjo Monologues' helps cement Joel Mabus reputation as an artist.
"Joel Mabus is the Joe Dimaggio of the folk music world - a virtuoso who can make the toughest plays appear effortless. His performances are memorable and he leaves the audience with the feeling that they have spent an evening with a good friend or long-lost relative. His charm, intelligence and skill are evident in his inviting style."
And Grant Alden, editor of No Depression, writes:
"Hearing Mr. Mabus pick and talk and sing was like running into an old friend."
Who is Joel Mabus?
Joel Mabus has split his 30-year career in folk music between the traditional and the original. Split is perhaps not the proper word, because the old and the new intertwine in his music, whether he is singing an old ballad with a new interpretive twist or writing a new song with a 21st century perspective that sounds like it has been handed down from generations past.
Where is he from? He was born and raised in a modest Southern Illinois town, about 105 miles southeast of Mark Twain, 190 miles northwest of Bill Monroe, 110 miles southwest of Burl Ives and just over the river and up the hill from Scott Joplin.
His great-grandfather Louis Charles Lee was an Illinois farmhouse fiddler of the 19th century. Most of the following generations were farmhouse musicians too. When Joel’s mother and father came of age in the Great Depression, they took their old-time music on the road as professional entertainers, barnstorming the Midwest with road shows for Prairie Farmer, the parent company of the WLS Barn Dance, the progenitor of the Grand Ole Opry.
This pedigree was not lost on Joel as a child. When his schoolmates were grooving to the Beach Boys and the Monkeys, he was learning the tunes of the Carter Family, Bill Monroe and Jimmie Rodgers. He also absorbed some of the blues and spiritual music that is thick in his native Southern Illinois along the Mississippi River.
Despite the poverty his family was thrown into after his father’s untimely death, Joel attended university in Michigan (on a national merit scholarship), where he studied anthropology by day and learned the business of being a professional musician by night. Interests grew beyond bluegrass & old time stringband music, and Joel studied older blues, western swing, and even Celtic dance music long before it was the fad. He also began to write songs.
After journeyman’s work in several local bluegrass and string bands, Joel made his first record for a Michigan label in 1977 with mandolin legend Frank Wakefield guesting. Three years later he signed with Flying Fish Records for a two-record deal. In 1986 he was one of the first established folksingers to start his own independent label, even before the advent of the home studio and compact disc, which make the practice so common today.
While he is known to many as a songwriter, having penned several songs familiar to the folk crowd (“Touch a Name On the Wall” and “The Duct Tape Blues” are two that have been covered by many and published in the pages of Singout Magazine), he is also a fixture on the traditional scene as a guitarist, old-time banjoist, singer and fiddler. He has taught at Augusta Heritage, Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, and fiddled at countless dance camps.
Joel was also among the first wave to join the Folk Alliance in 1990, and showcased officially at the 1991 international conference in Chicago, where he was given standing ovations. He has made 18 solo albums in his 30 -year recording career – most of them still available. His latest is “The Banjo Monologues” in 2007, a unique wedding of oldtime banjo and storytelling.
Joel Mabus has toured widely and makes his living at music, though he is – like most professional folk musicians in the 21st century – enjoying relative obscurity. At his extensive and user-friendly website, you can find his discography, all his lyrics, promotional materials and his other writings.
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