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I've almost completely avoided learning Dueling Banjos, because of the stereotype.

As others have said, I was taught "red neck" was from early miners wearing a red handkerchief around their neck to show they were in favor of a union or a protest against company store type ideals. First I've heard of it going further back

Hy! I'm french living in Bretagne (Brest). In my land is Banjo basiquely catalized as a "Amercian country folk instrument". But not by the Algerian and marocan peaple in France ( a lot of peaple) who have a tradition of Banjos since a long time with the Chaaby music. Freanch dont make difference beetween Banjos (5, tenor, 6 strings). In the Breton celtiq music we play a lot of tenor banjo( i do ) for breton and irish music.. the movie Deliverance is known but not so much...So stereotypes dont really survive the ocean ! Kenavo from Brest

Yeah. I can still remember getting seeded with the banjo bug about age 7 or 8 when I saw Scruggs and Flatt do Wreck of the Old 97 on the Beverly Hillbillies in the early 70s. As Australian kids, we had no ideas what a hillbilly was. We thought it was just country v city. Rich v. poor. Same as most Australians have no idea that the Australian gold rushes (1830s - 1890s) involved many North Americns, who brought gold mining and other expertise, and music. Among our first overland passenger services were Cobb & Co. stage coaches, straight out of the US. But they were all dutifully written out of Australian history because they were still considered revolutionary upstarts in a loyal British Colony. No credit given. All traces of Australia's banjo heritage have disappeared. But it's funny that, arguably, our most famous old poet is known as Banjo Patterson, or why the Old men used to refer to a shovel as a banjo. Perhaps Clifton, while you sift through the haystack of banjo heritage and history, you might one-day find a rusty old needle that once travelled down under.

Interesting facts about the origin of the words "hillbilly" & "rednecks"... Here in Texas some us heard "rednecks" was from hardworking farmers getting sunburned (hence the neck area) working in the fields... Take care... 🔥🎸🔥

Good video,glad your putting out more instructional videos hope all is well down south.

Well I'm from the rural North of England ( just South of the Borders region ) and you've taught me something! Love the channel and as a newbie to 5 string banjo you're an inspiration. Cheers!👍🏻🇬🇧

Your in depth expanatory methods cant be beat...especially speaking historically..i find it very inciteful

We are of the same people my family is also English and Scotch Irish. Some of my ancestors were sharecroppers and loggers. I mostly grew up listening to Church hymns and southern gospel/revival music and I learned to play the piano and organ by ear by copying what I heard. I have been playing around with the banjo and I appreciate you sharing your videos.

Americans often forget how popular the banjo was in England during the 19th Century, more popular, dare I say it, than in America. It never had that backwoods hillbilly association. It was associated with blackface minstrels yes, but that didn't matter a scrap. We just loved the instrument and everybody high and low, if they could get one, played the banjo, including King Edward VII and the explorer Earnest Shackleton (yes, I know they are early 20th Century). My distant relative The Great Vance aka Alfred \Glanville Vance, probably the most famous Music Hall entertainer of his day (mid-19th C) played one, and it was regarded as a very respectable instrument. Thank you, though, for telling us about the American side of things. Black Jake of Norwich, England.

Who knew that when i started taking an interest in the banjo i'd get an education also. Thanks Clifton (already a proud Patreon). UK Steve

Love your videos man

Wow thanks so much for this video!

Wow thanks Clifton thanks for the history lesson,I'm English & had no idea of the history of the term 'redneck',you learn something everyday.Keep well Clifton .

1:46 thank you for pointing this out. When many people think of an delta blues player or a banjo player they frequently imagine an old man, not realizing that they often learned that music when they were young! Especially if their music isn’t spiritual, you’ll be able to see and hear the rebellious, cocky, and woman-driven young punks they once were. Especially is this true with 1920’s blues music, might sound ancient to the modern ear, but it was probably the first genre that was “street” and “hood”, reflecting the modernization of the world through the lense of the African American experience.

Me encanto el video, yo toco el banjo y soy de Argentina. La verdad no conosco la cultura norteamericana a fondo y me sorprende las cosas que decís!! sos un groso wacho.

Just point of clarification on the etymology of the term hillbilly The term "hillbilly" is Scottish in origin. In Scotland, the term "hill-folk" referred to people who preferred isolation from greater society, and "billy" aparently was short hand for "companion". The terms "hill-folk" and "Billie" were combined and applied to the "Cameronians" who were fallowers and proponents of the teachings of a militant Presbyterian called Richard Cameron. These Scottish "Covenanters" were then to lee Scotland in the late 17th century to avoid religoius persecution. Indeed a lot of the early settlers of the Thirteen Colonies were from Scotland and Northern Ireland and settled in, and around the Appalachian Mountains. Just a point of clarification that may, or indeed may not be worth mentioning but i thought i would do so anyway. Love your channel by the way. And i have just bought a banjo will be a regular visitor here for some time to come

True story, I (like Bo Duke of the Dukes of Hazard) was born & raised in the suburbs of New York City. I married a legit hillbilly from West Virginia. One day, at a family get together there, her brother brought out his guitar and their dad brought out a banjo and began playing Dueling Banjos on either side of me. I said..."Hey, hold on now! I now how that movie ends!" and the room erupted in laughter. 😂

Hi Clifton I'm a big fan I've watched a lot of your videos. I've noticed that you really have a great knowledge for the history of banjos. I have a banjolele. I've been told it's from the early 1800s but I'm not quite sure is there any way I can get in touch with you to send you the information about this instrument.?

great video

Thanks to the movie "deliverance".for sures. I worked in a music shop as a drum salesman. I was so attracted to the banjos in the shop. When shop was quiet i started tinkering on a few banjos.was never any good but enjoyed learning. If friends came in i would be called a hillbilly.hahaha.love you content sir.mike. cape town.

I'm from the North East of England... Where the Eastern borderlands are. I've never heard of Hillbilly, nor redneck, coming from England. I like it though! I'm a Hillbilly! I tell you something though, it's fascinating that loads of the old, almost forgotten, border ballads are still alive and well via americanised, often appalachian, maestro's and balladeers. They're both something I've been interested in for a very long time and learning of everything coming full circle (for me at least from British folk and border ballads, migrating across to the American tradition and then being discovered in that sense through the respective artists) is absolutely fascinating. It really touches my soul, and makes a connection, across folks, time, geography. Man, I love it. Anyways, these banjo history videos are fascinating, and I love your tunes and singing style. 'Ellish craic chur! As us British hillbillies say 🙂

An artist and a historian! Let me know if there is any way I can help promote. Keep up the great work

The car stereotype is good, especially if you have a good spread of speakers. But I listen to you on my phone and its not stereo at all, still sounds great.

Hey Clifton, have you read "The Steel Bonnets" by George MacDonald Fraser? A fascinating account of "the Debateable lands" as the Borders were known. I grew up there on the Scottish side (where the hills are ;) )

_Cracker_: it comes from "cracking" - breaking up the kernels of - corn in the process of making (moonshine) whiskey. It was not originally pejorative or racial. "Georgia cracker," like "Indiana hoosier," was not an insult and still isn't, depending on the circumstances.. The Atlanta "Crackers" was the name of Atlanta's original, minor-league baseball team and the Atlanta "Black Crackers" was the name of Atlanta's Negro League baseball team. I wonder how people would feel about "cracker," if the Boston-then-Milwaukee "Braves" had become the Atlanta "Crackers," like the former St. Louis "Browns" became the Baltimore "Orioles," keeping the name of the original local team, and not the Baltimore "Browns."

Fascinating video!

Thank you for the history

"DELIVERANCE" had a lot to do with it.

I'm from Illinois I'm a flatlander my self but I live on a hill so I call my self a hillbilly

Have you ever seen the punk band "toy dolls" do the duelling banjos bit?

I just realised I sent too quickly and didn't write bandanas. The coal miners wore red bandanas.

Shout out for Billy Connerly.

Truth! (Although there weren't any Methodists in the 16th century!)

I’m not a banjo player but I am a hillbilly lol. Tell it like it is brother it’s always the yankees

Sawney Bean and crew were prime examples of the pre American Hillbilly stereotype. I doubt they had banjos though. Beat rock, hunt meat, caveman, rock beat.

In the book he was a black albino but they could not find one for the movie so the went for a weird looking boy fun fact

There’s no way that boy was “retired”… I’ve been watching your videos for a year now and still can’t pick

Can't tell you how many deliverance comments I get on my main video, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q7KDhpqL0KeZaXk.html and I try to educate folks about stereotypes, but I think I'll refer them to this vid. Thanks. Miss M (Also, with ur permission, I'd be interested in downloading the audio to one of your faster solo uploads and making a dance vid, to refer more folks to your channel from mine. It seems dancing is a way to bring in new persons to the folk traditions, even tho they clicked on it expecting a modern shuffle or tap dance)

I think popularity with the band rules started from deliverance

I'm a hillbilly and happy about it! My folks come from the border lands we're Ulster Scots.

What does c#ack3r come from? What's the history?

'Banjo' Sweeney rode with JEB Stuart

👍

Dang! I better stop callin' mahself a hillbilly! Although I do have some Scotch-Irish ancestry!

It's a distinctly American art form. As my father said when we were traveling through Europe and we saw American influence. "That's pure Americana". The Blues and Rock and Roll are American art forms.

Communist here. From Northern Ireland. On your point 'nobody will get canceled for making fun of hillbillies', that's true, but also it's interesting to think about. Americans are heavily invested into their racial dynamic and they heavily view the world through that, even if it only really makes sense for their particular conditions, but there's also a distinct element of classism. Nobody talks about the revolutionary history of the miners or their altercations with the Pinkertons or the reasons as to why the south would be in the material state that it's in. Rather they uncritically accept the vision of the south that's promoted to them - that it's basically KKK land with a series of psuedo-christian cultists ruling everything. They believe themselves to be superior, but since there's no racial dynamic, they're free to feel superior to them. I don't live in the South, nor did I grow up there. I've heard some horror stories, and one of my dear friends was deeply traumatized by their upbringing in the south and afforementioned cultists, with the other having their family fall apart due to drug use and not being able to afford healthcare, ending up basically being made homeless.. in the US, the richest country in the world. I think they live in a literal fucking shack atm.

I sometimes hear Americans chanting 'Pluck yo' ban-jo! pluck yo' ban-jo!' I think that's what they're saying. What is it all about?

Deliverance was the worst thing to happen to the South in the last 50 years. Damn Bert Reynolds, he should have known better.

Right, that area is the border areas of England and were protestants. They were until about 30 years ago full of coal mines. The so called "Scots Irish" were not" Irish" ethnically. They were later protestant immigrants to Ulster from Scotland , England and even Holland.. Mr Hicks really understands his Geography. Most of the Appalachian people were protestants from mostly England , Southern Scotland and Ulster . Nothing to do with the "American Catholic Irish" in places like Boston who originated from mainly the Catholic Irish areas of Southern Ireland.

I’ve lived in small town and rural areas my whole life, and farmers invariably have distinctively red necks, since that is the one part of their bodies they don’t cover when they are working out in the fields. This is why I have a hard time accepting your explanation for why those who were mostly field workers are called rednecks.

Today most people associate the banjo with hillbillies because of the boy with fetal alcohol syndrome featured in the movie Deliverance. But it’s origin was gourd instruments from Africa brought to America and played by slaves and it was made popular in the 19th & early 20th centuries by Black Face Minstrel entertainers.

Who are aware of the Sweeney Bros ?

Wait, ‘yankee‘ is inherently disparaging 🤔. Ain’t it? Sadly I’m using it more and more as yankees are moving to my area of Tennessee with alacrity. They’ll ruin it eventually. /offrant Cool video, thanks.

People associate banjo with Hillbillies because if you venture into the hills for long enough you will eventually hear a banjo. I'm not sure where Billy comes from, but when in Rome.

Whether people understand it or not, what you’re describing is cultural appropriation, but the discriminator is class instated of race or ethnicity.

I have to disagree with this 3:55 a little because of this youtube video: watch?v=3A-Z5sRwgLM

The one with the whip. The tail. Missy sip eat.,,,wow you must have been hungry.....blessings young un...my name is " finn" Nickolas Finn. 🙉 Oh,. Hi lil Billy. Not/un popular but the southern Yankee's were well known. 🙊 North? lol. that which is the world, has been without the "word" and the one who settled these lands (my name) John Euton/eutonal/eternal..... maewood wyrmnwood