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It's so cool to see how all the instruments came about. People have some great imaginations on how to create the tools to make great music.

The introduction alone was worth a "like" ;-)

Amazing introduction!

Jeff Menzies is doing amazing work currently in Jamaica with traditional banjo making!

I should say that EARL SCRUGGS WAS ADAMANT TO SHOW HIS SUPPORT TO THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF THE BANJO in part out of shame for the way earlier stuff by Louise Scruggs in the 1950s . A friend of mine who is a banjo and African instrument collector based in Sweden helping to acquire African instruments that are the precursor of the banjo for the museum on the banjo Earl set up near where he was born shortly before he passed.. I am not unknown to the world of the banjo. In the avatar picture here, I am playing the Kyle Creed banjo that Tommy Jarrell used for most of his major recordings.

Lo mejor de todo es que a 11 años de este video están ya apropiándose, no solo del banjo sino también del country 🤯😞

What an intro!

Laurent and I have been friends for more than a decade and he credits me for encouraging to turn his research toward the banjo but Bluegrass was started by BILL MONROE NOT LESTER AND EARL. Laurent is one of the world's leading experts on the culture of the Black Caribbean where the banjo originated and has written a series of overwhelmingly great books on Haiti and Guadaloupe. Because of this he has had access to some of the most deep and extensive scholarship of the Caribbean and Africa from the world's leading scholars which has been a boon for banjo research.

Thanks!!!

here is a string Band Out of St. Kitts and Nevis with a locally hand made Banjo

Joel Walker Sweeney was quite explicit that he learned to play the banjo from African Americans enslaved and freed who lived on plantations near the farm his family owned in Virginia. Before he joined commercial circus groups and show business Sweeney played in a local band that included African Americans. Sweeney and all the other minstrel banjo players of his era were quite explicit in proclaiming that he was playing music in a style that he learned from Black people on an instrument created by Black people. They considered it necessary to emphasize this by performing in Black face to represent their view of how Black people made music and behaved. No doubt what they did ended up as expressing racism and insulting, but they clearly saw banjo playing as a Black thing, and tried to approximate it in order to do that.

Dink Roberts @

Has a good focus on the roots, but are they correct? Was it made in Africa? Yes, sure, who knows, but if you want closer truth, watch the documentary from Clifton Hicks. Certainly the best instrument, regardless whether it is blakc or white.

Bob Marley grew up listening to banjos in Jamaican traditional music, many reggae songs have become standards in modern Bluegrass, or New Grass. Reggae is Bluegrass slowed down, I am not sure why the Whalers played slower, hmm, I'm thinking, nope, not sure why.

I really wish there were more black musicologists and historians because I feel like there's a lot of things he missed the opportunity to talk about just by the nature of not having lived the black experience.

Yeah, because actually hanging around and learning something would be bad. Especially if it shatters racist illusions. Stay dumb about it then. This is an awesome documentary.

The banjo was formed and brought by African slaves to America , the Irish and Scottish just adopted it into their musical style , even the name banjo is an African word , it’s not an Irish or Scottish word , I mean come on think about it, the name banjo sounds very african, people need to do more research , some folks don’t like to give Africans positive credit to the contributions to American culture and history.

The banjo is as American as the Kung Pow Chicken.

Did someone tell the professor that getting too close to this kind of mic will easily cause distortion and excessive wind noise, and may cause some banjo players to abandon this video, despite our reputation for enjoying harsh sounds?