The difference between bluegrass banjo and clawhammer banjo may not be obvious to those who don't spend a lot of time listening to banjo players, but the difference is significant: bluegrass banjoists play in a three-finger picking style, using steel picks and an arpeggiated "rolling" technique that results in the immediately identifiable "shower-of-notes" bluegrass sound. Clawhammer players use the thumb and the backs of their fingernails to smack, strum and pluck the strings in a style that is usually associated with old-time string band music; it's a funkier, rounder sound that most people immediately (and correctly) identify with musical traditions far older and closer to the roots of folk music than bluegrass is. That's why this album by clawhammer banjo virtuoso Mark Johnson Read More