I asked her if there was any chance they might be in the U.S. She put a heart instead of dot over the ‘j’. Six days later, here comes the CDs, signed by Sonja. And I said it would be nice if they autographed them. That was a week or two before Christmas in 2001 and there was nothing but crickets. These girls – they were making fun of the banjo player. One played a Steirische Harmonika, another a diatonic accordion. Then up pops two little girls in Germany 20s. I had some old rock and roll and stuff I like. The Arden-Carmichael News got the pleasure of speaking with Sacramento Banjo Band’s Bonnie Harris, Rex Inglis, and Jim Matthews about their involvement with the organization of this year’s Banjo-Rama.Īsked about how Navihanke was recruited to play at this year’s Banjo-Rama, Inglis first described how he came across their music to begin with. Matthews, who is writing a book on the history of the banjo, will be presenting his findings at the first workshop of the four-day event on Friday, May 2, starting at 9:30 a.m. While a mainstay of American music, Sacramento Banjo Band’s Jim Matthews traces the banjo’s pre-African roots along the Silk Road through China, Mongolia, and central Asia. There will also be workshops and formal concerts at various times during this year’s Banjo-Rama. If you want to be part of this experiment you are welcome to bring a banjo, guitar, ukulele, balalaika, or other fretted instrument and join in the unstructured jam sessions. Interestingly, the banjo player of Navihanke isn’t in the band anymore due to personal reasons. The resulting mix of Slovenian folk music and America’s top jazz banjo players’ sounds is hoped to produce a musical experience that has never been heard before. Slovenia once was the northwestern corner Yugoslavia, a former Soviet satellite country, and the girls from Navihanke are excited to visit the United States, as they consider it important to build relations and cultural exchanges with the West. Slovenia is a tiny nation of slightly more than 2 million people that borders Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. tour during which they will perform several times at the annual Sacramento Banjo-Rama on May 1-4 at the Clarion Inn, 1401 Arden Way. It took some complex negotiations, but Navihanke, the award-winning Slovenian women’s folk music group, has just been cleared for a national U.S.
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