A Banjo Workshop with "Urban Bluegrass Whiz" TONY TRISCHKA

Wednesday, April 20, 2005
06:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: Elderly Instruments
workshop ($70)

Tony Trischka's coming to town--and offering a three-hour banjo workshop at Elderly. Bela Fleck's banjo teacher and a long-popular Rounder Recording Artist, Tony presents a well-crafted and highly-successful bluegrass banjo workshop that is geared toward both "advanced-beginning-level players" and "the truly advanced." Students will review the major elements of bluegrass banjo playing and cover everything from Scruggs-style basic rolls and the subtleties of slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, back-up playing, and right-hand syncopation to Don Reno's unique playing styles and single-string approach to improvisation. Tony will also share professional suggestions and ideas relating to writing your own music. All levels of players are welcome to attend. Bring your banjo.

Bill Monroe's advice to Tony--"Keep playin' them new notes"--was the old bluegrass master's way of honoring the up-and-coming young man's innovative playing styles, which are praised high and wide. "Tony Trischka shows a conceptual daring that goes well beyond hot licks," wrote Rolling Stone Time termed him an "urban bluegrass whiz." Billboard called him "one of the most inventive banjoists alive." The New York Times recognized Tony as "a godfather of...new acoustic music," and The Village Voice praised him as "world-renown...perhaps music's most adventuresome banjoist."

Bela Fleck put it personally: "Tony was ahead of his time. My springboard was Tony Trischka, and without Tony, none of what's happened with my music would have happened." Tony Trischka's more than inventive, though; he's also an exceptionally-talented player and teacher. "Impossibly fleet-fingered" is how Jazz Times described Tony's picking. The Star-Ledger exclaimed over "the exhilaration of hearing music stretched past preconception before your very ears." [Wow!--ed.] "Trischka is the premier banjo madman of our time, a man whose explosive style defies word," raved The Edmonton Journal. Here's our favorite, from The Indianapolis News: "In [Trischka's] hands the banjo becomes the 'Star Trek' of bluegrass--it boldly goes where no instrument has gone before."

Tony's recordings, television appearances, live performances, and ever-popular instructional materials abound, as do words of praise from hundreds of happy students who've attended his workshops in the last 20-plus years. IBMA artist, banjo history lecturer, Sammy Awards Hall of Fame inductee, three-time FRETS Magazine Award Winner, author of liner notes for Bela Fleck, Alison Krauss and others, columnist for Sing Out! Bluegrass Unlimited, Acoustic Musician, and Banjo Newsletter...
and to top it all off, Tony's one of the most personable and friendly fellows around. You'll see.

Workshop space is limited, so sign up early. Call [517] 372-7880 or 888-473-5810 to reserve a slot with a credit card, or stop in and check out Tony's teaching materials.

You can see Tony Trischka in concert at the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner, in Lansing's Old Town right around the corner from Elderly, the following evening, Thursday, April 21, at 8 p.m. Tickets for Tony's concert will be available at Elderly and at www.creolegallery.com.

Check out recordings we carry featuring Tony Trischka