 Welcome to our Vermont Van Joe afternoon. My name is Eileen Corcoran. I'm the community outreach and media coordinator here at the Vermont Historical Society. So I'd like to welcome you all to our Vermont History Museum here in Montpelier. If you haven't been here before, we hope maybe you'll come back sometime and visit the museum itself. It's got a wonderful exhibit. It sort of spans the history of Vermont, as well as a couple of special exhibits. One we just opened recently is on Norman Rockwell in this time in Arlington, Vermont. So it's a fantastic exhibit. If you get a chance to come back and see that. The Vermont Historical Society is a private nonprofit organization. And as such, we do rely on our members and donors to help support us. So we hope if you enjoy this kind of program, if you enjoy visiting the museum, or you just want to support Vermont history and all that we do, pick up a membership form out front. For more information on how you can be left with the Vermont Historical Society. And so what has brought us here this afternoon is this fantastic donation that we received in the Historical Society. The Historical Society has somewhere upwards of 20,000 objects in our care, 50,000 or more pieces of archival material. And we're always happy and excited when we get new material that really helps tell the story of Vermont. And so this piece that we received, which is a bacon banjo, really helps tell that story is a fantastic addition to our collection. And it sort of led us to this program today of wanting to bring in a little bit of the history, a little bit of music, and a little bit of sort of that music tradition today in Vermont, which we think is so important and so wonderful to see. So I'm going to start off with a little bit of background information on Fred Bacon and his time in Vermont. And then we'll have some wonderful music from our new musicians. And we hope you enjoy. So Fred Bacon and the Bacon Banjo. So this is Fred Bacon, circa 1901. Fred was born in 1871 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He started cleaning the bacon, the banjo at a young age and sort of took to it quite easily. And he ended up sitting with a banjo maestro called A.A. Farland, known as a progressive banjoist or more of the classical style banjo. So they would play not only the sort of banjo music we might think of, but also polkas, waltzes, any sort of classical composition that you could think of. So the banjo of that time was a little bit different from the banjo that we think of today. And so Fred Bacon showed a real aptitude for the banjo and started touring. He toured with sort of Wild West shows and medicine shows. He apparently toured with one called Bronco Johns Wild West Show as Nebraska Fred, even though he's from Massachusetts. And at one point was known as the banjo kid as well. So sort of getting into that bit of life. Again, he said that the banjo is the greatest of musical instruments when it is played well. In tone quality is very much like the harp. And its flexibility of playing is un-excelled, for in the hands of a skilled player it is good for classical music as for dance tunes. And so he played all of that throughout the United States and more, eventually becoming a great solo performer as well as with quintets small groups and including his wife Cassie, who he married in 1897. And some of his work did include getting recordings with the Victor Company and Edison. And we have a couple for you today. So the first one is the wet flan. Music Very Vermont. So this is a 1912 performance. And this is one that's called Southern Medley, Southern Ears Medley. Another one, this is made for the Edison. It's actually from a cylinder recording. So it's a little bit more... Always the third? Yes, right now, right? So 1912, so over many years we went on it. Over 100 years ago. And even the Edison phonograph monthly of 1916 had this to say about him, one of the best-known banjo soloists before the public. Mr. Bacon is known on the vaudeville stage from coast to coast. He's playing repertoire, so it's grand opera, descriptive and popular selections, and the familiar old home medallies always dear to his heart. And so a part he came to Vermont was because of a little bit of this horseshoe pet that he had. And so he apparently patented a horseshoe sort of leather covering to use on ice and snow, and sold the rights to that for $10,000, which obviously sort of the early 1900s was a nice chunk of money, and used that money to build a house in Forestdale, Vermont, which is a village within Brandon. And that's what brought it up here to start the Bacon Banjo Company. And he first patented his internal resonator banjo in 1906. And this was sort of known, let's see what it's called, a mellower, richer, and a greater complexity and presence than other banjos. And Bacon said, the principal objection to the banjo resides in the fact that the tones are of short duration and that they therefore have a sharp staccato quality, which is objectionable. The object of this invention is to overcome this objection by providing the range with a particularly constructed annular chamber in which the partially confined air can vibrate in harmony with the strings and cooperate therewith to produce a strong and resident tone. And so he started the Forestdale factory sort of in that early 1900s. The first mention is around 1906, but the company was not actually incorporated to about 1912 officially. And this is a photograph from outside the factory in Forestdale, so it got in 1913. And Bacon is the one in the center of the hat on one of his banjos. And this is sort of the inside of the factory. We're unsure whether the banjos were fully made. It's most likely that they contracted some of the pieces out from other companies, most likely Vega and Boston, and just assembled the banjos in Brandon rather than making them fully on site. But again, some of those are, you know, a little hard to tell exactly what was made there versus what was just finished or assembled there. And all of these original new banjos were five strings. The Bacon Company and the Bacon and Day Company are known more for later banjos, which were four string tenor banjos, but these like this were five string banjos. And they were sort of thought of as well made banjos, but some folks didn't think there was high caliber. Bacon contemporary called Cliff Spalding referred to them as X-handled banjos or shoe polish banjos. So perhaps did not think of them as high quality as some of the others, but Bacon himself thought they were very fine instruments and was very proud of sort of the marketing thereof. So in the Bacon professional catalog, this is banjo number one, which is what we have in our collection now. It was the least expensive version. So it was for $40, still a fairly decent amount of money, but his highest level, the, I think it's the grand, special grand concert banjo went for $125, which had white holly veneer, ebonized holly and rock labels. Those are some of the great parts about the Bacon banjo. It's one of his advertisements. Why is it two birds, the leading teachers, play the Bacon banjo? He was a salesman and he knew how to sell his banjos to himself because the way he did it was the best of every way. And certainly he would give his first lesson forever, give his trial and he could get this done and it was a fantastic work that he did for that. And this was, you know, also in his catalog, the things that he felt distinguished the Bacon banjo from all the other banjos that we get out there. Perfect adjustments. Fairly seasoned Vermont maple wood, made by skilled Bertman, personally tested by Mr. Bacon himself. Very important. He flew the sound, he hadn't been sounding chamber, and he most negatively finished aspect. And again, another one of his advertisements, you know, re-carefully, he's noticed it. I love this one. He had a big quiet corner and he was a little hard-thinking before he placed your order for a new banjo. You were thinking about some other banjo, read these testimonials, and then really think hard if you want to get anything other than the Bacon banjo. And again, it was definitely one of those things where, starting in 1906 to 1914 or 15, the only time he was in forest ale Vermont. And basically, he got successful in making banjos and decided to move to Connecticut. So in broadened Connecticut, he started his factory after that. So they moved out of Brandon, Vermont, and moved to Summer and Newfay, Vermont. So they still had a Vermont connection, but they were no longer manufacturing banjos in the state. And a lot of folks do know the later banjos, so banjos starting around 1915 that come from Connecticut. And then later, what became the Bacon and Day banjo company is sort of the 20s and 30s. And then basically, the hurricane destroyed the factory in 1938, and that's when Fred Bacon sort of got out of the banjo business. But he officially retired to Vermont. You know, a little bit after that, his wife Cassie, his first wife Cassie, died in 1936. And then he sort of, they moved to Newfay in full time, and sort of became a part of that community. So he actually, during the Great Depression, worked for the WPA, teaching music and sharing music in Vermont. He sort of at one point in time worked to demonstrate that the average citizen of the Green Mountain State could be taught to play some instrument and thereby acquire a worthwhile hobby. So I think it's all great for us that we should require, you know, a worthwhile hobby. And then he ended up passing away in 1948. So that's a little bit about Fred Bacon, and sort of his time in Vermont. And we just want to say a few thank yous. First, to Paul Heller who donated the banjo to the Vermont Historical Society. That's a wonderful young tradition, Vermont, and Marxistic for here. Cedars Instruments who restored the banjo for us as well. And I'd also like to thank our musicians. We're going to turn it over to them to have some lovely banjo music. And I don't know who would like to start. Any, anyone? Can we all go with that? You can all go with us. Yes! I'll just have you introduce yourselves real quickly. And now I'm going to go from here. I'm 12 years old. My name is Lula Zeichner. I'm 21 years old, and I'm from Northfield, Vermont. I'm Carlin Burthout, and I'm 21 years old. I'm Bennington, Vermont. I don't know if anyone would like to start with a little music. Or start with a little playing with the bacon banjo. Well, you're sitting closest to me, so I'm going to pick on you. So, and I'm actually going to sort of hold the mic a little bit for you. So, can you talk just a little bit about what brought you to playing the banjo? Well, I first saw Rianna Giddens when she was playing. We can't hear a thing at that moment. This one's up for just the video, so can you speak up some? I first started... Well, I first saw the banjo seeing Rianna Giddens when she was still with the chocolate drops. She's an amazing banjo player. She just played the Newport Folk Festival, and she does a lot about the history of the banjo and going back and teaching people about that and playing some of those songs. You want to play something for us? I'm going to play, you guys, a menstrual melody that were some of the original songs that came from Africa. And although I usually play these on my board of banjo, which was the original banjo, I can't travel with it, so I have to do two more banjo to that activity. I know I'm going to make them all yell. Can I speak into that and speak out to those folks? Yeah, so I started playing the banjo learning from Ted Inham of Montpelier. He teaches a lot of classes around here, and he's a great teacher. And I guess I'll play a song now. It's called Don't Let Your Deal Go Down and I learned it from Ted. See how all the different banjos. A duo called Carling and Will who started with sort of a bunch of traditional fiddle tunes and then over the years started writing our own music. Will Mosheim has actually got to play with who fixed up this banjo and also built this banjo. So I think I'll start with a song that we wrote titled Will Berry Sky, popular fiddle tunes. I didn't ask you guys about your instrument so you mentioned that yours is built by Will. So yeah, do you want to talk a little bit about what instruments you have or play and sort of why you're playing those banjos? So Carling, yeah, I don't know if you want to talk a little bit more about yours. So this was built by Will. His business is called Cedars Instruments. It primarily builds custom banjos. This one in particular, I play for it for a number of reasons. One, it's a 12 inch pot which is a little bit larger than like a standard banjo. They're usually 11 inches. That sort of emphasizes more of the low end and so it's a little bassier which I particularly like and I tend to tune down to B flat. So I have a low tuning as well. So the size of the head as well is something called the Dobson Tonering which tends to have a warmer sound and also the walnut wood all kind of emphasize this mellow and warmer sound to the banjo which I particularly like. Yeah, this banjo is made by a man named Nate Cawkins who lives near Portland, Oregon and I definitely don't have a lot to say about it. It seems like the right thing at the right time. Mine is an old banjo and it was custom made for me and it's a certain style that I really liked. I went to the IVMA Exhibition Hall and tried out this certain style. So we'd love to have you guys play as it has been a restorative of anyone who would like to start or to do it. And we'll say I'm sure we'll be quite as well played as their own instruments but would they enjoy some of the power sounds to you? Very mellow sounds. Yeah. Yeah, it's like very soft sounding and there's something about I know that this just can't be tuned up right? Is that the case? I mean again, it's a little I'm not sure why exactly that one's but I like it. It mixes in with the rest of this out of all the other strings which I think is interesting. The strings feel they feel a lot different. Mostly nylon strings not steel or the one with steel I'm not really sure so yeah, it's a little bit different. So yeah, I think we're going to do a special treat that you're going to join us today is your brother that's going to also play a little bit for us with the fiddle. So this is sort of a really great treat. Do you want to sit with me? I'd say we can bring another chair. I find that the fretboard of guitars is more difficult to kind of understand and there's more going on at least in my experience more strings. Yeah, more strings exactly. But I'm sure it also depends on how you approach both but I'd love to learn appellation clogging but I have not done that yet. What kind of music do you play for these band jokes? And who was playing them? Yeah, and so if there's anything that I'm missing so that's from the musical shows so that's sort of what we would say the white people's introduction to the band jokes to the musical. But if there's some I'm going to answer that classical style so it would be playing both things like both of those involved and I believe they're in a different place than the classical band joke. As well as still playing musical tunes still playing some of those you know the Stephen Foster's and that kind of traditional style and so you can see folks they used to have band joke clubs at universities so you could go under the band joke club and so it was much more of a mix of both I don't say a higher end type of instrument but it certainly wasn't thought of as only a more sort of rural appellation of bluegrass style instrument it was definitely thought of as sort of a real classical style instrument you could have band joke contests and you could have all these groups that would play the band joke in that way and a lot of it and stuff. One thing I would say is that the classical band joke style of Auburn play from scores written music I like the obvious band joke. Did I hear you right that that was the original number one or was it an example? It's an example of the number one. So it is one of the number one band jokes so made sort of that so gradually in 1910 1912 time frame in Vermont so it is one of the Vermont band jokes which again because the band joke factor was only here for about half a year or so they tend to be a little bit rarer and because these later band jokes were sort of more well known band jokes I would say or sort of more popular band jokes. And are your brother and sister who else in the family plays? Did you start to play the band joke particularly? You talked a little bit about here and Rhiannon Yeah Did you play the other instrument before that? Yeah I started on the classical violin when I was four and I'm getting started doing all of the bluegrass over time kind of filming and I got interested in that too and then I wanted to play another instrument so at first I was looking at guitar and then I started reading it so I decided to ask do they talk about do you guys tour or is this how we where are you guys going? We play more shows during the summer but yeah we're here for a festival and we didn't have enough to the other band player who was supposed to be here today but we didn't have enough band player she unfortunately ended up having a little accident so we were super excited that when my sister was in town I was able to come over and play for this and that's a special treat for us and I do believe you guys I encourage you guys to just have an album out is that true? Yeah so there you go do you like it today? Do you know maybe a portion of that last moment that you did today just so I can listen to the difference would that be on her hand? That would be good Good night when it goes right down but with one, two, three, four we're going to look really up up beat now with her close watered Mary, I'm safe other questions or talk a little bit more about their banjoes but thank you all for coming today it's been a wonderful fun afternoon so I've had a lot of enjoyment listening to these ladies as well so thank you again for coming on