Adam Hurt is an acclaimed clawhammer banjo player and one of my favourite performers in any style and I was absolutely delighted that he agreed not only to speak to me at length about his life and teaching of traditional music, but also perform for this episode some of my favourite music. His albums of gourd banjo music “Earth Tones” and “Back to the Earth” are beloved by a wide range of listeners, I think partly because the sound colour of the instrument is much more mellow than other banjos. You’ll hear him play and talk about the fascinating history of both his gourd banjo and one of his favourite antique instruments. He’s also a fine old-time fiddler, and although he grew up with classical musician parents, his father a violinist with the Minnesota orchestra, Adam’s life-changing musical moment was with a wonderful and dedicated school teacher. 

The video version of this episode along with the transcript: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/adam-hurt

Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

Adam Hurt website: https://www.adamhurt.com/

If you enjoyed this episode you may be interested in some of my episodes with other traditional musicians, including Janie Rothfield and Alexis Chartrand. I continue to feature many players of plucked instruments with some nice surprises coming your way in Season 3. If you subscribe to my newsletter through my website https://www.leahroseman.com/contact, you’ll get exclusive sneak peeks for upcoming episodes.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Cold open and intro

(00:02:17) antique Dobson banjo, restoration by Will Seeders Mosheim

(00:07:43) intro to “Fortune” played on the Dobson banjo

(00:11:06) Adam’s early music education, difficulty reading music

(00:15:26) Don Payden first Old-Time teacher, learning by ear, mandolin with Brian Wicklund, clawhammer with Marianne Kovatch

(00:27:58) tone production on the banjo

(00:35:39) Ricky Skaggs collaboration on album Back to the Earth

(00:39:11) gourd banjo, performance of “Josie-O”

(00:45:05) history of this David Hyatt gourd banjo and the recording of Eartht Tones album

(00:50:04) African origins of the banjo, racist history

(00:53:47) tablature, Walt Koken story, Adam’s teaching

(00:59:21) Clifftop

(01:04:53) Adam’s father, learning fiddle

(01:09:22) open A tuning, performance of Patty on the Pike on fiddle

(01:14:17) dancing and old-time, Adam’s experience of learning flatfoot syle

(01:16:42) album Fine Times at our House

(01:18:32) why we love Bandcamp

(01:22:20) the hawk story

(01:28:51) Adam’s teaching strategies

(01:36:53) intro to performance of Snowdrop on the antique Dobson banjo