Todd Charles (http://www.toddcharles.com/)
He’s a comedian who plays a kick ass banjo. Juggles while he’s doing it too!
My favorite banjo player is the Dixie Chick that plays a banjo. Don’t know her name. Don’t even know if she can play that thing. Just like to watch.
That would be Emily Robison, definitely worth watching.
My Favorite (and I can’t believe he hasn’t been mentioned) is Ricky Skaggs with his performance of “Country Boy”.
ALL great banjo players are self-taught. Show me a banjo player who isn’t, and I’ll show you someone who plays it with a (shudder) flat-pick.
I used to go to the Old Fiddler’s Convention in Galax, VA in the late seventies/early eighties and he was always there with a booth, selling albums and t-shirts, etc. but he never played anything, so I was never inspired to buy anything by him. He always had a sign saying “Sprung Is Here”. Any recommendations?
Someone else I really like that I didn’t mention in the OP, for one brilliant album, is Tony Trishka. His Banjoland was amazing. Side one was played in an almost traditional bluegrass style, with side two in a more “Newgrass” style, a term I alaways hated, by the way. And the other players were among the best, people like Evan Stover and Bill Keith and many more I can’t remember. Sadly this not available on CD, but if by chance you stumble upon the album, it is highly recommended.
Steve Martin used to play banjo on the Glen Campbell Show before he started getting comedy gigs. He may have been a writer on the show as well. Not sure about that one.
Mary Shannon.
She plays traditional Irish tunes on a tenor banjo with a flatpick. It’s a melody instrument in that tradition, similar to a mandolin. Good stuff.
My father.
Hands like steam-shovels, but an accomplished percusionist (old style: pianos and everything), pretty good with a recorder or flute, and slick-wicked with a banjo.
I’m sick of Earl Scruggs getting all the babes. - Lester Flatt
Bertie Wooster played the banjo?!? I’m not watching enough PBS…
Ah, Roy Clark- a-pickin’ and a-grinnin’!
You’re not listening to enough Andrew Lloyd Webber. Check out the cast CD of By Jeeves!
That was a banjolele, IIRC.
Another vote for “that Wild and Crazy Guy”, Steve Martin.