root salad f16 Pharis & Jason Romero
Bespoke banjo makers to the stars, and a fine oldtime duo too. Sarah Coxson catches up with a creative couple.
“W
ith me, it was all about the banjo!” enthuses Jason Romero. “I started playing when I was 20. I
happened to be in a pub in Chico, California where a traditional Irish band was playing. This guy was playing a five- string. I was so drawn to it: the sight of it, how it looked, what it sounded like and that was it for me!”
Love at first sight is a recurring theme… “Jason and I met at an old-time fiddle jam,” explains Pharis. “We had a common background where we were both rather obsessed with old-time and old country music. We got married two and half months later.” … and so the enchant- ing Romero story unfolds.
Pharis and Jason Romero are a self- contained creative partnership, based in the wilderness of the Cariboo Mountains in the small community of Horsefly, BC, making beautiful bespoke banjos. It seems an idyllic rural life. Their log cabin home and workshop is set in the woods in 40 acres of land, a roaring river running through it. They work in harmony with their surroundings and each other.
Originally from North California, Jason honed his banjo-making skills with the Wild- wood Banjo Co in Arcata. Once his own waiting list for instruments was six months long, he branched out alone, founding J Romero Banjos as a company in 2002, since when he has forged a reputation as one of the most prestigious boutique makers.
Pharis, born in Horsefly (and with an impressive CV of early competitive operat- ic and classical piano performance as well as a childhood role in her family’s touring country band), joined the company in 2007 after they married. Using her graphic design training, Pharis takes care of the exquisite inlay and onlay on the instru- ments – crafting customised intricate designs by hand.
The attention to detail in their instru- ments – the tone, the action, the aging and patina of the materials – is obsessive. Making four or five banjos per month for a broad clientele including some of the finest players, from Ricky Skaggs to Dirk Powell to Martin Simpson, they currently have a waiting list of two and half years.
But this is only one part of their story: instrument making is happily married to their own playing and passion for vintage American music.
For Jason, “the music has always been intertwined with the actual instrument.
Because I was so drawn to the instru- ment, I was pulled back and back to its his- tory… which, in turn, was the history of the music. I spent years studying and playing traditional music. I was in a bluegrass band for a long time. I love bluegrass banjo. I also had an old-time band where we focused on the Appalachian string band sound. I wasn’t really listening to anything modern at all – still don’t really! There’s only a few new bands that I really the like the sounds of – the sounds and textures.”
P
haris: “Jason is fanatical about tone. I think that comes from both the player and the builder. I am fanatical about the sound, but I also
love words. If there’s a phrase in a song that catches me, I can find a way to get into that song.”
As a duo, Pharis and Jason now have two CDs available: A Passing Glimpse (mainly trad arr and early country covers) and the recent Long Gone Out West Blues which features more original material. Most of the songwriting credits belong to Pharis, who has developed her writing skills over a number of years performing with different bands.
“I’ve never been driven to be a solo
singer-songwriter. I’m not interested in playing music by myself. I’m more interest- ed in musical community and the magic that happens with other people and the way that strengthens your own musicality. I thrive on that… We love nothing more than having a raging old-time fiddle jam, with three people knee-to-knee and the most intense groove you can imagine. ”
She became smitten by the sound of old-time music when she went to her first jam whilst at college: “I converted immedi- ately. It was like a switch went off in my brain. All I wanted to do was listen to old 78s… for years!”
A meeting of hearts and minds, Pharis and Jason started playing music together as soon as they met. At first, in the Haints Old Time String Band with fiddler Erynn Marshall, then putting out an album out, backing their favourite West Coast old- time fiddlers, before committing to a duo career. The music that they now make together is mellow and meditative, infused with warmth and intimacy. Close har- monies and unassumingly dexterous pick- ing combine on a range of old-time materi- al and new songs. Jason offers credit to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings here in terms of “recalibrating people’s ears.”
“We don’t go for very complex arrangements – we tend toward more sim- plistic, stripped down stuff, where every- thing is a little more naked and a little more terrifying!”
Not hungry for fame and limelight, the day job keeps this pair well grounded. Balancing the business with a few weeks’ touring per year, regular teaching and per- forming at summer fiddle-gatherings and festivals is a luxury they relish.
“We get to play music for the sake of playing music. The joy of it. No pretention. No hoping to gain something. It’s incredi- bly liberating for us.”
pharisandjason.com F
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