The biggest buzz I have ever had was hearing Fairport playing one of my tunes –‘Retreat from Santa Ponsa’ – with Ric Sanders really going for it as Dave Mattacks drives them along at full tilt. Playing it on stage with them was a terrifying thrill but hearing it played back on tape was a satisfying joy – and I have not had many of them!
Can you elaborate on your playing style – both for guitar and banjo? Is it a ‘standard’ style or a hybrid?
When I started I could fingerpick with one finger and the thumb quite quickly. It took a few years to move on to two fingers and even longer to involve the third finger. I now pick with all four fingers and the thumb. The heel of my right hand rests on the bridge and I use a thumb pick and plastic nails secured by industrial strength superglue.
Using your whole hand means you can be as sparse or as fancy as you feel you should be. You can also ‘roll’, which is creating a continuous stream of notes, within a series of chord shapes that follow the melody of the song. This can sound very effective and dynamic – particularly in DADGAD.
My banjo style is totally hybrid - part bluegrass roll, two fingers and thumb with the third finger resting on the vellum for support - and part a kind of ‘frailling’, brushing my nails across the strings and picking out a bass line with my thumb pick. I often make the purists frown by using both styles in one song, Appalachia and Kentucky in the same tune is considered to be banjo blasphemy! If I continue in this fashion I will almost certainly be excombanjomated.
What gear do you currently use?
I play a matched pair of oldish Martin DI8s (1971 and 1978) and use standard, DADGAD, open G and dropped D tunings. Both Martins have active ‘Headway’ pickups by John Littler – a fine English gizmo maker. They run through a four- into-one mini mixer and onwards to an original ‘Fishman Aura’ editable pedal.
I heard James Taylor using this equipment ‘live’ when it first appeared and could not believe there was such fine ‘acoustic’ tone and clarity with no microphone, and therefore no feedback. So I got one. It takes a bit of getting into but gives me what I have spent my whole professional life trying to achieve – a pure, unadulterated, acoustic sound which can be as large as it needs to be without the monitor howling – the bane of an acoustic guitarist’s stage life.
For solo gigs I run everything into a Yamaha Stagepass
P.A.system, which is punchy, clear and much more powerful than its size would suggest.
I also use a 1974 Gibson Mastertone Banjo with a Shadow bridge pick-up. I bought this from Gruhun’s famous music store in Nashville after a three-day haggle ended with an exhausted salesman surrendering, a handshake – then it was mine!
For festivals, where there is often little time for sound checks, etc, I use my Yamaha Compass CPX8 acoustic.
undersaddle pickup and an internal condenser mic that gets mixed in. Used with a rubber sound hole plug to minimise the feedback, it’s a very versatile instrument for writing I am exceptionally lucky.
It has a built-in EQ and volume,
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