Professor Patrick Carmichael

Since about 2008 I have played the five-string banjo (mainly old-time and ‘mountain’ style, rather than bluegrass). My initial target was just to be able to play a passable version of ‘This Land is Your Land’, but having achieved this, I have continued to play and have developed a wider repertoire …

I have several banjos at present, including a Countryman California and a Vintage Eagle, and also an Appalacian dulcimer: an unusual little four-stringed instrument which is (usually) played horizontally (a bit like a steel guitar).

My main influences are probably Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Dock Boggs. I also play rescored banjo versions of pieces by groups like the Carter Family.

Update: I’ve now acquired a vintage Essex and Cammeyer ‘classical’ banjo built in about 1896.  This is a very different kind of instrument from the other banjos in my small collection and despite its age plays very well.

Albert Cammeyer was an American who came to the UK in 1888 and formed a partnership with Clifford Essex which lasted until 1900.  He is associated with the development of the ‘Zither Banjo’ (a closed-back banjo variant) but the Cammeyer and Essex company also made more conventional open-backed banjos (athough, compared to those shown above, the stock is shorter and quite ‘chunky’).

The illustration here is of a very similar example to mine, of which more pictures will follow.