Resonator banjos feature metal resonators that help amplify and project the sound further than open back banjos, making them popular choices in bluegrass music.
People tend to make assumptions regarding resonator and open-back banjos, yet both types can be played similarly. Furthermore, most banjos allow their resonators to be removed for easy playability.
The Beverly Hillbillies Theme
The Beverly Hillbillies was an American sitcom from 1962-1968 that became a classic American comedy. The opening and closing themes featured banjo playing. Lyrically, listeners were encouraged to set a spell, kick off their shoes and “y’all come back now, won’t ya?”
Clawhammer banjo players gained global notoriety through this show and other programs like Hee Haw and Bonnie and Clyde, prompting many Americans to associate it with people who were unintelligent, foolish or dangerous – thus perpetuating stereotypes that all banjo playing must be associated with those traits.
Banjo maestro Bela Fleck has performed the Ballad of Jed Clampett live and recorded it with the New Lost City Ramblers for an album. Robert Winans presents cutting-edge research into its West African roots as well as adaptations in America in his book Banjo Roots and Branches.
John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads”
John Denver’s song, “Take Me Home Country Roads”, became a hit at a time when many Americans were looking backward to find comfort in familiar things and turning toward simpler times when families would gather around a kitchen table to sing together. It served as a nostalgic reminder of simpler times.
Folk and bluegrass musicians relied heavily on five-string banjos as an essential instrument, while four-string plectrum and tenor banjos became increasingly common as parlor dance music, college music clubs, and early forms of jazz bands required louder instruments that could compete with brass instruments and reed wind instruments for visibility.
At this time, resonator banjos also became increasingly popular. These 5-string instruments feature a metal flange beneath their heads to both absorb and amplify sound waves.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “O Brother Where Art Thou”
The banjo has been featured prominently in numerous musical theater productions such as Hello, Dolly!, Mame and Cabaret. Furthermore, four-string banjo has also become an essential instrument in popular genres like bluegrass and country.
30 years before their debut film, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded the three-record set Will the Circle Be Unbroken as part of an effort to bridge California musicians with Nashville’s old-line country establishment. Thanks to them and other contributors like Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, Earl Scruggs Mother Maybelle Carter and Doc Watson’s efforts helped modern bluegrass become an influential musical genre in its own right.
Clawhammer banjos, often played alongside resonator guitars, are an integral component of old-time music and an influence on bluegrass. Yet some believe clawhammer must only be played on an open-back resonator banjo! That has always seemed strange to me!
Foggy Mountain Breakdown’s “Vocal Stacking and Long Instrumental Breaks”
Foggy Mountain Breakdown features a style distinguished by vocal stacking and extended instrumental breaks, with long instrumental breaks featuring high pitched melodies typical of bluegrass music, open string strums to add movement to the song, and open string banjo strumming that provides compelling rhythm and tempo changes throughout. This song provides an excellent demonstration of how banjos can create compelling rhythmic structures within music.
Hybrid instruments that combine the banjo’s body with another stringed instrument’s neck exist today; such as the banjo mandolin and banjo ukulele. These hybrid instruments were created as dance music became increasingly popular during the early twentieth century, necessitating louder instruments to compete against brass and reed instruments for listeners’ ears.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s performances and popularity of traditional five-string resonator banjo instruments inspired younger generations to pick them up and learn them themselves, and introduced this genre outside rural Appalachia.
The Oak Ridge Boys’ “Rainy Day Girl”
As a general rule, resonator banjos tend to be louder than their open-back counterparts and feature metal resonators which enhance and project their sound, providing depth and variety into musical arrangements.
The banjo first made its mark as an instrumental feature of African American traditional music and rural folk culture before making an entrance into mainstream pop, country and rock music. Today it can be heard being utilized across multiple genres including jazz and bluegrass as well as beyond these.
Banjos can also be seen being utilized in musical theater productions like Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Cabaret and Monty Python’s Spamalot. In addition to these mainstream shows, banjos are becoming an increasingly popular instrument among acoustic singer-songwriters and are frequently played during concerts by guitarists as acoustic guitarists perform solo sets on it.