A Thread on the Oxford American Article
The following thread appeared on the U.C. Davis board for banjo enthusiasts in reaction to the "Banjo" article in the Oxford American that Steve wrote. Some of it is negative, some positive -- but it's here so you can evaluate it for yourself. I have gathered it together because it's easier to read this way. However, you can trace it for yourself. I can't give you the exact place to start, but try
http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/banjo-l/log9908/0702.html. Good luck.
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katharine B. Thompson ([email protected])
Sun, 15 Aug 1999 01:03:31 -0400
Well, I kept hoping someone would beat me to it, but no such luck. The summer issue of "The Oxford American" ("The Southern Magazine of Good Writing") is billed as "the Third Annual Double Issue on Southern Music" and along with some thoughtful articles about Doc Watson, June Cash, Leadbelly, etc., there's an article titled "Banjo" by Steve Martin (yes, that one). It includes an extended and amusing description of the compulsive banjo addiction that will be familiar to most if not all correspondents to this list. Martin, like his first mentor, John McEuen, was from southern California, which has indeed produced some passable southern music over the years, most notably the hillbilly rock of Bakersfield, which is not mentioned in the magazine. Martin includes Doug Dillard, a genuine southerner (I think Arkansas qualifies), among his influences. Other than that we hear about Taj Mahal, Dick Weissman, Bill Keith, and Eric Weissberg - fine musicians, all, but with questionable credentials as southerners (yes, I know, Mr. Monroe too Bill Keith in, briefly).
It's really kind of a shame that with all the talented and knowledgable writers around (even including many non-southerner correspondents to this list) that the most quintessentially southern musical instrument should be represented by someone who obviously knows almost nothing about the origins of the instrument or the traditional music that lies behind modern southern banjo music. What about Doc Boggs, Charlie Poole, Uncle Dave Macon, Snuffy Jenkins, Grandpa Jones, Earl Scruggs (he does get a mention), Sonny Osborne and the many contemporary exponents of this essentially southern form of music?
Just before I sat down to write this I caught a Saturday Night live rerun of Martin, with arrow through the head, doing an amusing parody of a '60s ersatz folk song, capped off almost as an afterthought, with a small amount of smooth and well-executed Scruggs picking. Well, at least he knows how to play the banjo, even if he doesn't know anything else about it.
A couple of other examples from the magazine help to further call into question its claim to present writing about southern music: Bob Dylan in Oxford Town is classic folk revival, but neither he nor Dusty Springfield seem to me to have anything palpable to do with southern music. The R. Crumb cartoon might be worth the price of the magazine, however, and there's one or two cuts on the enclosed CD that are fun -- I've been a sucker for the Burritos' California Country since they first appeared. The clincher though is the inclusion of Greil Marcus, who consistently offers up drivel on any subject he cares to wave a tentacle at (can anybody tell, I'll never recover from his liner notes on the Revenant Doc Boggs re-issue?).
Steve Martin fans may like the full-page picture of him as a teen-ager, holding his banjo, and maybe someday the Oxford American will wake up and do a story on southern banjo playing.
Tim Thompson
Persnickety Pedant
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C Smith ([email protected])
Sun, 15 Aug 1999 08:36:21 -0400
For those so afflicted, there is a long interview with Steve Martin in the latest issue of Rolling Stone which includes a picture of The Great One and His Banjo. One of the great things about entertainment is that we each are entitled to our own opinion nomatter how unfair or wrong minded it might be. My take on Steve Martin has not been very positive (I am making nice) and personally I wish he would forget the banjo entirely. For an editor to select him to write about Southern Music is itself a vacuous joke in poor taste that reveals the possibility that for every slope browed slack jawed banjo player there is an equally slope browed slack jawed (acronym: SBSJ) editor to match.
(The remainder of this diatribe has been deleted to protect the easily bored. And to that lonely but dedicated Steve Martin fan out there that wants to flame me, go ahead, but just remember that I am old enough to know when I am being opinionated and young enough to cling to my own personal nonsense far beyond any value it may have to me or anyone else. <G)
Carroll, I always thought the arrow went all the way through, Smith
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Sun, 15 Aug 1999 09:00:43 EDT
Dear Listers,
I heartily agree, that Steve Martin is by no means the person I would pick to write about "Southern Music", but at least he is a banjo player. I mean they could have asked a harmonica player, and then where would we be. Just maybe, he's the only banjo player that editor knows...... hey, some people think that John Lithgow can play just because he holds a banjo in a TV commercial. He is really a pompous fellow, and I really hope not a banjo player. That may be another oxymoron "pompous banjo player", as it is truly a humbling instrument. Well back to switiching these darn TV programs.
Regards,
Dropthumb
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From: Jeff Bush <[email protected]
To: <[email protected]
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 1999 10:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Southern music by Steve Martin and other oxymorons]
hey,
Maybe so, but shouldn't Steve know enough to know that he doesn't know enough, and point the writer in the proper direction? Surely Steve is informed to a point that he should be able to do that. If someone asked me to give a lecture about horticulture just because I had a nice flower garden, I'd have to refer them to Ralph Snodgrass. But then, maybe to get a big story about me in Oxford American?... ya never know.
Clint Eastwood said: "A man's gotta know his limitations."
Was the article really about "Southern Music"(sic) or perhaps it was really about "Steve Martin, Mercenary with Agenda."
some people think that John Lithgow can play just because he holds a banjo in a TV commercial. He is really a pompous fellow, and I really hope not a banjo
You know Lithgow? I've heard stories about him, but certainly not enough to make a statement of fact about his pomposity. But we digress...
c/ya
Jeff ([email protected])
"We are Crowe, you will be assimilated"
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From: Joseph Wages <[email protected]
To: <[email protected]
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 1999 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Southern music by Steve Martin and other oxymorons]
Sometimes we miss the point. Who wants to hear what Joe Wages has to say about the banjo? Probably my wife and children. Who wants to hear what Steve Martin has to say about most anything? Most everyone who has seen him on TV or in the movies.
Pick on
Joe Wages
Itinerant Picker (up) of the banjar
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http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/banjo-l/log9908/0702.html
Re: [Southern music by Steve Martin and other oxymorons]
Michael I. Holmes ([email protected])
Sun, 15 Aug 1999 11:50:43 -0400
Steve Martin has a big picture coming out this weekend. It co-stars another SNL alumnus, Eddie Murphy. Martin, and his distributor, have managed a huge advertising tie-in set to promote him and the movie. Even SNL did a retrospective of the "Best of Steve Martin" which to my mind is "none-to-good" but then, no one asked me.
Mike Auldridge (dobro player with the Seldom Scene and more recently Chesapeake, and a "super sideman") told me an interesting story. He was at a picking party after one of his recording sessions in California. He turned around and thought to himself "That's Steve Martin. I'm picking next to Steve Martin." with which, Steve Martin turned to Mike and said,"Hey, I'm picking with Mike Auldridge."
My information is that John Lithgow can play the banjo, and although he plays pompous, outlandish characters, he is really quite down to earth (deliberate pun) -- for a banjo player.
Michael I. Holmes, Publisher
Mugwumps Online
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From: katharTim Thompson <[email protected]
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 1999 12:03 AM
Martin includes Doug Dillard, a genuine southerner (I think Arkansas qualifies), among his influences. Other than that we hear about Taj Mahal, Dick Weissman, Bill Keith, and Eric Weissberg - fine musicians, all, but with questionable credentials as southerners (yes, I know, Mr. Monroe too Bill Keith in, briefly).
Actually, Doug Dillard is from Missouri - I'm just curious as to why someone has to be from the south to play southern music? I'm from the south and wish I could play like Bill Keith or Eric Weissberg.
At least Steve Martin is more palatable to me than the character in "Deliverance" that made Dueling Banjos famous or the Beverly Hillbillies. It's obvious that he does have a genuine love and interest in the banjo.
My .02!
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Steve Martin ([email protected]) Sun, 15 Aug 1999 12:09:08 -0500
To all of of you who have trashed my recent magazine articles:
Well, EXCCCUUUUSSSEEE ME!
your friend in picking;
Steve
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Marc Perdue ([email protected])
Sun, 15 Aug 1999 19:34:38 -0400
Moohoohaahaaha!!! I love it!! So which one of you wild and crazy Banjo-L-ites signed up for free email on Juno in Steve Martin's name? I mean, you don't really expect us to believe that Steve Martin himself would deign to join such a group of persons of dubious intent and questionable character? Hee hee hee, what a concept!!
From a gin-you-whine Southern musician,
Marc Perdue