Search - Michael J. Miles :: The Magic Banjo

This recording features the music from Miles' one man show, The Magic Banjo, which has been featured at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and for an extended run at Chicago's renowned Pegasus Players Theatre. A musical portrait, The Magic Banjo is a one-person theatrical piece in four scenes, featuring musical and written works of Pete Seeger, Carl Sandburg, Woody Guthrie, Walt Whitman, Johann Sebastian Bach and others. It also includes hilarious, fictitious moments in history celebrated in episodes of "And the banjo was there." Seven different banjos are used including a Vega Whyte Ladye built in the 1800's, an octagon fretless, a Civil War minstrel banjo and an African 3-string Halam carved from a tree trunk. The sounds include folk songs, ragtime, union songs, train songs, and a few of Miles' own compositions. The recording features Miles superb musical skills. He has been voted one of America's top ten clawhammer banjo players by a Banjo Newsletter Reader's Survey.