Bones Links
Boris Sichon Is a very accomplished bones player, and multi-instrumentalist.
Check out a YouTube video of him demonstrating
the bones, with a bit of him playing with the Irish band "Triska!" at the end.
In September 2006, I got a set of bones from Clif Ervin,
and they're quite nice. Clif plays on four tracks of Old Time Banjo
by Allen Hart, including Chilly Winds and
Josh Thomas's Roustabout, samples from the web page.
I found out he lives just about 60 miles from me, and I saw his band
The Lowdown Ramblers
in October 2006, they were good fun. I talked to Clif and he told me of a recording of him and
Dan Gellert playing
Black-Eyed Susie, which is very nice!
My pal Lucas Hicks plays a
suitcase drumkit, including bones and spoons, in his band
The Gallus Brothers. He also plays saxophone in
Jill Brazil,
and banjo in The Brent Coalminers and The Tanglers. I'll often sit in on bones in his groups. Good stuff all.
Saltpeter is another group I play with, two guitars, bones, and occasionally banjo and
concertina. Rough & tumble traditional songs, sea shanties, and ballads.
Rhythm Bones Central, a large site with articles, an events calendar, and more. They sponsor
the yearly "Bones Fest" on the east coast of the United States.
Yahoo! Groups: rhythmbones, an online forum for bones players.
Brother Bones (Freeman Davis), known for his whistling and
bones playing on Sweet Georgia Brown, as used by the Harlem Globetrotters. This site has several sound samples from 78s.
John Burrill, also known as "Mr. Bones." His playing with
Spider John Koerner was the first I'd heard, and inspired me to learn about
and to play the bones.
Richard Thomas, one of many players known as "Mr. Bones."
Stephen Brown, winner of the
All-Ireland Bones Playing Championship in 2003 and 2004.
Artis the Spoonman, who also plays bones, is an amazing player immortalized in the
Soundgarden song Spoonman. I met him in March of 2004, gabbed a bit, heard him play, and took
some photos.
Ted Duckett was an accomplished English bones player and step dancer.
Chlefeli
are a Swiss folk version of the bones, also known as
Klepperle in German. I found an
audio sample (300K) of chlefeli playing on a Swiss website,
from the album aus der Tellreihe: Glanzlichter der Volksmusik. You can also
buy them there (for about $20 a pair). Here's
some more information and pictures.
SwissFolklore.
William Sidney Mount was an American painter and amateur musician, whose paintings
The Bones Player from 1856 and
The Power of Music from 1847 are favorites of mine.
Rap, rap, rap, rap on your minstrel bones,
a novelty recording from 1912. There are many great recordings on this site.
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