Sonny Smith

Louisville, KY — National Champion bluegrass banjo player Sonny Smith will conduct a free banjo workshop for all interested players (and players-to-be) at Steilberg String Instruments in Louisville, Ky., at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17.

Smith is a three-finger devotee who spends most of his time playing banjo and fiddle in the Smokey Mountain Jamboree as well as a regularly performing at Dollywood.

He was the 1996 winner of the National Banjo Championships in Winfield, Kan., and the runner up in this year’s contest.

The workshop is the result of Smith’s partnership with Washburn Guitars, which is now market a new Sonny Smith Model Banjo, which was designed with Smith’s assistance. Through Washburn, Smith is doing a few select appearances showing and discussing his approach to the instrument.

Details are available at http://www.stringinstruments.com/comingattractions.htm

Steilberg String Instruments, meanwhile, is gaining some regional notoriety for its new monthly old-time jam sessions at the store.

Hosted by David Brooks, this event happens one Wednesday night each month in the store’s concert room. The idea was to get together like-minded folks who are working on (or wish to be working on) standard old-time and fiddle tune repertoire. The sessions are 90-minutes long.

All of the tunes are taken at easier tempos than players normally find at a jam so the focus can be put on technique, playing cleanly and learning new tunes.

The jams have drawn banjo players, mandolinists, guitarists, fiddlers and hammer dulcimer players.