I want to add some banjo music to my collection and need some advice?

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, (the late) John Hartford.

Definitely not traditional







Very traditional.

Béla Fleck comes to mind.
Earl Scruggs

Jerry Garcia was a super banjo player...

Alison Krause + Union Station Live
Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder Live in Charleston

Probably my two favorite bluegrass records. Not necessarily "banjo music but there's plenty of banjo on them.

Anything Earl Scruggs played is great. Del McCoury Band is good. My other favorite traditional bluegrass band is the Osborne Brothers.

Definitely Fleck and Scruggs.
Also check out The Avett Brothers

I had a guy bookmarked that I heard on here and lost the bookmark somehow. I check the others out.

Steve Martin, the comedian, is quite the banjo player. He plays some with a band called the Steep Canyon Rangers and they put on quite a show.

Check out "Mountain Dew" by the Stanley Brothers - good stuff AND intentionally humorous, and traditional. The Stanley Brothers have much more to offer but that is perhaps my favorite of theirs. (The same song was, I'm sure, performed by others along the way).

Also on the traditional side, almost anything by The Dillards. This is the real-life group that portrayed the Darling family on "The Andy Griffith Show." Many personal favorites of mine that they perform, including "Old Man at the Mill" and "There is a Time."

 
I also tend to like the real traditional players. Pete and his brother Mike Seeger were pioneers in popularizing the banjo in the 1950's and on. Pete went the way of liberal politics, but still a great technical player. Mike formed up The New Lost City Ramblers, which kept traditional music alive for a number of decades. Mike here playing clawhammer/frailing style.
 
Bill Cheatham:
 

 
Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btCVJlJgeq0
 
 
And we cannot leave out Uncle Dave Macon, who was the star of the Grand Ole Oprey from the 1920's to the 1940's. His style is the old time clawhammer way of picking (which Steve Martin has carried on).
 
Casey Jones/Old Dan Tucker:
 

 
Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8b-Pbr2GVQ
 

for some more traditional banjo picking, my cousin Little Roy Lewis is a good one. The "Earl" he is referring to is Earl Scruggs as they were great friends. I was fortunate to meet him at a few events. (I am not the one videoing this, fwiw.)



Here's Little Roy and Earl playing, I believe, Train 45 down in Lincolnton, GA (my family hometown.)

+1 for Bela and Del McCoury,

The Benders (I particularly like their second album from 2001, with tracks like Donna Lee).

Also check out Danny Barnes.

Jens Kruger for the win.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLyM4gCrn1k


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXY6scMwsio

With Steve Martin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOUKCmhxwGw

Never understood why it was called Dueling Banjos, when one of them is a guitar.

 
An old favorite, from Independence VA, and a regular at the Galax VA festival, Wade Ward with Sally Ann:
 

 
Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l940ZYKlHdU
 

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
Never understood why it was called Dueling Banjos, when one of them is a guitar.

It was originally written and recorded with a 4-string and a 5-string banjo.

Hank Williams Jr. Foggy Mountain Breakdown

John Hartford - Gum Tree Canoe

Ashley Campbell (Glen Campbells daughter)

Buck Trent

Roy Clark

Trampled by Turtles (One of my favorite bands)










Devil Makes Three




Old and in the Way - Jerry Garcia played Banjo in this project.

Otis Taylor's album Recapturing the Banjo.

And for fun, anything by The Cleverlys.