Ken Perlman | Deering Live - Ep. 58

Ken Perlman is a pioneer of the 5-string banjo style known as melodic clawhammer; he is considered one of today’s top clawhammer players, known in particular for his skillful adaptations of Celtic, Appalachian, & Canadian fiddle tunes to the style.

As well as touring throughout most of the English-speaking world, Ken is a recording artist, a banjo camp director, and author of multiple widely used banjo instructional books.

His latest recording is called Frails & Frolics, while his latest instruction book is named Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo (Mel Bay Publications)

[RichardPerry-vh]

Great interview. I bought your book a year ago Ken and I am working through it tune by tune.

[loishornbostel]

I got to see Ken pioneer melodic clawhammer for Irish music in NYC in the mid '70s. I love his explanation for playing jigs on a 5-string clawhammer banjo!

[nancy-comments]

Wow... so much useful stuff here...explaining different right hand techniques, accents, drive, pauses, etc. It really opens up the possibilities for achieving a "better" tune or rather a better way of expressing a tune. I love the explanation and demo of changing a reel to an air. Thank you so much.

[dougmiller]

Brilliant..great to see and hear you again Ken.learned lots....from PEI..and learning clawhammer

[ramakisoradasa]

I missed the live, enjoyed watching post live, great segment with Ken.

[markdemo]

Good idea to have Ken back for a PEI segment on Deering Live.

[bernarddoherty]

I took out your book from the library and never returned it. I never learned clawhammer banjo per SE but I learned how to fingerpick. I was going to see if I could get a copy somewhere and bring it back. It was in the Brighton MA library

[chas]

How is Perlman playing the triplets around 27:00?/ See 57, 00