Frank Proffit

[Nartker]

I have seen several references to Frank Proffit and to Proffit Style Banjos
recently. Can anyone tell be about the man and his banjos?

Thanks

Nartker @ AOL.com

Nartker

[Steve Goldfield]

Frank Proffit was recorded (in 1939?) by the Warners
singing "Tom Dooley," which later passed into American
popular culture via the Kingston Trio. His banjos (sometimes
called mountain banjos) are constructed with a wood pot. The
pot has a sort of shelf on which the head, stretched over a
wood cylinder, sits. The strings press it down. I've got a
similar banjo, though not made by him. I think Frank Proffit,
Jr., is still around. I've got a tape of him somewhere.

Steve

In article <19990613183730...@ng-cg1.aol.com>, nar...@aol.com
(Nartker) wrote:

#I have seen several references to Frank Proffit and to Proffit Style Banjos
#recently. Can anyone tell be about the man and his banjos?
#
#Thanks
#
#
#Nartker @ AOL.com
#
#Nartker
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8
Steve Goldfield Oakland, CA stev...@best.com
http://www.best.com/~stevesag/otfaq.html

[Stephen Kendall]

Some information about Frank Proffit and his life can be found in
Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne and Frank Warner
Collection by Anne Warner. This was published in 1984 by the Syracuse
University Press. The banjo player on the cover, Buma Hicks, is playing
a banjo similar to the Proffit style. The banjo might have been made by
Stanley Hicks, whose work if included in Foxfire 3.

Steve

[Peter Feldmann]

Re. Re: Frank Proffit, Steve Goldfield wrote:
>Frank Proffit was recorded (in 1939?) by the Warners
>
>singing "Tom Dooley," which later passed into American
>popular culture via the Kingston Trio. His banjos (sometimes
>called mountain banjos) are constructed with a wood pot. The
>pot has a sort of shelf on which the head, stretched over a
>wood cylinder, sits. The strings press it down. I've got a
>similar banjo, though not made by him. I think Frank Proffit,
>Jr., is still around. I've got a tape of him somewhere.

I got a chance to spend three days with Frank back in '61. He was a fine
baritone singer- ballads and play party songs, and played guitar, his own
hand-made banjo, and a lap dulcimer. He told me that his grandfather wrote
the song Tom Dooley.

I have one of his home made, fretless banjos. The head is made of groudhog
hide, streched over a 1 inch section of stovepipe for a rim, tucked away
inside a cherry wood rim. Because the head is necessarily small, the sound
is unusually quiet for a banjo, but pretty. Frank used piano wire for the
strings.

His music can be heard on Folkways and Folk Legacy records, and his son,
Frank proffitt Jr. is still performing.

__Peter Feldmann
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