By: Megan Clark Campus Life Editor
The banjo, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, has been making a comeback. With bands like Mumford & Sons and Punch Brothers comes a slew of new appreciation for the five-stringed, twangy instrument.
It’s become so popular that its snappy strums have even graced WOU’s Smith Recital Hall. Noam Pikelny played for a gathered crowd, a performance made possible by a donation from Western’s own Dr. David Hargreaves.
Pikelny, of Punch Brothers fame, sang and played the banjo and various types of guitars, but really, his banjo playing was the highlight of the evening due to its earnest melodies, fast paced plucking, and old timey charm.
Though it seems like the hot new instrument, it’s not as common as the guitar and more technically difficult than a ukulele, another instrument that has been gaining traction in recent years.
But why is it becoming so popular? The obvious answer is that it appeals to the hipster in all of us. Perhaps it evokes a simpler time when we didn’t need found footage films to scare us, but instead found horror in an overall-clad boy playing Dueling Banjos, a la “Deliverance.”
The audience for Pikelny seemed to eat up his fiery playing style. Hannah Williams, first year music major, stated that, “The banjo is more versatile than I originally thought […] I could relate to the banjo in a way that caught me off guard in the most delightful way.”
“[Banjo players] have these ring type picks for their fingers so they can fingerpick,” said Thomas Licata, senior interdisciplinary major. He continued on to say, “using a pick instead of the fingertip gets a harder heavier sound which I generally prefer.”
With its sweetly sharp sound and its emotive melodies, the banjo is an instrument that probably won’t be going away any time soon. If the ukulele trend is anything to go off of, then pretty soon there will be Youtube covers of Adele’s “Hello” on banjo. Oh, wait, there already are.
Maybe it will eventually even overtake the guitar in popular culture. Don’t be surprised if, at your next party, a mustachioed, bow-tie-wearing young man sits down with his banjo and starts fingerpicking Oasis’s “Wonderwall.”
Contact the author at meclark13@wou.edu or on Twitter @WOU_CampusLife
