EGGLESTON, Va. (AP) - At the end of a road that goes from asphalt to gravel to dirt, Greg Galbreath crafts Appalachia’s instrument.
Inside a homey woodshop, he’s bringing the story of an owl and mouse to life in pearl on the ebony and cherry wood that will shape a banjo.
The owl perches on the head of his banjo under a waxing crescent moon. On the neck of the instrument, a new scene develops with a fluttering wing and a retreating rodent tail. On the back, the mouse sits eating a snack - instead of becoming one.
The pearl inlays are detailed and typical of Galbreath’s custom old-time banjos. Galbreath owns and operates Buckeye Banjos at the foot of Buckeye Mountain in Giles County. The one-man shop won’t produce more than 20 banjos this year, but it will still help him scratch out a living.
“It’s the perfect thing for me,” Galbreath said. “I work well alone.”
And the one-man banjo business is booming. In the 10 years of Buckeye Banjos’ existence he’s made numerous banjos for musicians across the country, and he’s filled orders for banjo pickers in Northern Europe.
He recently had to stop adding to his list as the orders piled up: By his own estimation, the more than 40 orders left won’t be done until the end of 2017. Galbreath said he spends more than 40 hours a week in the shop. He used to do a couple dozen banjos in a year but this year he hopes to complete 18 - a result of intricate designs that come with complex orders.
“Because they’ve gotten more intricate, I’m slow,” he said.
Debby Freed, a Blacksburg woman who ordered the owl-themed banjo, put her name on Galbreath’s waiting list two years ago.
“The quality of Greg’s banjos is unsurpassed,” said Freed, a member of local band The Hoyt Street Hot Shots. “It’s a remarkable sound made by a remarkable musician and banjo maker.”
Galbreath, 45, is one of a few skilled banjo makers nationwide who specialize in custom old-time banjos and maintains a lengthy waiting list, said Richard Jones-Bamman, a musicologist based at Eastern Connecticut State University. Jones-Bamman is currently researching a book about old-time banjo music and makers.
Old-time banjos are made with a traditional style of the mid-19th century and differ from bluegrass banjos in that they have open backs rather than a resonator, he said. The musical style has become more popular in recent years across the country.
“There’s something about that music that speaks to something going on in American culture,” Jones-Bamman said. “Maybe it’s dissatisfaction with overt commercialism that we can’t escape with popular music?
“Periodically we collectively rediscover this instrument. It’s inscribed in who we are.”
Cultivating an old-time passion
Galbreath grew up in a rural area on the eastern shore of Maryland. He then went to Virginia Tech, where he majored in biology.
Despite his proximity to old-time music in the mid-Atlantic, it wasn’t until Galbreath was pursuing his master’s degree at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., that he said he found old-time music while listening with a friend.
“I think the initial attraction was its raw energy and power,” Galbreath said. “It was so dramatic that I can still remember … the exact tune, when a friend first played an old-time tape for me: It was a field recording of the Red Hots from the 1986 Galax Fiddler’s Convention.”
After a year spent exploring South America in the mid-1990s, Galbreath came back to Southwest Virginia to try and connect with the music he’d come to love.
He turned to old-time banjo musician Mac Traynham of Floyd to help make the connection.
Initially, it started out with Galbreath working at Traynham’s custom cabinet shop, which was located in Christiansburg at the time, and asking for banjo-playing lessons.
Those lessons evolved into a lesson in making banjos. At that time, Traynham hadn’t made banjos for more than a decade because he was focusing on his cabinet business and playing music, but Galbreath’s interest struck a chord.
“He was inspiring me some,” Traynham said. “He was doing his own research (about) other banjos from the golden era of the late 1800s and early 20th century.”
Galbreath still has that first banjo he made, but the complexity of the banjos he makes has grown greatly since that original. Galbreath specializes in creating a rich sound and putting artistic inlays on his banjos.
Now, the banjos he builds range from $2,500 to $4,500, depending on how much time he spends making them. Galbreath said he’ll spend hours sketching and detailing pearl to achieve the perfect look for a client.
Banjo makers like Galbreath are an important part of the old-time music world, Jones-Bamman said. Those who are as talented as Galbreath even have a way of altering the landscape.
“They provide this remarkable service by enabling others to play,” Jones-Bamman said. “Simultaneously in the realm of old-time music these are individuals. who subtly are directing the trends in old-time music.”
What makes Galbreath unique is the fact that he plays as much as he builds, Jones-Bamman said. It’s an endearing quality for the musicians who purchase his work.
An instrument that ’spoke to me’
When Hubby Jenkins of Carolina Chocolate Drops first picked up a Galbreath-made banjo, he said, he was in love.
Jenkins, who is currently touring with Chocolate Drops singer Rhiannon Giddens, was at a recording session in Floyd two years ago when he picked up a banjo belonging to Joseph “Joebass” DeJarnette and started strumming.
“Where’d you get this? What is this amazing instrument?” Jenkins said he asked DeJarnette.
DeJarnette explained it was a Buckeye Banjo made by Galbreath. Jenkins said he needed one, so DeJarnette emailed Galbreath that night.
When Galbreath delivered the banjo a few months later, it was a simple instrument with little ornamentation, but it packs remarkable sound, Jenkins said.
“When I first got it that’s all I played,” Jenkins said. “I didn’t touch a guitar, I didn’t talk to any of my friends, I don’t think I touched a woman when I first got it.
“It was just this banjo that inspired me to do certain things just from having it constantly.”
Jenkins said it helped him get in touch with old-time black banjo players like Rufus Kasey and inspired his covers of classic old-time music like the song “Coo Coo.”
Nathan Bowles, who has solo albums and plays banjo in The Black Twig Pickers, bought his banjo in 2010 before Buckeye Banjos was inundated with custom orders.
Galbreath was selling several banjos at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia, when Bowles approached him.
“I played it then I walked around with it for a little bit and then I was just like, I need that banjo,” Bowles said. “It made itself very clear to me that it was an instrument that spoke to me.”
The Buckeye banjo had a major influence on Bowles’ solo work, namely his banjo-heavy solo albums “A Bottle, A Buckeye” and “Nansemond.”
“It’s rewired a bunch of stuff in my brain in a really open way that’s made me a better and more sympathetic musician,” Bowles said. “Whenever I play another banjo I’m reminded of how dependent I am on Greg’s banjo.”
Debby Freed, who manages Virginia Tech’s alternative transportation program, has been saving money for a year to buy the owl banjo she looks forward to playing. Any penny she’s made from gigs or selling her ceramic art has been invested.
After two years of anticipation, she said, it’s a relief that the banjo is almost finished. The new banjo will be great. It will have a unique timber. It’s a dream instrument.
“I can’t wait to get my hands on it,” Freed said.
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Information from: The Roanoke Times, https://www.roanoke.com
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