Click the picture to watch an 8-Part interview Tony recorded with Pete Seeger in 2009

Tony Trischka on Pete Seeger:

I grew up with Pete’s banjo ringing in my ears. My parents were on the left side of things in the fifties and we listened to Weavers albums, Pete’s children’s records on Folkways, and Talking Union by the Almanac Singers.

The iconic folk singer and banjo player Pete Seeger has passed away at the age of 94, he was a long time friend of Tony Trischka. ArtistWorks has lost a friend as well. 

"There are all the amazing things he did for this country, but he was also just a remarkable banjo player. He was doing things, creatively, that nobody else was doing." - Tony Trischka

Read more about Pete Seeger on Syracuse.com where Tony called to share some stories and memories. 

It's been a huge year for Nathan East: touring the world as the bassist for Toto and Fourplay, playing bass on Daft Punk's Grammy winning album Random Access Memories, new bass lessons for his online students, recording his first solo album... and that only begins to cover it!

UPDATE: Daft Punk's Random Access Memories took home 5 awards at the 2014 Grammys: Record of the Year (for the hit single "Get Lucky"), Album of the Year, Electronic Album of the year, Best Engineered Album, and Best Pop Group Performace ("Get Lucky"). 

We had a chance to interview Nathan while he was here recording some new bass lessons recently. It was a lot of fun asking him all kinds of questions, here's just a few of the highlights:

Here's a new 7-part mandolin lesson on using the Circle of 5ths. Mike breaks down the logic of how to use the circle of 5ths for mandolin and how to find common patterns to use and gives you some new ways to work out relationships between keys. He's also put together 2-5-1 patterns for every key around the circle, giving you an expansive way to practice and familiarize these concepts. There are useful diagrams attached to the lesson page for you to print out and use in your own practice spaces. 

This is also a new VE category, so feel free to submit your 2-5-1 and Circle of 5th related questions and performances directly to the topic now. Find it in the Additional Lessons & More sections of the lessons! 

The incredibly talented Bob James has been playing with Nathan East since the early days of Fourplay almost 25 years ago. Bob recently played on Nathan's upcoming solo album, Nathan East, and was asked to reflect on his long-time friend/bandmate. He recalls how they first were introduced while he was looking for a bass player for his latest group, Fourplay:

"I didn't know the LA scene that well so I asked both Harvey [Mason] and Lee [Ritenour] separately who'd they recommend to be our bass player. They both, independently, came up with the same name: Nathan East.

He's achieved tremendous success. Everyone surrounding him knows it. But that doesn't define him to me. Probably one of the big reasons he's so successful is that he doesn't think that way. He just thinks that at any given moment, whoever he's making music with, that he's just going to be giving it his best. It's really easy to talk about Nathan East, he's just a great guy. It would be hard to talk about him in a critical way, I can't even think about anything to be critical about - except that it took him 25 years to make his first solo album. Now he's doing it, and that makes me happy." - Bob James

Check out this special performance from FreshGrass 2013 which features Darol Anger on fiddle and Emy Phelps on vocals, plus some other great musicians including Alison Brown on banjo, Joe Walsh on mandolin, Grant Gordy on guitar, and Ethan Jodziewicz on bass. This was the first year for this new Bluegrass festival which takes place in Northern Massachusetts. Click on the picture to watch the video and find out about the FreshGrass festival at the link!

Good news, we just uploaded a whole new section to the Mandolin school. This was footage we recorded when Tony was here filming new banjo lessons for his students, Mike came by to join in on the fun too. It's a mix of jamming and discussion and there's lots of new stuff to check out. The new section is located in Music+ / Special Guests / Mike Talks with Tony Trischka. 

New tunes / topics include:

• Paddy on the Turnpike
• Ditzy & Zesty
• Mandolin and Banjo Concepts
• Soldiers Joy
• Soldiers Joy (performance in Key of E)
• Billy in the Lowground (performance and analysis)
• Brazilian Choro (2 parts)
• Groundspeed
• Blackberry Blossom
• John Henry

  

  Good news, we just uploaded a whole new section to the Mandolin school. This was footage we recorded when Tony was here filming new banjo lessons for his students, Mike came by to join in on the fun too. It's a mix of jamming and discussion and there's lots of new stuff to check out. The new section is located in Music+ / Special Guests / Mike Talks with Tony Trischka. 

  New tunes / topics include:

  • Paddy on the Turnpike
  • Ditzy & Zesty
  • Mandolin and Banjo Concepts
  • Soldiers Joy
  • Soldiers Joy (performance in Key of E)
  • Billy in the Lowground (performance and analysis)
  • Brazilian Choro (2 parts)
  • Groundspeed
  • Blackberry Blossom
  • John Henry

We just uploaded a new clawhammer banjo lesson on a classic tune some of you may be familiar with. Find it in the Clawhammer section of the lessons!

What makes your work a study as opposed to a painting? There's a clue in the picture, read more on the Artist Daily blog! 

Excited to let you all know about a new special guest: Dweezil Zappa. This is a really great interview that features some incredible playing and insightful topics. Find it in the Special Guests area in Music+, or click on the picture for a direct link to Part 1! For more on Dweezil's music, touring, and albums go to  http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/