Picking Time

I love it when it comes back to picking time. There are times of the year when you just feel like you need to be picking, probably because it is the time you have historically done a lot of picking, or maybe the time you were first learning. Both those are usually the same times for me. Spring through Fall is the normal times. Spring and Fall are my favorites as the temperatures are more moderate, and the cool evenings just feel good for sitting around a picking.

Lately, I have been doing a lot more banjo picking. When I first started in 1972, I started on guitar. Then about a year later, I got my first banjo. I worked a lot on banjo and became the banjo player for our first group, The Blood Mountain Boys. For a few years, I played mostly banjo, though still did some rhythm guitar practice. Then in the early 1980's as we got down to three in our group, and especially when we went to the duo we still are, I played more guitar than Banjo. Now I have gotten the banjo bug again, and am working on some new and some different banjo tunes and songs. Even got a couple of new DVD's to help, including John Hartford - makes me miss his musical presense and spirit even more.

Just like my guitar picking, I have a long way to go to where I want to be, but I am enjoying the journey and will try to share some of that as we perform. I don't have quite as many programs set up this year as I have the last couple of years, but may add more as time goes on.

The end of April, first of May, we played for the BMW Motorcycle Owners of Georgia's Mountain Rally in Hiawassee. Then we Played Unicoi on June 5th and had a great time. This Friday, June 25th we are at the Old Union County Courthouse at 7:00 pm. We always look forward to our concert at the old courthouse. The rest of our schedule is on our website, www.buckandnelson.com , though I may need to update it a little bit.

As always, we hope to see some of you at our shows. We have a good time and hope you will also. But at least if we have a good time, then we know 2 people will.

See you down the trail.

Nelson