Greg Adams - Special guest and dear friend

Greg C. Adams is a musician, archivist, and researcher studying the early history and development of the banjo (ca 1620-1870). He holds a BA in Music History from Youngstown State University (2001) and a Masters of Library Science from the University of Maryland, College Park (2004). His research includes fieldwork in West Africa (2006, 2008), developing a formal work plan as Project Director for the Banjo Sightings Database Project through an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant (2009), and the general study of early American blackface minstrelsy and early banjo performance practice. In addition to his collaborative fieldwork with Jola ekonting players from the Senegambian region of West Africa, he also served as an apprentice to noted Malian master ngoni player and griot Cheick Hamala Diabate through an FY09 Maryland State Arts Council Apprenticeship award. Playing and studying the banjo since 1994, Greg has performed 19th century popular music and other traditional music at Civil War reenactments and living history events, festivals, banjo camps and conferences, and in the classroom. Greg resides in Germantown, Md. and is currently a graduate student in the Ethnomusicology Program at University of Maryland, College Park.

Home Front is, indeed, honored and pleased to be able to include Greg in our performances as his schedule and circumstances permit (if his puns don't kill us first!).