About the ‘Doc’ – aka Ian West

Blame it on the banjo.

Back in the late ’60’s when I was at college, I spent most of my free time singing in folk clubs around Manchester. Most of the singers were either finger-in-the-ear traditionalists or Tom Paxton style lyrical singers. But I was always attracted to the sound of the banjo – trouble is I really didn’t know what kind of music was available. I had a secondhand banjo bought from a junk shop and was just singing the same stuff as everyone else.

There were a few banjo pickers around, such as Mike Harding, Harry Boardman and Frank Duffy, but all playing and singing within the European tradition.

One day, searching in ‘Rare Records’ I came across a Topic album – ‘The New Lost City Ramblers’ – this was a revelation! I didn’t even know what this style of music was called. Armed with a copy of Pete Seeger’s ‘How to play the 5 string banjo’, I set out to try to work out how they got this great sound. I explored strange practices like frailing, double thumbing and mountain minor tuning.

It was really hard work. In the days before online tutorials and videos, I didn’t know anybody in the UK playing old-timey music. All I had to work from were albums. So I had to cobble together my own hybrid style. It worked pretty well, and even today it’s my go to style… too much muscle memory.

I worked out a few songs and turned up at a club where I was a regular, for a floor spot. I sang the hard-driving ‘Crow Black Chicken’ and Clarence Ashley’s ‘The Cuckoo’ – to my surprise, it went down a storm. It most have been new to the audience there I believe,  but my musical career path was sown.

In Manchester, I had the good fortune to meet up with an incredible bluegrass duo, ‘Tom and Smiley’ – aka Tom Travis and Tom Bowker. Although I was not really a bluegrass musician, we shared a musical canon, and played at many of the same venues.

An amazing Scruggs style banjo picker on the same scene was Ivan Kelsall. He also played with Tom & Smiley in their band ‘The Dog Hobble Ramblers’. Ivan and I played as a duo at times – it was duelling banjos for real with Ivan picking Scruggs style while I provided rhythm with old timey styles.

Later I moved down to London and continued on my solo old timey path.

Today, I live in Essex with a houseful of old time instruments. If anyone fancies a jam – please get in touch.