Banjo

Bill Monroe, the man widely acknowledged as the father of bluegrass music, was in search of a new banjo player for his famed Blue Grass Boys when a young musician turned up backstage at Nashville's celebrated Ryman Auditorium during a 1945 Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast, hoping to audition. Once Monroe and his guitarist, Lester Flatt, heard the sparks fly from 21-year-old Earl Scruggs' instrument, the bandleader asked Flatt what he thought. "If you can, hire him," Flatt told Monroe, "whatever the cost.

Bill Monroe, the man widely acknowledged as the father of bluegrass music, was in search of a new banjo player for his famed Blue Grass Boys when a young musician turned up backstage at Nashville's celebrated Ryman Auditorium during a 1945 Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast, hoping to audition. Once Monroe and his guitarist, Lester Flatt, heard the sparks fly from 21-year-old Earl Scruggs' instrument, the bandleader asked Flatt what he thought. "If you can, hire him," Flatt told Monroe, "whatever the cost.

With their banjo/guitar/stand-up bass lineup, earnest vocal harmonies, and back story growing up on a North Carolina farm, the Avett Brothers seem like the kind of old-time folk band that emerges almost literally out of the soil. But Scott Avett, who's got a scraggly beard and pronounced Piedmont accent he came about honestly, was not handed his banjo as a toddler while out raking hay. "I'm absolutely blown away by how many 15- and 16-year-olds are playing the banjo," he says of today's surge in interest in Appalachian and acoustic music.

SUNDAY Ready for their close-ups: Emmy winners Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda and Julianna Margulies are among the television stars discussing the medium's decades-long role in shaping our culture in the four-part series "America in Primetime. " (KOCE, 8 p.m.) He's a persnickety, pretentious, precocious 7-year-old (below) with the voice of Jonah Hill. But he is kind of cute, with his oversize glasses, snazzy little suit and a flower in his lapel. He's "Allen Gregory," star of this animated sitcom.

A 63-year-old man who played in a bluegrass band has been charged with murder after allegedly beating his wife to death with two banjos, police said. They said Edward Benson bludgeoned his wife, Katie, with one banjo until it broke and then grabbed a second and continued the assault Wednesday.

Think of the banjo and what comes to mind? Country music? Bluegrass? Dixieland? The "Dueling Banjos" of Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell? Earl Scruggs? The "Beverly Hillbillies" theme song he co-wrote? Sure, all of those and more. What doesn't immediately register is jazz--at least its styles beyond the '20s. And it's somewhat surprising that the banjo was so quickly replaced in the jazz rhythm sections of the '20s and '30s by the guitar.

Steve Martin is coming to the Grand Ole Opry, and he's bringing his banjo. The comedian, actor, author, playwright and musician will make his debut on the long-running country music program May 30. An Opry spokeswoman says Martin will perform songs from his first musical album, "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo." Performing with him will be Vince Gill, Amy Grant and John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Greg Harrison studied to be a teacher. But once a year, Harrison, a fourth-grade instructor at Junipero Serra School in Ventura, gets treated like a celebrity. Harrison plays banjo with a Santa Barbara-based bluegrass band called the Dusty Chaps. And once a year, the group performs at Harrison's school and at Poinsettia School in Ventura, where fellow band member Kevin Alvarado teaches.

Rob Lowe, who stars as Chris "Literally" Traegar on NBC's "Park and Recreation," talks about destiny, the challenges of doing TV comedy and what to expect this season. In your memoir, "Stories I Only Tell My Friends," you take the mind-set that everything happens for a reason. How does "Parks and Recreation" fit that idea? I was just finishing up on "Brothers & Sisters," which had an amazing and successful run. After four years on a show, both in terms of the writing and the acting, everyone has sort of gone through their bag of tricks.

Steve Martin and Ed Helms are brothers of the banjo as well as of the film and television arts — a fairly exclusive fraternity as crossover disciplines go. So it's not too surprising that Martin would be a hero for "The Office"/"Hangover" star in more ways than one or that he would be first on the invite list when Helms puts together his Bluegrass Situation festival, which has its second annual (and sold out) stand Thursday through Sunday at the club Largo in Hollywood. On a weekday afternoon, in preparation for the fest, they are in Adirondack chairs in Martin's Beverly Hills-adjacent backyard, kicking out the five-string jams and turning the star's green, green grass blue.

Rob Lowe, who stars as Chris "Literally" Traegar on NBC's "Park and Recreation," talks about destiny, the challenges of doing TV comedy and what to expect this season. In your memoir, "Stories I Only Tell My Friends," you take the mind-set that everything happens for a reason. How does "Parks and Recreation" fit that idea? I was just finishing up on "Brothers & Sisters," which had an amazing and successful run. After four years on a show, both in terms of the writing and the acting, everyone has sort of gone through their bag of tricks.

Born on a mountain farm near Weaverville, N.C., in 1907, Wade Mainer soaked up old songs ringing in the far hills and hollers. As a professional singer and banjo player, he would introduce that music to audiences throughout the nation and also pass it on to new generations of performers. Mainer, one of the most popular and influential figures in early country music, died Sept. 12 at his home in Flint, Mich. He was 104. Some called him "the godfather of North Carolina country music" and "the grandfather of bluegrass.

Now in its 51st year, the annual Topanga Banjo-Fiddle Contest returns for a down-home day of bluegrass, old-time and folk music. In addition to more than 100 instrumental and singing contests, there will be dancing, family activities, arts and crafts, and jam sessions. Paramount Ranch, 2903 Cornell Road, Agoura Hills. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun. $8-$10 in advance, $10-$15 at the gate. (818) 382-4819. http://www.topangabanjofiddle.org.

Steve Martin and Ed Helms are brothers of the banjo as well as of the film and television arts — a fairly exclusive fraternity as crossover disciplines go. So it's not too surprising that Martin would be a hero for "The Office"/"Hangover" star in more ways than one or that he would be first on the invite list when Helms puts together his Bluegrass Situation festival, which has its second annual (and sold out) stand Thursday through Sunday at the club Largo in Hollywood. On a weekday afternoon, in preparation for the fest, they are in Adirondack chairs in Martin's Beverly Hills-adjacent backyard, kicking out the five-string jams and turning the star's green, green grass blue.

It's tempting at this time of year, with worn-out Christmas tunes blaring nonstop through every grocery store, hair salon and shopping mall from here to the Atlantic, to believe that, musically speaking, there's nothing new under the holiday sun. But you've never really heard "Jingle Bells" until you've heard it sung by Tuvan throat singers in an arrangement that sounds like bluegrass from one of the outer rings of Saturn. That's one of the sonic surprises that's likely to greet audiences this weekend when forward-gazing banjo player Béla Fleck brings his band, the Flecktones through Southern California on a brief holiday tour highlighting music from their Grammy Award-winning 2008 album, "Jingle All the Way. " For that collection, which snagged the pop instrumental album award two years ago, 11-time Grammy winner Fleck and his genre-blind associates did what they'd been doing for nearly two decades: They threw out the rule book, abandoned all sense of musical convention and let their inspiration run wild.

With their banjo/guitar/stand-up bass lineup, earnest vocal harmonies, and back story growing up on a North Carolina farm, the Avett Brothers seem like the kind of old-time folk band that emerges almost literally out of the soil. But Scott Avett, who's got a scraggly beard and pronounced Piedmont accent he came about honestly, was not handed his banjo as a toddler while out raking hay. "I'm absolutely blown away by how many 15- and 16-year-olds are playing the banjo," he says of today's surge in interest in Appalachian and acoustic music.

Born on a mountain farm near Weaverville, N.C., in 1907, Wade Mainer soaked up old songs ringing in the far hills and hollers. As a professional singer and banjo player, he would introduce that music to audiences throughout the nation and also pass it on to new generations of performers. Mainer, one of the most popular and influential figures in early country music, died Sept. 12 at his home in Flint, Mich. He was 104. Some called him "the godfather of North Carolina country music" and "the grandfather of bluegrass.

10 Artist Terence Koh's "The Whole Family" opens at Chinatown gallery Peres Projects 17 25th annual California Strawberry Festival, Saturday and Sunday in Oxnard 18 Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival at Paramount Ranch 28 Huntington Art Gallery unveils its three-year, $20-million renovation

Béla Fleck knows a kindred spirit when he sees one. Just as he has made a career out of taking the banjo into uncharted musical territory, Mali's Bassekou Kouyate is winning fans across North America with his potent acoustic ensemble Ngoni Ba, a band designed to demonstrate the power and flexibility of his ancient West African lute. He brings Ngoni Ba to Grand Performances on Friday night as part of a free double bill with Dengue Fever, the last leg of an extensive tour that Kouyate opened last winter with Fleck.

'Banjo Fred" Starner, an economics professor and banjo-playing folk singer who documented hobo music and culture, has died. He was 72. Starner, of Winnetka, died Oct. 25 at a West Hills rehabilitation facility of complications from pneumonia and the autoimmune disorder sarcoidosis, said his wife, Barbara. "Fred Starner was very much a musician of the people, taking his cue from his mentor, Pete Seeger," said Mary Katherine Aldin, a folk music historian. "A great percentage of his concerts were benefits for causes in which he believed.