Ken Perlman Perhaps the best-known exponent of the "melodic" clawhammer style, Ken is known where ever banjos are played as a master of clawhammer technique and an expert teacher of clawhammer mechanics. He was a regular Banjo Newsletter columnist from the early 1980s until the magazine recently closed down; he has written several books on clawhammer instruction including the well known works Melodic Clawhammer Banjo and Clawhammer Style Banjo, and he has recorded several series of audio and video banjo instruction. He has taught at well over a dozen banjo and general music camps including American Banjo Camp, Banjo Camp North, Augusta Folk Heritage, Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Maryland Banjo Academy, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, Common Ground on the Hill, Suwannee Banjo Camp, Swannanoa Gathering, and the Tennessee Banjo Institute. Also an independent folklorist, Ken spent decades collecting tunes and oral histories from traditional fiddlers on Prince Edward Island in Canada; from this material he published a tune book called The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island (Mel Bay), and a cultural study called Couldn't Have a Wedding Without the Fiddler: The Story of Traditional Fiddling on Prince Edward Island (University of Tennessee Press). His most recent recordings are Frails & Frolics and a duo project with old-time fiddler Alan Jabbour called You Can't Beat the Classics. His most recently published book is Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer (Mel Bay); he has just completed work on a new book to be published soon by Mel Bay called Cape Breton & Prince Edward Island Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer.
Ken Perlman
