CARLSBAD — Listening to Tony Trischka describe his upcoming May 21 performance at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, it becomes clear how his wide-ranging interests and passion for sharing music shaped his career.
“I have all sorts of interests,” Trischka told The Coast News.
Trischka said he plans to play songs by banjo legend Earl Scruggs after receiving a thumb drive filled with rare recordings of Scruggs jamming with John Hartford, who wrote “Gentle on My Mind” and “In Tall Buildings,” among other songs.
Trischka began transcribing what he heard and used the material as the foundation for his Grammy-nominated album, “Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs.”
“I often say I wouldn’t exist without Earl Scruggs, because he sort of — without knowing it — dictated the direction of my life,” Trischka said.
He added that he learned a great deal simply by watching his hero play, but also got to spend time with Scruggs at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City.
“I would just kind of hang out in the dressing room with Earl for 20 minutes to half an hour, and we would just chew the fat,” Trischka said. “He would talk about the old days, and tell these really wonderful stories. He was very willing to share that.”
Trischka also knew folksinger Pete Seeger and said he plans to play some of his songs during the Carlsbad show. Seeger’s wife, Toshi Seeger, had been a school friend of Trischka’s mother.
In addition to Seeger’s environmental, civil rights and other political causes — including efforts to clean up the Hudson River — Trischka said he came to deeply admire his banjo playing.
“Musically, he was a great banjo player, which a lot of people don’t realize,” he said. “And that’s why I play a couple of things in my show that demonstrate what an incredible banjo player he was. Like I said, I got friendly. I would go up to his house and visit with him and he recorded on one of my albums and it was a very special thing to know him — this great man. And we could surely use him today.”
Another style of music he plans to include, Trischka said, is a polka tune.
“Because that’s so popular these days,” he said with a laugh.
Trischka has followed in the footsteps of the musicians before him who shared the stories and traditions of bluegrass and banjo music.
He has published several books on the subject and mentored generations of players, including Béla Fleck, who began studying with him as a teenager.
Trischka added that while he does not sing, his performances create opportunities for audiences to contribute vocals.
“I get the audience to sing along on a few tunes,” he said. “One thing that Earl Scruggs used to talk about was playing the syllables of a tune on a banjo. Rather than kind of playing the melody, you play the exact melody in the way it would be sung, phrasing it as you would sing it.
“God, he was so amazing. His timing was so completely in the pocket.”
