Bob Carlin (born March 17, 1953 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) is an American old-time banjo player and singer. Carlin performs primarily in the

clawhammer Clawhammer, sometimes called down-picking, overhand, or frailing, is a distinctive banjo playing style and a common component of American old-time music. The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direct ...

style of banjo. He has toured the United States, Canada, and Europe performing on various historical banjos (including gourd banjos), and has explored the African roots of the banjo by working with the Malian musician Cheick Hamala Diabate and the elder African American fiddler Joe Thompson. He is also one of the few musicians skilled in the performance of

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...

-style banjo songs of the mid-19th century. He also occasionally plays

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

. For six years, Carlin toured throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan with

John Hartford John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country, and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive kn ...

. Carlin is a three-time winner of the late ''Frets Magazine'' readers' poll. He has released four albums on Rounder Records as well as several instruction manuals and videos for the banjo. With his brother

Richard Carlin Richard Carlin is the author of several books on folk, country, and traditional music. Writing Carlin worked for Folkways Records as an independent producer from 1975 to 1980, before becoming an editor for Music at Pearson Prentice Hall. In 20 ...

(also a musician, author and record producer, b. 1956https://lccn.loc.gov/2005000445 The Library of Congress), Bob co-authored "Southern Exposure: The Story of Southern Music in Pictures and Words" (Billboard Books 2000), for which John Hartford wrote the foreword. Bob Carlin is the founder of CarTunes Recordings, and also works as a record producer. He lives in Lexington, NC with his wife and son, Benjamin Morris 'Leonardo' Carlin.

References

External links

Bob Carlin official site
* ttp://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/bob-carlin Bob Carlin InterviewNAMM Oral History Library (2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlin, Bob 1953 births Musicians from New York City Old-time musicians American banjoists Living people