I am doing a clawhammer banjo set at a concert at the GakWon Buddhist temple in CheonAn tomorrow (about 2 hours south of Seoul). I am also going to be playing a set of Korean folk tunes with a haegum, which is a Korean two string fiddle, similar to an er-hu but a bit raspier.

It is certain to be a wild experience, especially since I have not yet actually played with the haegum player (!), we are going to work up some tunes and then go play them on stage. I can play a couple Korean tunes I had learned on the kayagum, so it should be fun. When else will something like this happen?

When the opportunity came up to play at this temple I was really excited, it seemed like the perfect capstone to my experience here in korea, getting to play old time music at a temple featuring one of the largest Buddha statues in Asia.

Here is the poster for the show:



It was hard to choose which banjo tunes to play at the temple, since I thought it was appropriate to avoid songs relating to drinking and carousing and also apocalyptic religious songs, which, which I sat down to figure out what to play, I realized I play a surprising number of! So I will play several tunes and sing some ones sure to fit the surroundings and please the monks: 'Grey Cat on the Tennessee Farm," "How Many Biscuits Can You Eat," "Sourwood Mountain," "Mother's Prayers have Followed Me" and so on. I'll post some pictures after the I get back.

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