Jack Hicks Jack was born in Louisa, Kentucky and he now lives in Ashland. Jack’s talents were discovered and cultivated early, resulting in his performances at the Grand Ole Opry at the early age of 15. Jack has had a long and varied musical career, having been a part of such legendary groups as Jim and Jesse, Del Reeves, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, the Whites, Lester Flatt, Sonny James, and spent a decade performing with Conway Twitty. Jack’s talents have been heard on many #1 country records. Known primarily for his outstanding banjo picking, Jack also owns a recording studio; Jack’s Place, where ...
A LITTLE HISTORY NORTHERN HEMISPHERE What caused this type of growth? Climatic conditions. There is a period of time called the LITTLE ICE AGE. This was a period of abnormal climatic cooling lasting from the 14th century until the middle of the 19th century. The Little Ice Age brought bitterly cold winters to many parts of the world but is most thoroughly documented in Europe and North America. In the winter of 1780, New York harbor froze allowing people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island. The severe winters affected human life in ways large and small. Many spring and summers ...
Back last October we had the Banjo Hangout Meetup when the BJH’s webmaster Eric Schlange was in town and it was a great old time. Chris Watts came over from Missouri to attend that event and to order himself a custom Sullivan Greenbriar. We finished up that custom banjo today and sent it over to our dealer First Quality Music to ship off to Chris. Chris picked out his neckwood and resonator and we made the rest of the instrument to his personal specs. Complete with a black Remo head, a speed neck, Keith D Tuners, Vintage 35 Brown color and “Chris” in the fingerboard nameblock this truly is a one of a kind. And Chris the icing on the cake it is a great sounding banjo! Thanks from all of us at Sullivan Banjo, enjoy your new custom Greenbriar!
Another Vintage 35 banjo hot out of the shop and ready for shipment. This one is a beauty and it sounds great! On it’s way down to Stanfield North Carolina and our dealer Ron’s Pickin’ Parlor. Be sure when your in the neighborhood to stop into the Pickin’ Parlor and check a new Sullivan Banjo. Tell Ronnie we said howdy.
Thanks to the overwhelming support and success of our Banjos, Sullivan Banjo Co. is expanding the manufacturing facilities to accommodate the demand. We are in the process of adding another 3000 square feet of shop space to our existing layout. In addition we are adding a state of the art spray booth and bringing online more CNC technology. Here at Sullivan Banjo we have over 40 years of banjo building experience and as we move into the new year we are continuing to use and adopt cutting edge technology along with our 40 years of expertise to bring our customers one of the finest banjos made today.
If your in the Louisville area, stop on in and see in person all the exciting things happening here at Sullivan Banjo Co.
Many times when you call Sullivan Banjo with requests or questions the voice you hear answering the phone is that of our very own Murrell Thixton. Murrell is the banjo player for the group Storefront Congregation, a four piece band from Louisville, Ky that performs bluegrass and acoustic music. This weekend they will join Kyle Ramey, Kati Penn and Newtown, and 9 time IBMA fiddler of the year Michael Cleveland in a concert to benefit 3 local charities The Salvation Army, The Center for Women and Families, andThe Home of the Innocents. If you’d like details on how you can attend you can find more information about the concert here.
This video clip promoting the upcoming event is from a broadcast of Great Day Live a local morning show on our ABC affiliate WHAS television. We’re proud of Murrell and his group for their support of these most worthy charities.
We hope you enjoy the clip, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Murrell is playing a Sullivan Vintage 35 Maple.
We just delivered a Maple Vintage 35 to our Louisville Kentucky Dealer First Quality Music. A beautiful banjo with a highly flamed neck and resonator, you couple that with the V35 sound and you’ve got yourself a dandy! The Vintage 35’s all come with Old Growth rims and a Vintage 35 tone ring. If you’d like all the specs you can click here and you’ll be able to see all the details.
Give us a call and we’ll get you in the drivers seat. 800-635-2021 x126
We like to share photos of our Sullivan family of banjo pickers when we get them. Our friend Hal Pylant is shown here picking his Vintage 35 maple. Hal purchased his banjo from our good dealer in Georgia – Banjo.com When you’re in the Marietta, Georgia (Atlanta vicinity) be sure to stop in and see Mark, Hayden, John and the gang at Banjo.com
If you have a current photo of you and your Sullivan banjo, drop us an email and we’ll be happy to include you in our blog. You can send the photo to Murrell at mthixton@fqms.com
We want to welcome Roland Tousignant from Barre, Vermont to our Sullivan Banjo Family. He is the proud of owner of a brand new Maple Vintage 35 that he purchased through our Louisville, Kentucky Dealer First Quality Music. You can see Roland here with his custom left handed V35. We are so very proud to welcome him to the Sullivan Banjo family. Roland we wish you many hours of happy pickin’! Thanks so much for choosing a Sullivan!
Sullivan artist Marc Pruett on the cover of the October issue of Banjo Newsletter. Wayne Peeler had a very interesting discussion with Marc taking us from his childhood days to the present with Balsam Range. Pick yourself up a copy.
Click here if you’d like to catch up with Marc and Balsam Range, be sure to attend a show when they’re in your area.
This past weekend, the IBMA awards and showcase took over Nashville, TN. Artists and groups from all over the world traveled to The Historic Ryman Auditorium to join in a celebration of the best that bluegrass has to offer. This year, Mountain Home Recording Artists, Balsam Range was chosen as the winner of 2011 Song Of The Year!
We here at Sullivan Banjos would like to offer our congratulations to Balsam Range on receiving this coveted award.
“We’re extremely honored to be acknowledged buy our peers at this level. We were up for three awards and at that level there is a lot of tough competition. Alison and Dolly were also up for song of the year against ‘Trains I Missed”, so we are very proud to bring such an accolade home to WNC. It’s more gratifying for us to see that album do so well and this song. A song we all believed so much in from the start. Thanks to all who have supported Balsam Range on an incredible journey.”
Darren Nicholson
Mandolin Player for Balsam Range
Pictured here is our good friend and endorsing artist Marc Pruett picking up his Maple Vintage 35 from Murrell Thixton with Sullivan Banjo Company. Marc put his new banjo right to work that Friday afternoon when Balsam Range hit the stage at the IBMA giving the audience a smoking hot performance.
You can hear Marc pickin’ his V35 at an upcoming Balsam Range performance be sure to try and catch one when they’re in your area. You can find out where they’ll be by clicking here.
