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The five-string banjo has evolved in a myriad of directions in American musical culture. The instrument's roots in folk, bluegrass, and old-time country have remained strong as the players and styles have evolved. Bela Fleck has taken the banjo's bluegrass roots into the realm of avant-garde jazz/fusion, Tony Furtado and Tony Trishka have developed bluegrass banjo to the heights of mastery, and Pete Seeger has single-handedly assured that folk banjo will remain a part of American culture for years to come. Amongst this explosion of interest and talent surrounding America's indigenous instrument, Dick Weissman stands alone as a player who has blended the clawhammer, traditional, and Seeger-styles of playing with jazz and world music.

"The banjo has always fascinated me," he explains in the liner notes for his first Folk Era release, New Traditions, "My goal is to use it as a color instrument expressing a variety of moods and textures. In many ways it is more of a challenge to play the banjo slowly and expressively." Mostly playing without the standard issue banjo fingerpicks, in Dick's hands the banjo is an fluid instrument full of subtlety and passion. Dick's writing often draws upon jazz and classical forms, and his playing evokes banjo stylings found across the American palette of blues, folk, jazz, bluegrass, and ragtime.

For Dick's two Folk Era releases, New Traditions, and American Dreams, the new album recorded with his group The Uncommon Thread, Dick has assembled a world class collection of musicians to create a sound Dick calls folk-jazz. "I was exposed to jazz when I was a teenager commuting between Philadelphia and New York, where I stayed with all these people who listened to Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk," said Dick. Those sounds influenced Dick's writing even in his earliest compositions, like "A Day In The Kentucky Mountains," a banjo suite he wrote in 1958 as the culmination of his college studies.

Along with Dick, classical guitarist Alex Komodore and flute/saxophone artist Bob Rebholz form the Uncommon Thread. The three of them take American Dreams from the ephemeral new-age jazz of "Colita," where Dick evokes an almost harpsichord like texture from the banjo to the romping ragtime of "Rocky's Rag," where Dick's banjo and Bob's trumpet call back a Dixieland-swing style of music almost forgotten in today's musical tapestry. Other highlights of American Dreams include the flamenco of "Brush Fire," where Alex's guitar adds volumes, and the spiritual "Four Aspects of The Dance," whose changing rhythms represent the evolution of the life's rhythms.

Originally formed to play a selection of compositions from New Traditions at a faculty recital at the University of Colorado, where Dick teaches, Bob, Alex, and Dick found an unexpected synergy as they rehearsed and wrote. "The Uncommon Thread evolved out of the desire to perform not just the material from New Traditions, but to create new music, and was absolutely a collaborative effort" Dick says, explaining the move from the solo format of New Traditions to the musical partnership of The Uncommon Thread. "When we play together it feels like there's a combination of sounds that are new to all of us."

On New Traditions, Dick was also joined by Rebholz, as well as Bluegrass favorites Tim & Mollie O'Brein, and western artist Sid Hausman. New Traditions features the country inspired "Soon You Will Be Coming Back To Me," where the O'Brein's provide vocals and instrumentation, and The "After Kentucky" suite, which Dick calls, "Sort of an answer to "A Day In The Kentucky Mountains." "After Kentucky" features Hausman singing "The Light Behind The Foothills." Perhpas the most unusual track on New Traditions though is "Two Nights In Tamerza," where Dick evokes Tunisian music by playing slide banjo on a banjo in an altered tuning, and uses fingerpicks on the banjo's head to get a drum sound.

Dick's musical expertise has been honed over a career begun in the folk era of the 60's. Dick was one of "Pete's children," receiving his earliest banjo lessons from Seeger's banjo-bible, How To Play The Five String Banjo. While doing session work in New York City in 1961, Dick met John Phillips and Scott McKenzie. "We started rehearsing six days a week, eight to ten hours a day," Dick recalls, as Phillips songwriting skills were blended with McKenzie's voice and Dick's banjo and guitar to create the Journeymen. The Journeymen released three hit albums for Capitol before Phillips went on to become "Papa" John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas, and Scott McKenzie embarked on a solo career highlighted by the international hit "If You Go To San Francisco."

Dick's has been involved in the music business ever since, producing albums for others, and doing session work. He also has earned a degree in Music Business from the University of Colorado, written two film scores, six books about music and the music business, and continued to write and experiment with his banjo compositions. Today, in addition to his writing and performing with The Uncommon Thread, Dick is an Assistant Professor of Music Management at the University of Colorado, Denver.

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