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Joe Bethancourt

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  • Sutters Mill

    Hi Joe,

    thanks for the friendship and 5 nice greetings from Germany,
    yours
    SUTTER'S MILL


    2 years ago
  • Harry Tumbleweed

    Good morning Joe Stopping by to Thankya for the add my other page closed down just got back up & rollin again. I really like your music the Banjo is one of my favorite's & you really know how to play it have a great day & a fantastic weekend with many Happy Blessed Trails.

    2 years ago
  • Chris Will

    Hey! ~ I guess I should check Myspace more often!

    2 years ago
  • Clayton Hall

    Thank you so much for your friendship!

    2 years ago
  • Jeff Moats

    Love the banjo. I play a Gold Tone Whyte Lady Long neck. What type of axe do you play? My featured banjo song right now is "Gentle On My Mind". Drop by and listen and leave a comment.
    Jeff Moats

    3 years ago
  • Jacob Tyler Lucas

    Hey there Joe Bethancourt...hope you have a good week!!!

    What have you been up to? I just wanted to catch up and let you know that my new CD "Change is Good" is now available on the official website... http://www.jacobtylerlucas.com or you can click the link below & download it on iTunes! It would help me out to afford recording more music and I will love you for it!!!

    http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=314299962&s=143441



    3 years ago
  • Chug Wagon & The Wheelc…

    Hey Joe! See ya Sept. 6th at the Handlebar J......Right?

    3 years ago
  • The Flatland Ramblers

    Dear Joe,
    Thanks for the add! Best wishes from Iowa,
    The Flatland Ramblers



    3 years ago
  • Stonebridge Guitars

    Thanks for the friends request.  Great tunes!
    All the best to you,

    Roger

    3 years ago
10 of 39More

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HOME PAGE | CDs | OPINIONS | OLD WEST

He's been playing the banjo since he was old enough to know better, and is a compulsive picker, collector and learner of weird instruments. He plays (at last count) 65 different instruments, and sings in several languages. What makes this even more remarkable is that he has never had any formal music training, doesn't read music, and is on leave from the Phoenix Home for the Musically Bewildered.

Joe's clawhammer banjo technique is unique. He's been called one of the nation's best clawhammer banjo players by people who should know, and Dave Van Ronk said that Joe could hold his own with any guitar fingerpicker in the USA. His flat- picking sounds like a battery of Gatling guns at full roar.

Joe was born (or found under a rock, depending on who tells the story) in El Paso, Texas in 1946.

He began learning banjo at age 9, after he heard his maternal grandfather, C. H. Burnett, playing fiddle. His first banjo was given him by his grandfather, and was "an old S.S. Stewart." This banjo is now in the able hands of his nephew, Tom Purtill.

When his family moved to Phoenix for the final time, in 1961, Joe began learning guitar, hanging around cofeehouses, mariachi bands, bluegrass groups, and a place called "J.D.'s," where he would sneak in to listen to a local guy called Waylon Jennings. With the "folk boom" of the '60's just hitting it's stride, he found that all that music he had learned as a child stood in good stead.

His first "real pro" gig came at age 18. The Phoenix acoustic scene was active and thriving and Joe hung out with people (then unknowns) like John Denver, the Irish Rovers, and Jim Connor ("Grandma's Feather Bed") and with some of the best in Dixieland, Ragtime, and traditional Mexican musicians.

He spent a stint with a local bluegrass band, "Ma Tucker's String Band," playing with Jeff Gylkinson ("The Dillards") and Doug Haywood (keyboard player/songwriter for Jackson Browne).

He also worked with noted entertainer Dan "Igor" Glenn in several bands. Joe credits "Igor" with teaching him much about the entertainer's art.

In 1968-1969, Joe worked in L.A. as a studio musician, where he made his first record, "The Joe Bethancourt String Concert Album." It was very favourably reviewed by BILLBOARD magazine ( 28 Feb. 1970 ), and given a four star rating. He has some fascinating stories about the "name" musicians he met while he was there.

Joe came back to Phoenix, where he became influential in the original KDKB underground radio "scene," hosting his own radio show on KDKB, "Folk Music Occasional," with (the late and much lamented) Bill Compton.

He was also a regular on the Emmy award-winning "Wallace and Ladmo Show" on KPHO-TV (Ch.5) in the 1980's, and worked with children in the Arizona Commission for the Arts' "Artists in Education" program for about 6 years. He still does occasional Artist Residencies at local elementary schools.

For almost 17 years, he was the "house band" at a little restaurant at 19th Ave. and Bethany Home Rd, in Phoenix, called "Funny Fellows," playing instruments from his enormous collection of traditional ( and not so traditional ) instruments.

Some call him a seminal influence on the acoustic music scene in Phoenix, crediting him for much of their style and technique.

He was nominated for the (Arizona) Governor's Arts Award, and his recordings are now on file at the University of East Tennessee's Appalachian Archives Folklore collection. He's also on the advisory board of the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall Of Fame.

Currently, he's operating his own production company, White Tree Productions, and has recorded both solo, with another noted songwriter, Leslie Fish, and with the neo-Celtic band The Bringers, all for Random Factors of Los Angeles.

He is active in the Single Action Shooting Society, and in Old West living history with the 9th Memorial Cavalry (Buffalo Soldiers), and is a walking library of traditional music history.

He and his wife also are a foster home for retired racing greyhounds. They have four of their own, and usually have between three and five more as temporary foster dogs.

Joe, his red-haired wife, several looney greyhounds, a constantly changing number of cats, and a houseful of musical instruments live in an otherwise normal neighborhood in the outback never-never of north-western Phoenix, Arizona.

Learn more at his main site

Yes, there's CDs available. Go here to find them.

Joe offers instruction in 5-string banjo, guitar, mandolin, uke, Celtic harp and many other instruments at Boogie Music in Phoenix, AZ.

And for T-Shirts and Folk Thongs, go to: T-SHIRTS AND STUFF ..

And for a whole mess of videos, go here!


Photo by Karl Wolz
Wall top row: Weissenborn Hawaiian guitar, mouthbow, gourd banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, fretless mountain banjo, Minstrel Boy minstrel banjo
Wall bottom row: Giannini Craviola 12-string guitar, Michael Kelley Dragonfly mandolin, Ome long-neck 5-string banjo, S.S. Stewart Special Thorobred 5-string banjo, Cort Parlor guitar, Washburn Model 1897 Parlor Guitar
Floor, left to right: Larivee LS-10 guitar, Deering Custom guitar-banjo, Taylor 714CE guitar, Ome XXX 5-string banjo, Goya G-30 classical guitar

 

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We'll Meet Again
Video: We'll Meet Again - Recorded at Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

Nermal is the best dead cat ever

LESSONS: Joe offers lessons, taught in the traditional manner (by ear) in guitar, clawhammer banjo, dulcimer, mandolin, autoharp and most other "folk" instruments, including Celtic harp! See the link to Boogie Music below, or go here for more information.

 

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True West Historical Society Member Badge
http://truewest.ning.com

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Visit True West Historical Society

Who I'd like to meet:

Rudyard Kipling, Wyatt Earp, Theodore Roosevelt, H.P. Lovecraft, D.H. Laurence, S.S. Stewart, James Joyce, William B. Yeats, the incomparable Turk Murphy and a host of others but they're all dead.

I DO NOT want to meet all you little pseudo-hookers who send me "friend" invites that are simply covers to go to your naked pics site. You will be denied out of hand, so don't even try. And if your myspace page is viewable by friends only, you better be someone I know, or you'll be denied too.

CONTACT JOE:

Name:
Email Address:
What are you interested in contacting Joe for? Sideman Work
Nightclub Appearance
Coffeehouse Appearance
Concert Appearance
Festival Appearance
School Performance/Workshops
Lessons
CD Purchase
Mailing List


(This is my cousin's kid, Annie Bethancourt. Check out her MySpace page!)

Details

  • Status: Married
  • Here for: Networking
  • Hometown: Prescott AZ
  • Orientation: Straight
  • Body type: 6' 1" / Slim / Slender
  • Ethnicity: Other
  • Religion: Other
  • Zodiac Sign: Leo
  • Children: Proud parent
  • Education: Grad / professional school
  • Occupation: Musician

Schools

  • Arizona State University-Main Campus

    • Tempe,AZ
    • Graduated: N/A
    • Student status: Alumni
    • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
    • Major: History / Folklore
    • Minor: Pre-Ministerial
    • Clubs: ROTC, Desert Rangers
    1964 to 1968
  • North High School

    • Phoenix,AZ
    • Graduated: N/A
    • Student status: Alumni
    • Clubs: JROTC, German Club
    1961 to 1964

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