Tubanjo is a Cincinnati based duo featuring tenor guitarist (and banjo player) Kentucky Graham with bass guitarist (and tuba player) Mike Reedy. Tubanjo’s music is an amalgamation of the styles that Graham and Mike have studied and performed over the years, including bluegrass, classical, rock, folk, and jazz.
Tubanjo formed in May of 2009 and is currently writing and arranging music for their second CD. Their first recording, “Thanks for Listening,” was released in January of 2010, and is now available for purchase at CD Baby and on iTunes.
For booking info, please send an e-mail to tubanjo [at] gmail [dot] com.
Keep checking the Tubanjo Reverbnation site and the Erster Eindruck Studio “Musik” page for show schedules and examples of Tubanjo’s music.
Tubanjo offers free performances for charity events.
Kentucky Graham began his musical career as a five-string banjo player under the tutelage of Vernon McIntyre, Jr. As a teenager, he taught lessons and performed professionally with Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass, traveling the festival circuit from Ohio to Missouri. After five years as a banjo player, Graham was diagnosed with a focal dystonia that affects his right hand and interferes with his ability to pick a banjo.
In search of a new musical outlet, Graham discovered the tenor guitar, which he tunes like a banjo. He developed his approach to the new instrument while playing with Jake Speed and the Freddies, an original Americana group based in Cincinnati. Since he has been a Freddy, the band has won several awards and once shared the stage with Garrison Kiellor on the national radio show, A Prairie Home Companion.
As a tuba player, I’ve played with orchestras, brass bands, and quintets in student, amateur and professional ensembles. I concentrate more on the bass guitar these days but you can still catch me playing tuba here and there. I can be found playing polka music at pretty much all of Cincinnati's many many German Fests!
While in Kansas City, I studied bass guitar with technique expert, Bob Blount. Currently, I am applying his techniques along with resources from other musicians and my experience as a brass player to develop a comprehensive daily routine for the bass guitar.
My first musical influences came from my brothers who introduced me to a lot of cool music and taught me how to play guitar, brass instruments and keyboards. I was a pretty hardcore band and orchestra kid in junior high and high school. I was a music major for a while but finally ended up graduating with a non-music degree. Throughout that period, I played with a lot of groups, both amateur and professional, in Kansas City and Virginia. Unfortunately, my playing all but stopped when I got serious about school. After a year of graduate school, I was artistically/musically unfulfilled. Fortunately, I had met Kentucky Graham in school and that relationship has helped lead me back to making music.
One consistent outlet for me has been making recordings. I have recorded two soundtracks, multimedia for academic use, three full-length CDs and one EP. I continue to record under the umbrella of the Erster Eindruck Studio.
updated
09 February 2011
