[center][img width=602]//7ca49eb9f67ba1319ef136f9d52cd8b8.cdn.bubble.io/f1733176016405x663981646079479200/richtext_content.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Banjo madman is back[/b] He's not old enough, at 54, to be called the Grand Old Man of Calgary folk music. On the other hand, Barry Luft has been making music locally for more than 30 years-and has anybody done it longer? Luft, a five-string banjo mad- man whose repertoire includes "maybe 500 tunes," has just released a CD/cassette called Lean A Little. One of the highlights is the opening number, What's The Life Of A Man?, which finds Luft leading a chorus of male voices through a sea chantey celebrating the seasons of human existence. "As soon as I heard that song." Luft told me recently, "I knew I wanted to record it with a group of men." Busy with countless other projects, he eventually drew up an invitation list. In October of 1994, Luft recorded the song at a local community hall with 88 men-mostly friends from the Calgary area. "One of the thrills to me," Luft said, "is to have people join me on songs. It's becoming a lost practice. In the olden days, people made their own music more." The new CD establishes a Stan- Rogers mood with its stirring first cut, then builds upon this mood with a second highlight- an instrumental called Two Path- ways that finds Luft picking and strumming his old favorite five- string. Luft discovered the banjo in 1962, while studying to become a teacher at the University of Alberta. He'd fallen in love with the instrument while listening to Pete Seeger records, and one day his brother called: "He'd spotted a five-string in a pawnshop. They wanted $35 for it. We ended up splitting the cost...." By this time, Luft had been playing harmonica for years- "since about the age of five." He'd learned from his father, who performed "as a kid" on Calgary's first radio station-and who, like one of Luft's two musician- daughters, makes a guest appearance on the new CD. By the late '60s, when the folk music revival swept North America, Luft was back home in Calgary he'd attended Crescent Heights High-working as a teacher and performing every chance he got. Over the years, he made three professional recordings-two with his ex-wife, Lyn Luft (House Concert, Flower in the Snow), and one with Tim Rogers (Songs of the Iron Trail). For the past five years, besides appearing alone, Luft has been performing with Ceard, the house band at the Rocky Mountain Folk Club: "We'll put out a CD in the fall-called Home Brew." Meanwhile, Lean a Little is available (CD, $18; cassette, $12) at Kensington CD and Vitamins First on 33rd Ave. in Marda Loop, as well as from Luft himself (287- 9969).
