Emmet Robinson Speaks

King Street Recording Company
is
Open for Business!
…well, almost.

   Although we’re not having anyone in the studio to use the microphones right now, we’re happy to receive your vintage materials for digital preservation. Your materials might include:
• A tape of your high school valedictory speech
• A disk of your grandfather’s wartime experiences
• A video of your winning touchdown
• A cassette of your daughter’s first words
• A video of your son’s first steps
• Faded family photos
• A precious news clipping with damaged print
• A video of your daughter’s dance recital
• A video of your retirement party
• Wedding photos
• Photos, videos or slides of a fabulous vacation trip

Remember the old audiotapes, videos or photos you always wanted to do something with but kept putting off?
This is a good time to take action!
Here at King Street Recording Company, the door may be closed but… 
the mailbox is open!

Regardless of the current lockdown, the Postal Service is still on duty.  So far they’ve made safe delivery of materials from Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Hawaii. 
Chances are they can handle your materials as well. 

The tiny mandolin is yet one more descendant of the lute family, with ancestors dating back to Mesopotamia three thousand years ago. Although roughly the size as a ukulele, the modern mandolin has a few interesting differences:
• For each single string on the ukulele, the mandolin has two, tuned in unison.
• Instead of gut or nylon, the mandolin is strung with steel.
• The abrasive nature of the steel strings requires the use of a pick rather than the fingers.
• The tuning is very different from that of the uke – more like that of the violin and viola. As a result, different chord formations are used.

Because It Looks Like One

    All things considered, the banjo is a rather odd-looking musical instrument. It looks like the result of an arranged marriage between a drum and a ukulele.  When I asked a country musician why it was called a “banjo,” I was told, “Because it looks like one!” Basically, a banjo is a round wooden shell covered with either a plastic or natural hide “head” and attached to a fretted neck. It is yet another American musical instrument “not invented here.”
    Although opinions vary somewhat, the origin of the banjo is generally thought to be the African continent. When slaves were taken from their homeland to the Caribbean, they brought this musical instrument with them. Immigrants from the Caribbean to the U.S. then brought it here, where it began a long process of increasingly sophisticated development.