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.
For most of his musical career, Mike Reedy’s primary instrument was the tuba. He studied music in college and has freelanced with small orchestras, brass ensembles, dixieland groups, and original music bands in Kansas City, Virginia, and Kentucky. Although primarily a bass guitarist these days, Mike continues to play the tuba with ensembles in the Cincinnati area.
A dabbling multi-instrumentalist, Mike began playing the bass guitar in the 1980s and at that time formed Kentucky Jam with his brother Stuart. While living in Kansas City in the 1990s, Mike studied bass guitar technique with Bob Blount, and in 2009 he began to concentrate full-time on applying those techniques, switching from the tuba as his primary instrument to the bass guitar.
Mike is also a recording artist. He began recording in professional studios in 1990. He has recorded soundtracks, full-length albums, and multimedia for academic use. He is sole proprietor of the Erster Eindruck Studio. Examples of his recordings can be heard at the studio’s Musik page.
updated 22 May 2010
