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HEALTH: Putting a stop to snoring. E7 TRAVEL: Don't forget Alexandria. E9SUNDAY May 4,1997is music to her well-trained earsSpencer Nltchle pfays a banjo as bis mother, Nancy, listens. Mrs. Nltchle and her late husband started the BanjoBy David W. Trozzo —* The CapitalBy MARY GRACE GALLAGHER Staff Writert’s been said that you can’t play a sad song on the banjo, and Nancy Nitehieknows it;.....*. For the past year .and a half, the Eastport Resident has been immersed in thethe people who play It and the people who love to listen to it;Two weeks ago she brought them all together-for the first Maryland Banjo Academy, a three-day banjo ’ workout in Buckeystown featuringSill Emersbn-aiid Bela Fl^k;1taught 200 enthusiasts the finer points of picking.For Mrs. Nitehie, whose banjo-playing husband of four decades'died five years ago, it was like a’family reunfon.“I always wondered what I’d do when I grew up, said Mrs. Nitehie,67. Maybethis is it.”Banjo Newsletter in downtown Annapolisin 1973;pianning to publish hard-to-fmd banjo music.The couple moved here from New York to be closer to banjo stars like Roy Clark, who lived in -Bayjdsonviile- Her eyes still tear up a Hub; • though.they evaporate as a plucky tune fills the living room of her Watergate Village apartment.*1 After 40 years it’s been very disorienting,’’ said Mrs. Nitehie,, who spends a loi of time gardening and is taking up sailing this spring.1 ‘This gave me a chance to see people we’ve both known and liked. “^BTMtchielrew'uplh'Anna and spent her sunimers onthe family farm in Martha’s Vineyard. A grown daughter and son still reside on the farm, wherfeahe spends about half her time now. Another sori, Spencer, 33, lives .near his mam in Annapolis.. : The Nitchies met in'~1952 while he^was stationed here with'the Navy, but they soon moved to New York, where he began working on a public school outreach program for The New York Times.Folk music was beginning to... permeate the city about that time and the couple got into the groove. Responding to a radio request for volunteers in 1962, they began tothaufSrli^Guthrie from the city tcEasfOranger N. J., on Sunday-evenings, so that he could be with family and friends like banjo master Pete Seeger,“Bob Dylan wrote a song about those evenings. They were just the . thihg^^dedto;cheer^^someone wfib is ill aifd lonely,H Mrs. Nitehie;;recalled.The Nitchies kept in close contact . with Mr, Seeger after that, and Hub even asked for the musician's go-ahead when he started the newsletter. Initially, the publication was only apart-time venture while both Nitchies taught in the county schools. Hub worked as a school librarian and , wajtafS^But the subscriber list grew, as did the number of columnists . Spencer runs the newsletter now, though it looks more like a magazine with a two-color cover ana pages filled with advertisements. It ismailedout to3,500 subscnbers-arouiid-fche .world7* ;; (SeeBANJOrPapR2) 7!' - -- .---* .. -
Newspaper Details
Capital Gazette
Annapolis, Maryland, US
Sun, May 04, 1997
Page 95
Full Page
Clipped by
Berkshire A.
MA, USA 27 Apr 2020
Other Publications Near Annapolis, Maryland
Capital Gazette
Annapolis Maryland Republican And State Capital Advertiser
Annapolis Maryland Republican
Annapolis Capital Gazette
Maryland Gazette
