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‘Merrywang’… Now there’s a name that deserves some explaining. Sadly, the history books are a little vague, even contradictory in places. What we do know is that in some circles, and clearly back in the days when we all had far cleaner minds, this was merely an innocent moniker for the twangiest and wangiest of all musical instruments, the banjo.

Banjo bands and orchestras became ‘quite the thing’ in the latter and earlier parts of the 19th and 20th centuries respectively. Google it for images, you won’t be disappointed. Merrywang exists largely to celebrate all things banjo, playing music ranging from early blues and jazz, to old-time country music and bluegrass (and probably one or two surprises, just to keep you on your toes)

The band comprises of some of the best ‘banjo botherers’ the country has to offer:

Leon Hunt

5-string, fingerstyle banjo, vocals

A former student of American banjo virtuoso, Bela Fleck, Leon has performed and recorded with a veritable ‘who’s who’, ranging from African Kora virtuoso, Sekou Kieta, Irish folk supergroups Lunasa and Flook, folk singers Kate Rusby, Seth Lakeman and Cara Dillon to rock and electronica explorers, Spiritualized and Goldfrapp. He has also been part of several major theatre productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham Rep and The New Vic. If all of the above name dropping means nothing to you then we’ll have to resort to the numerous, and deeply irritating, TV commercials for the likes of Anchor Butter and The Co-op, that was probably Leon too.

More on Leon

Ed Hicks

clawhammer and plectrum banjo, vocals

Ed is rapidly becoming one of London’s busiest banjo players. Like Leon, Ed’s musical allegiance lies primarily with the instrument itself, rather than just one of the musical styles associated with it. As such, Ed is as ‘at home’ strumming New Orleans style jazz as he is frailing in an Old-Time country music string band. As well as adding banjo to gold selling and Mercury nominated albums, Ed has also composed award winning music for the TV series, Southpark, performed on The Voice, no less than three times (just don’t tell anyone) and continues to tour extensively around the UK and Europe.

Bragi Pór Ólafsson

Bass banjo, vocals

Born and raised in Reykjavík, Iceland, Bragi studied music from an early age. He graduated from Iceland’s most prestigious jazz school, FIH in 2015, obtaining a degree in guitar performance. Bragi relocated to the UK in 2015 to continue his jazz studies, attending the prestigious Guildhall School of Music. While studying there he was introduced to Bluegrass and Old-Time string band Music. He is now finally putting all that world-class musical training to good use, having ‘progressed’ to playing the awesome Bass banjo. His parents are going to be so proud.

Jason Titley

banjo percussion, vocals

Known primarily as one of the UK’s finest Bluegrass guitarists (and longtime collaborator of Leon’s), Jason actually started his musical career as a drummer and percussionist. As Merrywang’s percussionist, Jason will be hitting a combination of conventional drums and ‘thinking man’s drums’ (banjos). Having played in bands alongside Leon for almost 30 years, Jason was unsurprisingly pretty keen to embrace the opportunity to repeatedly hit some banjos. He says he’s only here for the banjo directed violence.