There is only one musician in the world who can sing the praises of bluegrass legend Don Stover, describe the merits of vintage Sunn amps and tell you that he’s working on a suite of 12-tone music for tuba and banjo all in one 20 minute conversation. That man is banjo legend and experimenter Danny Barnes.

Barnes is subject of a 7,000-plus word cover story in the Fretboard Journal #35, where we go in-depth on his background, his sprawling career (including his time in the Bad Livers) and his eclectic gear. As a companion to that piece, we couldn’t resist asking him to stop by our office for this short podcast interview (we also have a couple of performance videos forthcoming). In our talk, we cover a lot of ground and get to hear about the Gibson Mastertone he was able to purchase thanks to winning the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass.