User:Elibsmith

Eli Smith is a musician, writer and promoter of folk music. He likes to sing and play various American folk music on banjo, guitar, fiddle, harmonica, washboard and miscellaneous debris and writes his own original songs as well. From 2001-2005 Eli played and toured the United States and Eastern Europe with Jug Free America, a jug band he formed while living in Ohio and attending Oberlin College. Eli is currently producing the first ever commercial CD of Akonting music. The Akonting is an African lute from the Jola tribe of Senegambia and is the most direct African predecessor of the American banjo. He is also preparing for publication the autobiography of Gil Kudrin, entitled “360 Degrees.” Gil Kudrin, a Croatian-American, grew up in his father’s tavern in Lorain Ohio. He is a steel worker turned Police Officer, turned Socialist truck driver and Teamsters Union organizer turned private investigator. Quite a book. Eli Smith lives in Brooklyn, NY.