Albany Banjo Player on 'Prairie Home Companion' This Weekend

Bill Evans, an banjo-playing Albany resident who's a regular performer at Albany events and the Kensington Circus Pub, will appear this weekend on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion.

Evans has been desribed by the San Jose Mercury News as "one of the best banjo pickers on the planet." He's also the author of Banjo for Dummies.

This week's Prairie Home Companion will be broadcast live from from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota where, Evans says, it's current 26 degrees and snowing.

Locally, KQED-FM, 88.5, airs A Prairie Home Companion on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 11 a.m.

You can also hear Evans live during the next few weeks at these events:

—Wednesday, Feb. 25: Kensington Circus Pub, 389 Colusa Ave., Kensington, as a special guest with Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys from Michigan. 8 to 10 p.m.

—Thursday, March 7: Kensington Circus Pub with Bangers & Grass (my local monthly all-star bluegrass show), 8 to 10 p.m.

—Friday, March 29: Albany, CA: Bangers & Grass @TheCenter, a new performance series at the Albany Community Center, 1247 Marin Ave., 6:45-8 p.m. Info at http://www.albanyca.org/index.aspx?page=1173.

For more information on Evans and to see his current tour chedule, visit his webpage at www.billevansbanjo.com. And read an interview with him at "For the Love of the Banjo" on Albany Patch. 

Have you heard Bill Evans play? Share your experience in the comments setion below.