LIVERMORE — Jim Bottorff settles into a chair in his living room and a pack of his fellow four-string banjo aficionados pile in with him. Some, like John Green, travel from as far away as Fiddletown, ...

When you consider the banjo, you'd be forgiven for assuming that its just the guitar's twangier, countrier cousin. However, the instrument has recently shaken off its southern porch-front roots - you ...

At the back of the pizza parlor sit five rows of musicians, plucking and bouncing away. They all wear red vests. They all wear black bow ties. And they all wear broad smiles. They say they can't help ...