Dueling Banjos, the way it was done in Deliverance, the film from 1972. They should have retitled it, because unlike the original by Arthur Smith (on a four-string plectrum banjo) and Don Reno (on a five-string banjo), the version in Deliverance (which was played by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell) does not feature two banjos. It was originally named Feudin' Banjos.

Even before owning a banjo I knew I had to learn this someday. That came sooner than I imagined.I always thought is was excessively difficult, until I figured out what the song comprised - a basic melody taken from Yankee Doodle Dandy on which variations are played. The ending appeared just to be a bunch of noise or licks played over the chord changes. I quickly found out after I picked up the banjo a few months back that you can not play bluegrass banjo without knowing at least a handful of licks. It only took me a few songs and videos to collect a bunch of licks that I could use for Dueling Banjos.

I know I made a few mistakes - tripped over a few notes and fell out of time in a few places, but I was happy with the end result so I kept the recording. I doubt that I would've done it better if I re-recorded it. :)

I recorded the guitar part first, basically imagining what the banjo would be responding. I was listening to that recording to record banjo to. You can actually see the cord of my in-ears going to my audio interface. I then decided it wasn't enough yet so I recorded bass and mandolin.

Gear info:
The guitar is a Taylor 110ce built in 2008. I recorded it with an Oktava MK-012 small diaphragm condenser microphone (visible in the frame).
The banjo is a Recording King RK-R36-BR built in 2013. I recorded it with an Audio Technica AT3035 large diaphragm condenser microphone (also visible in the frame).
Mics were connected to a Focusrite Saffire Pro40, recording into REAPER in which I did the final mix. Video was shot with an iPhone 4S and editing was done in Adobe Premiere Pro.

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