When asked the location of the single largest producer of banjos in the United States, one might be tempted to guess Tennessee or Kentucky. The correct answer, though, is here in Spring Valley.

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — From his home workshop in Henrico County, Tyler Burke carefully crafts banjos. He makes the one-of-a-kind instruments by hand. Burke started by playing guitar then picked ...

A wood-burning stove is simmering in Tom Cussen’s workshop as he works on a 1930s Gibson tenor banjo. “It was in rag order when it got here,” says Cussen, whose business, Clareen Banjos, has been ...

SPRING VALLEY, Calif. – As other states try to lure San Diego businesses with cheaper land and lower taxes, one growing company said it’s staying put. San Diego State alum Greg Deering, who loved the ...

It all started with the Kingston Trio. One day in 1963, a San Diego kid and his friends got their hands on an album by the popular folk group. Greg Deering, 12 at the time, recalls studying the ...

Banjos sometimes conjure images of the South. But in East County’s Casa de Oro community sits one of the biggest manufacturers of American-made banjos. The Deering Banjo Co. builds about 5,200 of the ...

It was an unusual career path for an engineering student, but this year Chuck Ogsbury is celebrating 50 years of banjo making success. Ogsbury began studying at the University of Colorado in the late ...

Over the years the banjo has been the butt of a lot of jokes and everyone is quick to make a Deliverance reference but when you get right down to it the banjo is fun to listen to. It's been said that ...

Banjo maker Jim Hartel shows us old banjos and plays the minstrel tune "Jim Along Josie." Banjo maker Jim Hartel shows us old banjos, derived from instruments made by African slaves, plays the ...

Randy Arnold played guitar; he wasn’t sure if he wanted to tangle with the banjo. But when he picked one up and plucked it, the sound hit him right in the breadbasket. “I bought one of those bottom-of ...

Sam Radding spends most days in his backyard workshop off of University Avenue surrounded by guitar bodies. He smells of sawdust and has the wild-eyed look of a mad scientist. He has a bald spot ...

EGGLESTON, Va. (AP) - At the end of a road that goes from asphalt to gravel to dirt, Greg Galbreath crafts Appalachia’s instrument. Inside a homey woodshop, he’s bringing the story of an owl and mouse ...