Here's an air from Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore" like you've probably never heard it before: played on a solo banjo. Eddie Peabody, justly famous clear up through the late 60s courtesy of the Lawrence Welk TV show, must have
been a terrific showman when this side was recorded for Edison Labs on March 4 of of 1925. It takes a gutsy banjo player to bring this off effectively, and he does. The disc from which this was sampled had been played a few
times, so the louder notes show some wear, but the surface was quiet for the most part and only required rumble to be tamed. (The other side of this disc, the equally ambitious "Poet and Peasant Overture", can be heard on the
"Thomas Edison's Attic" radio show of May 2, 2006.)
