Banjo Spirits is a down-home and delicate work crafted by filmmaker John Paulson.  From rock solid traditionalist Don Stover playing in front of his tarpaper West Virginia home while spinning out a sure sense of his place in the universe, to the breathless, high-strung quest of revivalist banjo minstrel Stephen Wade in search of the instrument he has adopted, Banjo Spirits inter-cuts realism and romance. 

   Separated by years and cultural style, Stover and Wade are exotic in comparison to one another as they arrive at the instrument they love from very different routes.  The film’s magic is that in a short time we learn a lot about the banjo in America; and we leave believing that these players are banjo spirits who resonate in eloquent equivalence with the old and new ages from which they respectively travel.

- Nick Spitzer, folklorist and radio host, American Routes

From Banjo Newsletter (November 1998, p.8)

   In recent years, with the proliferation of instructional books, cassettes, videos and CDs, it has become much easier for an aspiring banjo player to learn how to play the instrument. Videos of musicians in concert have also become available, but onstage performance videos can only tell part of the story of a musician and his instrument.

   From the opening scenes of Banjo Spirits, John Paulson invites us “backstage” to visit with Don Stover and Steven Wade. Seeing Don at home and hearing him playing and singing some of his best-known compositions gives us a deeper appreciation of the importance of music to him and the centrality of the banjo in his career. And as Don talks with disarming candor about the brain tumor that took him from us, his hauntingly beautiful song "Things in Life" takes on added significance as an autobiographical and musical epitaph.

   Steven Wade guides us through the remarkable collection of historic banjos at the Smithsonian Institution, most of which are not on public display. He shows us how the instrument evolved from its early forms in the mid-1800s to the variety of types of banjos we see today, and he demonstrates with musical examples how this evolution was driven in part by the changing musical styles during the intervening one hundred and fifty years.

   Those who were at last year’s Maryland Banjo Academy were privileged to attend a prerelease showing of Banjo Spirits: With its official release this month, it becomes a valuable and insightful experience we can now all share.

By Bill Keith, banjo player

From Dirty Linen (#88, June/July ’00, p.97)

    Recent years have seen the appearance of videos on how to play the banjo and on banjo players in performance, including a few with Don Stover and Stephen Wade.  Filmmaker John Paulson, however, takes a new approach.  He attempts to offer the viewers a glimpse of banjo culture.  He visits Stover at home and allows him to talk about his life and music, which Stover does optimistically, even though he was afflicted with a cancerous brain tumor at the time. 

   The film also takes us to the Smithsonian Banjo Collection, which is not open to the public, where Wade offers his own perspective on fascinating instruments of historical interest.  The film conjures up the spirit of banjo playing and the bond that banjo players share, and features Stover performing five songs and Wade, two.

By Paul E. Comeau (Comeauville, NS, Canada)