Max & Otto
barbaro
Max was subbing for the banjo player with Barbaro from December 2019 to March 2020 and toured with them again in summer 2021.
plays well with others
march maxness
In March 2020, Max challenged himself to write a tune a day for the entire month. He called it March Maxness. He had solo piano, solo banjo, solo acoustic guitar, duo acoustic guitar, Delta Blues guitar, jazz guitar, electric guitar with a loop pedal, progressive bluegrass, a full band banjo tune with a harmonium, and a trio with guitar, mandolin and trombone. It was originally done as an exclusive for his patrons, but it was made available to the public in March 2023. This once secret playlist is not secret now, but it’s still a great way to experience the day-by-day play-by-play.
licksmas 2020
In December 2020, Max participated in a cool project called the 12 Days of Licksmas, in which Eli Gilbert invited Max and 4 other banjo players to take part in a series of writing, presenting and applying licks into tunes each day for 12 days. In the end, there were 72 videos (12 each from 6 pickers). That’s a whole lot of licks. Here’s the playlist of all the tunes. And here’s a write up about the project in Bluegrass Today.