Dan Treanor calls his full-throated music Afrosippi blues, and he plays those songs on instruments he makes himself, bending notes so authentic that listeners do double-takes at this white-haired white man from Arvada.
“I’ve been a blues musician for 40 years,” Treanor says.
“Some people say you’ve gotta be black to play the blues. I think being a human is what you need to play the blues; it’s in your DNA. That’s what the griots preach.”
He’s something of a griot himself — a Colorado update of the West African tribal figure who embodies a culture’s history, religion and medicine. Treanor is a storyteller with a master’s degree in U.S. history and a keen command of American blues roots.
Through the Colorado Blues Society, Treanor offers his popular Blues in the Schools presentations. He combines his informal lectures with demonstrations of the West African instruments that African-American slaves interpreted in cigar boxes, broomsticks and whatever materials were available to them.
Treanor started with the diddley bow, a single-stringed instrument based on the African umakeyana.
“The diddley bow, which is also called the jitterbug box, really was the first blues instrument, and you can trace it back more than 200 years,” Treanor says.
“I’ve always had this burning interest in the history aspect of the blues, as well as playing them. So I started studying griot society.”
That led Treanor to instrument-making, starting with the diddley bow, and then more complicated efforts, like the ngoni, one West African ancestor of the banjo, and the khalam, another banjo predecessor. If griots in the African bush can make a ngoni or a khalam, Treanor figured, then so should he.
“So I went to my garage five or six years ago to make an instrument out of whatever I found there, and I made a diddley bow,” he said.
“I used the handle of a shovel, parts pirated from an old guitar, and kinda put the rest together from pieces of wood. When I got it together, I was really liking it, but I had no intention of doing anything with it but the Blues in the Schools program. Then the guys in my band heard it, and wanted me to play it in gigs.”
Now his handmade instruments play a dominant role in Treanor’s Afrosippi performances and recordings. His past four compact disc recordings showcase his instruments. On the cover of “Dan Treanor and Frankie Lee: African Wind,” Treanor poses with the khalam he crafted from a Mali sorrow mask. What could be more appropriate, he asks, for playing the blues?
“The mask is made to take away the ailment from the afflicted person, as the griot sings a song, privately for that person, so the sorrow goes from the person into the mask,” he explained.
“All the sorrow stays in the mask, and all that sorrow stays in this instrument.”
Handmade Instruments
where to find them
Time to go out and play! Here’s how to learn more about local handmade musical instruments:
Make Your Own Backpacker Flute
Learn to build a handsome, durable flute that’s easy to play. Instructor John Achuff promises that each student will leave with a handcrafted pentatonic flute: noon to 4 p.m. May 10, Swallow Hill Music Association, 71 E. Yale Ave., Denver; $45.
Ringflute
James Andrew Johnson modeled his unconventional flute after the South American ocarina flute. The polymer blend version is accessible at $39 (an African wood version costs $500) and requires no tuning. Learn more online at
Guitar building
Learn to build a guitar in a one-on-one lesson from Colorado luthier Robbie O’Brien, who offers classes at his Parker shop and at Red Rocks Community College. For more details, visit , and click on “Classes.” He also builds guitars on commission.
Ukuleles
The koa and mango wood ukuleles made by John and Pam Ramsey, who’ve owned Colorado Springs’ Tejon Street Music for nearly 30 years, sell briskly in Japan, Hawaii and here, at $1,500 apiece. See their work at their store, 330 N. Tejon St. in Colorado Springs, or visit the website at palmtree .
Guitars
Colorado Springs luthier Randy Reynolds is celebrated for the high-end ($3,850 and up) classical guitars he builds. Customers wait two to three years for one of his instruments; .
