Jeff Norman

Born in Texas, Norman took up the banjo while living in southwest Virginia, and he played with the Happy Hollow Stringband there until he moved to Michigan, when another banjo player took his place. In Michigan he played regularly with the fiddler Molly McBride, and he picked up a side job as the “official open-back banjo tester” for Elderly Instruments in Lansing, playing the store’s banjos for its demonstration videos.

Stripey Cat features Norman on five- and six-string banjo and on tenor and baritone ukulele, with McBride on fiddle and Chris Scales on guitar; Scales recorded and mixed it and produced it with Norman. Its fourteen tracks include his originals “Stripey Cat,” “Ducks and Drakes” and “Cheese and Crackers” alongside Henry Reed’s “Texas”/“Newcastle,” Clyde Davenport’s “Five Miles from Town,” “Yew Piney Mountain” and “Spotted Pony.” He also plays banjo on McBride’s own album. As of 2026 he is based in Scranton, Pennsylvania.