John Dowling is a British banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 player.

Dowling was born in Cornwall, England. He won first place at the BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 Young Folk Award in 2000 with his band the Black Cat Theory, and went on to become the first European ever to win first place at the USA bluegrass banjo championship held at Winfield, Kansas

Winfield, Kansas

Winfield is a city situated along the Walnut River in the west-central part of Cowley County, located in South Central Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,301...

, in 2002. In 2007, he was featured as a master class tutor in a BBC1 reality series Play It Again

Play It Again

Play It Again is a documentary series on BBC One, featuring celebrities trying to learn to play musical instruments. The series is produced Diverse Production and started on 25 March 2007 and is narrated by Tamsin Greig.-1: Jo Brand, playing the organ.:...

along with Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

, Jools Holland

Jools Holland

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...

 and Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...

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External links

www.jdowling.com John Dowling website