Meet the Maker: Tom Cussen

by Rick Rubin

Originally published in American Lutherie #116, 2013



In June 2012 my band mates in Floating Crowbar and I spent three weeks on the west coast of Ireland. Our goal was to play in pub sessions, absorb the culture, and make new friends. We found ourselves near Clarinbridge, where Tom Cussen builds fine banjos. James Hunter, Morgan Anderson, Don Thomsen, Jack Lindberg, and I found Tom shorthanded and busy assisting a young woman in choosing a new instrument, but in short order we were able to ask Tom about his first involvement with the banjo.

Traditional music in Ireland goes back a long way. With the advent of the Fleadh Cheol (music festivals) in the early 1950s and the folk boom in the early 1960s, traditional music became very popular in the ’60s and ’70s. That’s when my interest came.