A Banjo Story...

 I have been in museums and seen Louie Armstrong's cornet, Jimi Hendrix's Stratocaster and even William Bell's double euphonium/tuba horn which though I know there's a blog post but I can't find it right now. . They were all behind glass, on exhibit for history and it makes me a bit sad to think that they are not played. 

I recall when I was a teen and I went over to a friend's home and as we sat in his bedroom and talked music and listened to records he pulled a case from under the bed containing his brother's electric guitar which had been left there when he departed for college. I don't recall the make or model but with the strum of a G chord which was all I could manage at he time I sagely noted it was in tune. Sometimes as I drive through town I pass that house, it's probably brought up several families since then and I imagine that guitar possibly still under the bed forgotten and unnoticed.     

This past weekend when we made it up to Shreveport, Louisiana for a Mardi Gras parade we also got in touch with Cathy's nephew, Chase, who is her dad Bill's grandson. He's a guitar player and owns nice instruments. One thing that has been a process since Bill whose main instrument was the tenor banjo, passed in 2020 was to get his instruments to homes where they would be played or cherished. 

A few years before his passing Bill gave away a couple of his main instruments, a banjo and a tenor guitar to the young people he wanted to have them. That left us to later pass out to those interested dulcimers, ukes, clarinets and old pawnshop guitars and such that were part of his life's collection. 

There was one banjo left that Bill had bought and used a few years before his death when he felt his #1 had got too heavy for him. We gave that banjo to Chase. It's a Deering Tenor  and very nice. In fact I saw one for a good price once in a Chicago pawn shop and almost had a weak moment where I bought it but then remembered that I was flying and really needed another banjo like a hole in the head. 

I know Chase will make good use of this instrument but I neglected to tell him that his main fan base was going to be older women and his band mates were going to be tuba players and accordions

Or maybe cigar box guitar players. 

One day all my instruments will be looking for new homes. I hope they end up in good hands instead of behind glass or under beds. . 

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