May 11th, 2026

Good morning friends,

    In one corner of the store, close to all the banjos is my big old leather chair. It’s been there since we opened the store. It’s where I sit. It’s where I hold court. There are a few other old chairs that are around it and they are for the passengers who want to ride on my trip. Inevitably, on a Saturday there are lots of people who come in for banjo advice, I am always there to hear banjo stories and confessions. Several young people have joined our weekly jams and it’s always good to see new faces. One young boy who just starting his journey on the banjo came over to John’s Corner and we struck up a conversation. I asked him where he went to school and he told me he was homeschooled. I gave him my usual retort, which is "I was also homeschooled, but I got kicked out!" I’ve actually known several banjo players who were homeschooled…there must be some message locked in there. It is after all an instrument that tends to attract the "misfits" of life, and that is said with all due respect.

  It’s not just to give advice to banjo players and certainly not just to sell banjos that I hang there on Saturdays. It is having a conversation is about America’s instrument that’s important and spreading the word and it seems to be attracting an interesting slice of the population. They seem to be gravitating towards America’s first instrument, but in a different way…an island of misfits expressing themselves as banjo players…particularly in the old time style…just an observation, not a judgement. I like this new crowd.

With peace,

JB