Notes From Banjourneys

The banjo had been calling to me long before I turned to pick it up and sound it a little over 30 years ago. I have been grappling with it ever since, first in Ohio and West Virginia, and later in Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, all before I took up residence in Florida a decade ago. The banjo has gleefully lead me from the beaten path, into festival fields up until dawn, across rutted roads and streams into rural homes to meet elders eager to share, and into communities of good humor and passion for the well placed phrase, the unexpected turn, and the skip of the beat. Old-time banjo has filled my life with an assortment of colorful characters, eccentrics, and peculiar geniuses. What seemed odd then feels like old home now.

A series of unlikely and intersecting events led me in Gambia in July 2007 to learn the music of the Jola akonting (ekonting), a West African 3-stringed banjo ancestor. With Daniel Jatta as my guide, Remi and Ekona Diatta as my patient instructors, I held