Back in Banjo

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I've been away in actor-land and teacher-land all fall. There is much to say about teaching I suppose, but now is not the time. It has also been so long that I took a good look at the long neck that I found it bowed almost beyond belief. It took several days of truss-rod turning (clockwise!), plus half a Yukon Gold potato with the banjo in the closed case (yes I do that, and it doesn't smell or rot, it just dries up nicely until it's like a rock, only somewhat softer), plus a few short prayers to - um - Uncle Dave Macon? to make things right.

I've returned to the blogosphere though mostly to celebrate a new song I'm learning to play for a wedding on Saturday. It was written in 1966 by a feller name a Roger Miller. It's called Husbands and Wives and sometimes the only way you can celebrate someone's happiness is by singing a sad song. It's got a very sweet progression that's made me a somewhat better banjo player just by the effort to grasp it. There might be a few dissonant notes in my chord stylings, but I like dissonant notes. My banjo wouldn't be my banjo without them.

Here are the words:

Two broken hearts lonely, looking like houses
where nobody lives
Two people each having so much pride inside
neither side forgives

The angry words spoken in haste
such a waste of two lives,
It's my belief pride is the chief cause
in the decline in the number of husbands and wives

A woman and a man, a man and a woman some can,
and some can, and some can't.

And then it just repeats. You could go on and on with it forever. And believe me, I already have. Kat's sick of it.

Oh yeah, and the image above is from here. It's been so long I'd forgotten how to do that 'a href' stuff. Seems to me that bit of stitching, while nice, looks more like me than Roger Miller.