Steve's Gourd Banjo

I made this instrument from scrap curly maple, cello pegs, scrap ebony, a circle of Fibreskyn cut off an old head, bootlaces, and a big gourd. I topped it with an Ashanti fertility figure. I tune it about an octave below a modern banjo, and it makes very scary sounds when used to play Rollin' and Tumbln' or Raleigh and Spencer...I played at the Clifftop Banjo Contest in 1999, and it certainly wasn't unnoticed...it unfortunately was my last stage performance at this wonderful festival, and I'm proud it was on an instrument I made with my own hands.


Gourd Banjo is more of a concept than a musical instrument as we know it in the 21st century. It involves the desire to make music by any means necessary...you use whatever materials, tools, and space available to make it, then you play it any way you can. This is diametrically opposed to the way many people think of music...either as a spectator sport or as a style or form to be copied exactly to have commercial/social validity. This is why the concept of Gourd Banjo is very attractive to me...there's no way the lyrics to surfin' bird or duke of earl can get stuck in your head with the use of Gourd Banjo, and Gourd Banjo can be used as a spiritual laxative to remove the same...