Reminiscent of the story I heard from another banjo picker back in the 50s—apocryphal or not? dunno—maybe just an urban legend—

Seems a "wife" (more likely girlfriend?) of Woody Guthrie's back in Oklahoma in the 1930s before Woody took off for California hated his pickin' around on a banjo he had in the house so much that she cut all the strings.

Hmm, those strings.

Yeah, kind of scary, huh? I'd have taken off for California too. Maybe not stopped there, just kept on goin'. That'd give anybody the wanderlust, especially knowing more intimate strings, some dark moonless night, might be next.

But like I say, I've no idea whether the story was true. Haven't seen it in any of the Guthrie bio material I've happened across. Did Woody ever even have a banjo?

Could just be somebody's terrorized fever dream. Or a version of the Bill Monroe story. Any picker, banjo or not, is bound to vibrate to it, though.

Bob