I have a Frank Proffitt banjo and dulcimer. The banjo is signed and dated November1, 1963; the dulcimer is, I think, a year younger. I actually got the banjo by mail the day before American Thanksgiving almost exactly two years before Frank's death. With each of the instruments Frank included a cassette of his playing and included a few songs not recorded elsewhere. The cassette accompanying the dulcimer migrated into Anne and Frank Warner's collection and now resides, as far as I can tell, at the Library of Congress. The banjo tape went up in a fire in early 2001. It included a version Frank's composition "Ain't a Thing for a Poor Man" on the banjo (usually sung with a dulcimer).

I've included several of Frank's songs on a few of my own CDs, most recently his version of "Wild Bill Jones." I owe a tremendous debt to his singing. It was with Frank's music that I first tried to delve deeply into the old music. When I was seventeen years old, I spent two hot summer evenings with him on the Warner's front patio. He sang and talked and I listened. He agreed to make me a banjo and when it arrived I played it until it should have been worn out. But it is still going strong. There may be somebody else who spent as much time listening to and playing Frank's music--but I doubt it!

If you haven't heard Frank Proffitt, the time has come. There are several Folk-Legacy Recordings and one on Folkways. Frank can also be heard on both volumes of the Warner Collection CDs on Appleseed, but the second is subtitled "The Music of Frank Proffitt and North Carolina,' and has a great number of Frank's songs and a bit of talk, too.

It is great that grand-daughter, Iris wrote in. She may not remember the mention of his name in Time magazine or have ever seen the big obituary in the New York Times. He is well remembered by a great number of people. His picture is on my wall, Iris, along with a photo of Lee Monroe Presnell, another singer the Warner's met on their first trip to the North Carolina mountains, and another relative you should look up

I've often thought it would be interesting to try to track down all of Frank's banjos. Such a thing is not likely to happen and might not even be possible. As to the value of the banjos--they are, ...well, priceless. Hold on to yours.

Jeff Davis