Banjo! Thanks for the suggestion Kat! Doug actually owns a banjo. One year for our anniversary or Christmas or something like that I purchased a gift certificate for private lessons at The Old Town School of Music. He took the lessons too. He has a penchant for strange musical instruments. Like the mandolin and the guitar. Ok, well they aren’t really strange, I don’t think they are strange anyway. His family and my family probably think they are strange because of what kind of associations a banjo has. You know, rough and tumble type of kids who never know when to say no.
So Doug owns a guitar (gasp!), a banjo (egads!), and a mandolin (meh). He plays them on occasion when he is trying to plan his next step while programming. I personally like all of the instruments. The mandolin makes me think of Led Zeppelin (name drop… that’s right I listen to cool music). The banjo makes me think of Sujan Stevens, who is one of my favorite all time artists, even for all of his Jesus music. But the guitar, well, that makes me think of the devil.
“… even for all of his Jesus music.”
I must say I agree. And that’s real testament to his talent: to gain such adoration from us, despite such unfortunate… “flaws.”
I enjoy that I’m such a huge fan of Sufjan that I spelled his name wrong. Huuugee fan…
With a guitar, a mandolin, and a banjo it’s only a matter of time before the bluegrass band starts. Throw in a pedal steel and it could even be country. But like somewhat listenable roots country, not Brad Paisley or anything horrible like that.
I agree though, whenever I hear a mandolin I start thinking of the battle of evermore.
Randy and I really want to get banjos and only learn to play dueling banjos. (And always subject people to it at parties. Natch.)