A Banjo Essay
- Thursday, July 01, 2004 -
Uncle Laney said he was feeling puny that morning, but came to town because he heard there was a speaking and he allowed a little music would help out. He said he allowed it would cheer the boys up a little if he walked down to the jailhouse and played a few tunes for them while the speakers were at it in the courthouse.
Yes, friends, the glory of the mountains is that the soul of a man is free. Because a mountain man minds his own business, he is at liberty to come and go by his own leave.
If there is music in his heart, a mountain man is free to pat it out through his feet, or clap it out through his hands. He is free to sit under the jailhouse window and pick it out of a homemade banjo for the boys inside. That is what Uncle Laney Gibson did that morning of October 29 up there at McKee, in the friendly valley of Indian Creek in the headwaters country of Rockcastle River.
