Joe Bonsall of the Oak Ridge Boys

Joe Bonsall

The first banjo music that I ever heard was as a kid. That strange Philadelphia phenomenon called the String Band, as in MUMMERS. (See my essay, A Trip Back Home at josephsbonsall.com.) One hundred guys wearing feathers and strumming banjos is quite an assault and, although I got a kick out of the pomp and fun of these groups as a child, I never aspired to put on a pair of purple tights and a headdress and march down Market Street strumming my brains out.