ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Prison Music

© Stephen Whiteside 14.04.2012

I’d love to play the banjo to the prisoners,
Introduce its music to those wretched souls in gaol.
Your spirit lifts and sings
When you pluck those happy strings.
The magic that the banjo weaves is seldom known to fail.

I’d love to show the banjo to the prisoners,
Introduce humanity where cameras stand on guard.
Give a little care and pity,
Teach a ditty, pretty, witty.
The atmosphere is wretched, and I know they do it hard.

I’d love to teach the banjo to the prisoners,
Give them independence, let them step down off the shelf.
I am sure that they would thirst
For its melodies, but first…
I’ll have to learn to play the thing myself!

You had me up until the last two lines - I thought hello this bloke is also a banjo player.
My 3 kids are all musicians, one a professional and I always said to them no matter what
happens no one can take your music away from you - Good poem.

Thanks, Dennis. I did actually buy a banjo a couple of years ago, with a view to learning to play it. In the end, though, I just wrote a poem about it and gave it to my son. He now plays it pretty well!

....at least it didn't go to waste Stephen!....I liked the poem too.

Yeah, that's right. Thanks.

Stephen - I can relate to your experience. I also have a banjo sitting upstairs waiting for me to learn to play, but somehow, I think my son is going to end up with it!!

Great little poem.

Catchya
IRene

Morning Stephen,

Your trouble is you have aimed too high. What you need is a Banjolele! I had a lengthy reply as to why this is but it vanished when I was just about to post it. The short version is... I started to learn Guitar about four times and failed. Now at 65, I have stuck with Ukulele for 18 months and am still loving every minute of it. I practice every day to the extent of not writing much. I have four Ukueles at the moment. Two little Sopranos, one full metal body Concert sized resonator and one Concert size Banjolele. This has a closed back and is fitted with a resonator. It is strung like and plays like a Ukulele but looks and sounds like a Banjo. Exactly what you need. I have been content up til now to learn chords and songs but one of our teachers (we have two) has started to teach us to pick out the intros and the middle bits of songs. Pretty soon I will feel confident in that area too. The only thing with the Banjolele is that it is heavy compared to the others. It is very loud too. I don't mind taking it to class as there are a lot of us and it doesn't sound out of place. But if I play it at home I'm sure the neighbours three doors down would hear it.

There are a couple of others in our group that play Banjoleles so if we are performing somewhere I usually take my Metal body one. I had a full on Silver, shiny one at first but it flared (and I didn't like the tone) too much so I sold it on ebay and bought a bronze finished one. Much more subtle, (and more sustain in the notes) but still eye-catching. I could do with a Concert sized, Timber finish one.. mm I'll get back to you... There is a mathematical formular for the perfect number of Ukuleles in each home.. n+1. (with n being the number you already have).