1909 barn dance, Pea Ridge, KY. Sam Short tuned the banjos. Annie and Walter Short frailed them. Little Ovie Short jigged.

1976: Sam tuned the 80-year-old banjo. Annie played “Mule skinner blues.” 1956 photo of Walter and Annie.

AUNT ANNIE’S BANJO

Charles Suddeth

She strummed the strings and laughed,

Sang Mule Skinner Blues,

The melody bubbling over,

Rambling around our ears,

Down hidden hollers and hills.

Her banjo knew her songs,

Swishing paddlewheel steamboats,

mean-eyed gamblers with moonshine,

Dazzling cancan dancers,

Blushing, white-veiled brides.

Alas, Annie is no more,

Her banjo vanished in the mists,

Their stories forgotten and lost,

Gone downstream forevermore.