Crumb-Butt and Other Banjo Adjectives

In the pursuit of passion or any hobby there is a certain lingo, verb-age, or vernacular that goes with it. Banjo pickers are no different. In fact, they are at the top of the game when it comes to adjectives.

This is all humorous to me until I’m left alone with one (namely Ben) and he wants to talk adjectives. He usually catches me doing the dishes or something I just can’t walk away from. The scene goes something like this…

“Honey, you hear that 4th string growl?

Yeah, sounds mad.

“Sounds like Earl’s, is what it sounds like.”

“What do you think of that third string? Does it sound fuzzy to you?”

Fuzzy? Why would it sound fuzzy? I thought you just changed the strings.

“Fuzzy is good. That’s a pre-war, type fuzzy sound, there.”

“Wanna hear my crumb-butt?”

Crumb-butt.There’s a fifty cent made up word by our children. We had a cat named Hercimer who always had a crumb-butt. When the kids were showing  me this Ben was in the background playing his banjo. He had just changed strings and was doing a 2 to 5 slide on the 4th with a 1-3 pinch (for you banjo nerds) over and over and his banjo was saying cccrrrum-butt,  cccrrrum-butt, cccrrrum-butt. Honest to God, no kidding. Boys will be boys and banjo players will be banjo players.

Around here we say Earl Scruggs is the King of the Crumb-Butts.

If Earl is the King and Ben is the Duke.

“Don’t look. I’ll go get my Stelling, Gibson and Yates and you tell me which one I’m playing and which cccrrrum-butt you like better. MMM-K?”

Sounds a little too personal if you ask me, like your banjo may need a nice outhouse and some toilet paper. The best part of this whole deal is, my dishes get done in record time.

So how about you. Does your banjo growl about it’s fuzzy cccrumb-butt? Do you want it to? Or is having a fuzzy, growly cccrumb-butt over rated?

Sis

Tags: 1933 gibson, banjo, banjo adjectives, prewar sound, yates banjo