What the banjo player wore

As a banjo player, there is an expectation that you'll be found wearing overall straps, sleeping in the tall grass with a breath full of moonshine and growing a beard wide as the roses on a summertime plant. Truth be known, many banjo players are gentle and sweet like a drop of sugarcane in a cup of coffee. You may find them to be strange, why they chose an instrument that draws comparisons to rolling thunder, why do they carry a moon-shaped case that encourages stares and questions, why not settle in and play the beloved guitar? There are different reasons for every player as to why we let our bedrooms be filled with banjo air, but for many, the reason we play is because we hear the banjo calling and it sounds a lot like home.

I look at my banjo as it stands by a painting of flowers, a table of pine cones, and three dusty unfinished bottles of bourbon (no moonshine as some would have you believe). To me, this banjo is the most beautiful thing in the room. I can pick it up and press it against my belly like a symphony of song birds inside of a womb — how brave, how sweet, how delicate, how naked this banjo reveals me to be. I could travel to the saddest forest with a fine tooth comb for an eye, as long as my banjo came to be played, I would know where to look for seeds and flowers sprouting from the earth. This banjo is the cathedral in which I visit to find myself again, and again, and again. Give me callouses and aching fingers, take away summer and soft fruit, but never take away my banjo.

Here I am clothed in my own banjo picker's outfit. The overall dress was a gift from The Wanderly, a handmade & vintage goods boutique based in Montreal. A dress like this one lets me know I'm on my way to a wardrobe that is both pretty and ready to answer the banjo's call.

The Outfit

Overall Dress – The Wanderly*
Hat – Gift

Blouse & Boots – The Bay

 

The Location

Griffith Woods

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