Everyone’s Grandpa

Guess I’m doing banjo week, so here’s another great banjo player. Louis Marshall Jones, better known as Grandpa Jones was a staple on Hee Haw and the Grand Ole Opry.

Grandpa got his nickname at a young age for acting fussy and grumpy. Being the consummate performer he was, he knew a good thing when he saw it and adopted the image as his stage persona almost immediately.

Jones played clawhammer style banjo. Unlike bluegrass, where you wear finger picks and pick up on the strings, frailers use the back of their fingernails to strike down on the strings. One of the knocks against banjo knocking is it doesn’t have much drive. I think Grandpa drove the rhythm ok myself 😉