Nick Hornbuckle, “Cleo Belle”

There’s a sort of primitive beauty within the patchwork techniques that have informed and filtered into each individual instrumentalist’s approach to the five-string banjo. Styles rapidly morph and change, aided by the instrument’s relative youth (when compared, in roots music, to all but perhaps the resonator guitar) and its absolute refusal to nestle into any one distinct vein of pedagogy. Scruggs-style, clawhammer and broader frailing, ragtime, picking (i.e. with plectrum), strumming, and even more avant garde approaches such as Greg Liszt’s four-finger banjo all lend themselves to the machine in their own alluring ways. 

Enter Nick Hornbuckle, banjoist at large and member of John Reischman’s Jaybirds, who’s just released his second solo album, 13 or So. Hornbuckle’s right hand method defies categorization even by the rule-eschewing standards mentioned above. His two-finger style is decidedly distinct from the eponymous Appalachian, old-time frailing approach, combining aspects of clawhammer, Scruggs-style, and the ethereal, impossible-to-replicate quirkiness of just making your hands do what the music requires without being exactly sure how that works. I.e., playing the banjo. 

The resulting aesthetic, which anchors each of the twelve original tunes on 13 or So, falls somewhere within an equilateral triangle whose vertices would be Mark Johnson (of clawgrass fame), Steve Martin, and Noam Pikelny (if he had one finger tied behind his back). “Cleo Belle,” as all of Hornbuckle’s compositions, confounds with its combination of sheer musical athleticism and acrobatics — while remaining absolutely intuitive and organic. With his crew — on “Cleo Belle” that would be Trent Freeman (fiddle), John Reischman (mandolin), Darryl Poulsen (guitar), and Patrick Metzger (bass) — Hornbuckle wholly incorporates vernacular musical vocabularies while still pushing string band boundaries into more art music or chamber music spaces. The arrangement reminds that the western-most communities of bluegrass and old-time acolytes in this country have truly, effortlessly combined the best parts of each, while retaining that rustic, back-porch timelessness that makes the banjo beguiling to all of us.

BGS’s 15 Favorite New Emojis

If you haven’t heard by now, Apple released a host of new emojis — 398 to be exact! — with the rollout of iOS 13.2 earlier this week. Among them are soon-to-be-favorites such as an otter, a sloth, a yawning face, a bulb of garlic, and oh so many more. To take you into the weekend we thought we’d poll the BGS staff and list our favorites here. Which new additions are you most excited for? Comment below!

The Banjo

I mean, DUH!! We finally get a banjo emoji! Props to Apple for getting it right with the fifth string peg and the armrest. It’s clearly a beginner model (the tuning pegs parallel to the headstock, for instance), but this machine can clearly get the job done. An obvious fav.

The Banjo

Can you blame us? A BANJO EMOJI IS HERE, Y’ALL!!

The Banjo

No, seriously. This isn’t a “paddle faster” situation. This is a “the quintessential American instrument is finally given its due alongside a violin, stratocaster, trumpet, saxophone, and a Shure SM58” situation. Or perhaps, a Bluegrass Situation?

The Banjo (Samsung version)

Are those… are those ugly tuners!? Unfortunately, no. If you peer really closely you’ll see it’s actually a six-string banjo, which is just as important a part of American vernacular music as the five-string, to be sure. Good job, though, Samsung. The detail is spot on, even if six-string banjos don’t have headstocks like this.

The Banjo (Facebook version)

Facebook isn’t getting much of anything right these days, but damn if their banjo emoji doesn’t just almost cover a world of sin. Another six-string (forgivable), yes, and the inlays and gold plating are a nice touch.

The Banjo

We just missed it, okay? TAKE IN ITS RESPLENDENT GLORY!!

The Banjo (Google version)

Another budget model, given the flange styling, and they certainly phoned in the details — is it four-string? Five-string? Six-string? NO-STRING!? But hey, it’s a banjo. Banjomoji. (Still testing out that term. You can use it if you like.)

The Banjo

If you scrolled down this far to see if we’ve chosen any others… Nope! Still banjo.

The Banjo (Microsoft version)

It kinda feels like this one should be cut out and promptly slung around a paper doll’s neck, right? Cute as can be. But really, did any of y’all know Microsoft has their own versions of emojis? Who knew??? [Windows phone users, don’t @ us.]

The. Banjo. Damnit. 

Banjomoji! Banjomoji! Banjomoji! Banjomoji! Banjomoji!

The Banjo (Twitter version) 

The participation trophy of banjo emojis. The “nobody else in the group project turned in their work” of banjo emojis. The Nickelback of banjo emojis. Four tuners, two strings, six brackets — is this a functional instrument or a toy, Twitter? Oh right. Neither. It’s an emoji. Still a banjo, though!

The Hatchet

The only other AXE to be released in this round of emojis. Lololol. Get it?

The Banjo

You see what we’re doing here, right?

The Banjo

If only Earl Scruggs could see the magnificence he hath wrought.

The Banjo

Whether you got here the long way or scrolled right down after reading the intro, yes, this is a real thing you just read. We just love the banjo emoji, okay? We’ve waited a while. Let us have this moment.

Now to begin lobbying for a mandolin emoji! Who’s with us!?


Photo credit: Foter.com
Emojis: Apple designs / Emojipedia

LISTEN: Nora Brown, “Buck Creek Girls”

Artist: Nora Brown
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Buck Creek Girls”
Album: Cinnamon Tree
Release Date: October 25, 2019
Label: Jalopy Records

In Their Words: “‘Buck Creek Girls’ is a square dance tune from Kentucky that goes by different names depending on the source you get it from. Though [it doesn’t have] many words, the tune has a driving tempo and surprises the listener with each turn of the A to the B part. I learned this tune from the late John Cohen in his living room, from his interpretation of his recording of Banjo Bill Cornett. It’s exciting to listen to this tune because it seems like every time I hear it there is some note or emphasis I missed. For me, the tune never gets old because there’s always something new about it.” — Nora Brown


Photo credit: Benton Brown

WATCH: Rhiannon Giddens Plays the Tiny Desk

Former Carolina Chocolate Drops leader and old-time music maven Rhiannon Giddens has the uncanny ability to sing through an audience. In May, she released her third full-length, studio album, there is no Other, with Nonesuch Records. In this new chapter, Giddens collaborated with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, who is known for his virtuosity on percussion and jazz piano. Giddens, Turrisi, and bassist Jason Sypher stopped by NPR to perform some music from the latest record; watch as they stun the audience huddled around the Tiny Desk.


Photo credit: Claire Harbage/NPR

Matthew Davis, “Ektorp”

Bluegrass has an undeniable fascination with prodigies. Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard an excited story about a pre-pubescent Chris Thile at a run-of-the-mill bluegrass festival campsite jam session or a story about receiving a pre-fame autograph from a young, curly-headed fiddler named Alison Krauss.

All hands raised? Yes. It’s a thing. Bluegrass loves its pickin’ kids, especially the ones with otherworldly, unfettered talent. But an even more remarkable phenomenon relating to these prodigious youths, especially since the advent of kids in/on bluegrass programs across the U.S., is the ever more frequent occurrence of young people, veritable prodigies, who are effortlessly and distinctly musical. They don’t just shred, they have taste, they have singular musical voices, they have all of the trappings of their elder counterparts. 

An example of one such not-just-a-prodigy is banjo player Matthew Davis, whose 20 years of age superficially belie the fact that he’s not only a former National Banjo Champion, he’s also a graduate of the prestigious Acoustic Music Seminar at the Savannah Music Festival, and he’s released four albums. The most recent, Outlander, dropped early August of this year. 

Even a handful of projects into a recording career, albums made at age 20 aren’t supposed to sound like this. “Ektorp,” the final cut on the record — with Ethan Setiawan on mandolin, Grant Flick on fiddle, Jed Clark on guitar, and Jacob Warren on bass — demonstrates the astonishing maturity with which Davis composes, thinks about, and executes his art. Furthermore, for art music, and heady, technically rich new acoustic music at that, it’s impressively accessible, while remaining rooted in bluegrass. If the “kids” are sounding this good this early in their lifetimes the future of “the music” isn’t just in good hands, it’s destined to be innovated and reinvigorated time and time again, with folks like Matthew Davis leading the charge.

LISTEN: The Gina Furtado Project, “The First Pebble”

Artist: The Gina Furtado Project
Hometown: Front Royal, Virginia
Song: “The First Pebble”
Album: I Hope You Have a Good Life
Release Date: September 27, 2019
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words:I Hope You Have a Good Life is full of experiences of my own life that, together, amount to my pursuit of and theories on how to achieve happiness. Isn’t that the end goal for us all? The songs are my attempt at packaging these theories within common, everyday experiences of tribulation and victory. ‘The First Pebble’ is about the stunning joy of reaching rock bottom only to discover one’s own resilience and strength. It has been so empowering to slowly begin to realize that the ‘worst case scenarios’ are always incredible resources for growth. I hope ‘The First Pebble’ will remind someone of that when they need it!” — Gina Furtado


Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

Where Business Meets Banjo, Alison Brown Prepares IBMA Keynote Address

The first time Alison Brown gave a keynote address at IBMA’s annual conference in 2002, the bluegrass industry gathering was still held in Owensboro, Kentucky. So much has changed since then, but not everything. Asked about memories from those early conferences, she replies, “Oh, it was like it is now. I always kind of think of it as a family reunion. It was just a slightly smaller family then, but no less enthusiastic or supportive, as far as I’m concerned.”

Brown is one of bluegrass’ most prominent figures, adept as an artist, a producer, and co-founder of Compass Records. She’s also won a mantle of IBMA awards in multiple categories, including Banjo Player of the Year in 1991 and a Distinguished Achievement Award in 2015.

This year she will present a new keynote address, “Four and a Half Things I’ve Learned,” on Tuesday at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, North Carolina. She spoke with BGS by phone.

BGS: What was it about this opportunity to present the keynote address that appealed to you?

AB: I was thinking about the fact that this is Compass Records’ 25th anniversary, and so I thought that, personally, it would give me an opportunity to reflect a little bit on where we’ve been and what we’ve learned in the process of doing what we’ve been doing over 25 years. And maybe share a few things with folks that could be edifying for them.

You’re seeing this bluegrass world as an artist and producer, as well as a business owner. What do you hope that the creative side of the bluegrass community will take away from your presentation?

Hmmm, maybe a better understanding of the landscape that we’re all trying to navigate. And how to better position yourself for success. I think some of the idiosyncrasies of the business, from the view of the record company — I wouldn’t expect that most creatives would be as immersed in that as we are, running a record label. And so I think if you know the challenges that you’re dealing with, you’re better able to position your music and your career to take advantage of the opportunities that do exist, and stand a better chance to succeeding.

What are some of the bluegrass community’s greatest strengths right now, do you think?

I really mean this — I think that we are incredibly fortunate to have an organization like IBMA that’s kind of the centerpiece of our community, that’s looking out for all of us and keeping the community together. I really think that’s incredibly valuable, even more than people know. Other roots music genres that don’t have that are not as fortunate as our community, in my opinion.

What are some things that the bluegrass community can really take pride in?

I gave the keynote address back in 2002, so this is actually my keynote redux. You know, looking back at that keynote, a lot of what that was about was embracing diversity, and musical diversity. That was 17 years ago and that was a rallying cry at that point in time, but it’s not like it was a revolutionary idea. I’m really proud of our community for the strides that we have made. Expanding the envelope conceptually, welcoming in people whose music may be more on the fringes of bluegrass, and not exactly emulate what Earl and Lester and Bill did in 1945.

So there’s the musical aspect, but there’s also the demographic diversity, like gender diversity and racial diversity. Those are things that are community is still grappling with — but we are grappling with them and I’m proud of us for that.

One thing I’ve noticed over the last 20 years in bluegrass is that the music videos are better, the websites and album covers are modern, and the band photos are more contemporary. How important are visuals, do you think, for a bluegrass artist to get attention from press, festivals, and audiences in general?

I think visuals are more important than they’ve ever been. It’s my experience that people can’t just listen to music anymore. They have to see music. We have people in the studio all the time and you want to play them a new track, and I can just see their eyes wandering around the room, looking for the screen. “Where do I look while I listen to this?” So, I think it’s more important than ever.

I’ve also noticed that some bluegrass labels are choosing not to put their new music on Spotify. Why is it important for Compass to be represented there?

That’s where the audience is moving. Granted, the traditional bluegrass music audience is slower to adopt a new technology than a more youthful pop audience would be, but still we’re seeing our audience move there and it’s a great place for people to discover new music. It’s one of the new revenue sources for selling music. We’re seeing the music industry move more and more into the streaming arena. It would seem to be crazy not to be there, as frustrating as the economics may be.

It hasn’t really been our experience that having bluegrass on Spotify has meant that we sell less bluegrass in physical form. And it only really supports the artists’ efforts because maybe the older audience is used to consuming physically but the young audience is used to consuming through streaming and digital. So if you’re not present in that space, you’re never going to expand your audience into that younger demographic, and obviously an artist needs to grow their audience. You need to keep trying to make the average age of your audience younger, rather than older, just in terms of your own longevity as an artist.

So many bluegrass musicians are friends with each other, as well as colleagues in a sense. In bluegrass, it’s pretty rare to send a business-related email to someone you don’t know. How do you think that familiarity shapes the business side of bluegrass?

I completely agree with you but I’m not really sure how to answer the question, though. I guess I can really only answer it personally — that that is part of what gives me a lot of joy, to be in the business of the bluegrass world, because this community has meant a tremendous amount to me personally. I’ve been in the bluegrass community since I was 12, which is crazy to think about, and there are people that I see at IBMA that I have known since I was 12 years old. I think about how much others have given me as I’ve come up in this music. So to be able to have a hand in making this music stay healthy, and paying it forward, is very meaningful to me.

Looking back, is there advice you wish you’d been given in 2002 that you had to learn the hard way?

That’s an excellent question. That’s probably something I should ponder for my keynote and see if I can come up with a good answer. I guess the one thing that I would say is, big things can happen in small steps. We’ve been pedaling this bike for 25 years, building this label, and it’s amazing to look back over a quarter of a century and see how something that you literally started at the kitchen table can grow into an entity that some would consider to be a significant force in bluegrass music. I mean, I think I might have known that going into it, so it’s not really a revelation. It just takes a long time, but if you continue to do the work to the best of your ability, over that long period of time, at the end you can stand back and you will have built something that is amazing to see, and that it did really happen.


Photo courtesy of IBMA

LISTEN: Natalie Padilla, “Fireweed”

Artist: Natalie Padilla
Hometown: Lyons, Colorado
Song: “Fireweed”
Album: Fireweed
Release Date: September 6, 2019

In Their Words: “As many of my songs do, this one started as a clawhammer banjo one-part melody. I was in Crested Butte, Colorado, with my band Masontown doing a few mountain town shows and had a bit of time to sit down with the tune on this great porch that backed right into the mountain. The pink fireweed was still blooming, but near the top of the plant which is a sign that winter is coming. This song is meant to symbolize the importance of all seasons life has to offer, even the dark ones.” — Natalie Padilla


Photo credit: Woody Meyer

LISTEN: Audie Blaylock and Redline, “Love Is an Awful Thing”

Artist: Audie Blaylock and Redline
Hometown: Auburn, Indiana
Song: “Love Is an Awful Thing”
Album: Originalist
Release Date: August 9, 2019
Label: The 615 Hideaway Records

In Their Words: “‘Love Is an Awful Thing,’ written by Redline bassist Reed Jones, I believe is a perfect bridge between tradition and the future. I think the lyrics and the musical interpretation — as well as vocal interpretation — show a fresh approach to bluegrass music and still pay homage to the roots and tradition that it came from.” — Audie Blaylock


Photo credit: Carter Vintage Guitars

“The Rainbow Connection” at 40: Paul Williams Reflects on Kermit the Frog’s Banjo Classic

When it hit theaters in 1979, The Muppet Movie took that troupe of felt characters out of the theater and into the real world. On their hit television show, they ran a vaudeville company that hosted a different celebrity each week, but their first feature film sent them on the road in America, to small-town beauty pageants, used car lots, empty deserts — all the way to Hollywood. Their journey starts small, in a swamp, where a lone frog sits on a log playing a banjo and singing a song that has become something of a pop standard.

“The Rainbow Connection” is, in the words of its co-writer Paul Williams, Kermit the Frog’s “I Am” song, meaning that it sets him up as a character and provides the motivation that sends him out on those highways and byways. In other words, it lends depth and humanity to a character who is mostly fabric and foam. That became Williams’ specialty over the years, and he has contributed to numerous Muppets film and television projects, including 1977’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and 2008’s A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa.

Williams was already an enormously successful songwriter and performer by the time he stopped by The Muppet Show in 1976, having penned massive hits for the Carpenters (“We’ve Only Just Begun”), Three Dog Night (“Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song”), and Barbra Streisand (“Evergreen”). Often working with co-writer Kenneth Ascher, he combined rock and Tin Pan Alley influences into a melancholy sound that spoke eloquently about loneliness, lost love, and depression. But he was also a gifted comedian, which led to numerous movie roles (including the Smokey & the Bandit films) and made him a natural fit in the Muppet ensemble.

With the film returning to select theaters for its 40th anniversary, Williams and the Muppets are still remembered for that song Kermit sings in the swamp at the beginning of The Muppet Movie. Featuring a spare arrangement that foregrounds the banjo and adds only dollops of sympathetic strings, “The Rainbow Connection” may be the first time many young listeners see that particular instrument or even consider the idea of roots music, although the Oscar-nominated song has been covered by a wide range of performers, including Harry Nilsson, Judy Collins, Weezer, and countless kindergarten classes.

To inaugurate a new column called Roots on Screen, which will examine depictions of roots music in movies, on television shows, and through various media, we talked to Williams about his experiences with his Muppet co-stars, his work with Jim Henson, and what it means to live with a classic.

BGS: What was your introduction to the Muppets?

Williams: When I went over to do The Muppet Show, I was already a fan. I had been on the road with my band, and we would watch Sesame Street every morning. We’d get up, sometimes with a horrific hangover and often in some tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. We loved it. I didn’t even know they were called Muppets, those little felt guys on Sesame Street, but there was something in the talent and intellect and the wit. It’s beyond humor. It’s something more.

Of course, that has a lot to do with Jim and the remarkable Muppeteers, like Frank Oz and Dave Goelz. If you were talking to Frank and Jim and they happened to be carrying Kermit and Miss Piggy with them, then there would be five of you in the conversation. As sweet and loving as Frank Oz is, that woman he carries around can be very biting! “What songs are you writing for moi? You call that a love song!” When you wake up in the morning and know you’re going to go work with Gonzo and Kermy and Miss Piggy, it just feels like home.

What was it like working with Jim Henson? What kind of direction did he give you?

One of the elements that is hugely important to the film is the remarkable attitude Jim Henson had to the people he worked with. At the first meeting about The Muppet Movie, we met at my house in the Hollywood Hills. It was me and Jim and Jerry Juhl, who was writing the script. David Lazar, the producer, was there. And Kenny Ascher, who I was co-writing with at the time.

After the meeting, I was walking Jim to his car and I told him: Jim, I know how important this adventure is for you. It’s the first Muppet movie. So Kenny and I aren’t going to surprise you with anything. We’ll let you hear the songs as we’re working on them and make sure we’re headed in the right direction. And he said, “Oh no, Paul, that’s not necessary. I’ll hear them in the studio when you record.” Wow. To have that kind of confidence in the choices he had made, and to trust somebody with so much creative freedom was just remarkable.

Jim’s approach was so positive. If he didn’t think something was going to work, he would say so. But it would be so gently and lovingly delivered that you didn’t even know you’d been told no. He could say “Get out of my office, that’s not good!” and make it sound like “Come have dinner with me.”

Did he ever tell you no?

He did. It was one of my favorite songs in the movie — “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday.” My favorite Muppet will always be Gonzo. He’s a landlocked bird. I’m a landlocked bird. We’re all landlocked birds! There’s a wonderful scene when the Muppets are on their way to Hollywood and they break down in the desert. Kermit’s feeling like a failure and he walks away. But Gonzo’s still there, and I wondered what it’s like for Gonzo to look up at that sky as a bird who cannot fly.

So Kenny and I wrote “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday” for Gonzo. Jim said, “It’s beautiful, but I don’t see how….” He never finished the sentence. We figured that was that. It was done. But then he came back a couple days later and said, what if we have a scene where Gonzo buys all these helium balloons for his girlfriend Camilla and he experiences flight and that awakens all this within him? Jim found a way to make it work.

That song defines Gonzo much the same way “The Rainbow Connection” defines Kermit.

The big thing with that song was that we had to show that Kermit has an inner life. The song that Kenny and I tried to shoot for was “When You Wish Upon a Star.” When Jiminy Cricket sings that song, it’s so touching. There’s so much depth there. We wanted to do something like that with Kermit. He’s a frog. He’s got water. He’s got refracted light. So he’s got rainbows. That seemed like the obvious thing for us to write about.

But we quickly wrote ourselves into the worst corner. “Why are there so many songs about rainbows? What’s on the other side? Rainbows are visions, but only illusions. Rainbows have nothing to hide.” Oh shit, look what we did! We painted ourselves into a corner. We’re advocating for people to grow up and knock off all that dreamy rainbow crap.

How did you get around that? Did you consider starting over?

I don’t know what happened, but we managed to follow it up with, “So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it. I know they’re wrong. Wait and see. Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me.” In that moment Kermit ceases to be this creature, this Yoda or mentor or whatever, and he becomes a member of the audience. He becomes part of the public that is affected by this magic. So that was a gift.

If there’s a philosophy in the film, it’s in that song and it’s expressed again at the end: “Life’s like a movie, keep believing keep pretending!” It solidifies that connection to the audience. I’m a member of the Church of Religious Science. Not Scientology, but the Science of the Mind. It basically says that everyone is empowered by love. Our thoughts, what we dwell on and create — we build our own futures with our thoughts. If you keep thinking that you’re not going to get that job, then that becomes a sort of prayer.

So I just keep expecting the best and things keep happening. That song is a perfect example. There was so much unintended information. As we were writing it, I’m not sure we were thinking any of these things on that kind of level. “Oh, here’s where Kermit becomes a member of the audience.” We weren’t thinking consciously about any of that. It’s only now that I see that’s what we did. Later on you can take credit for some of the stuff that’s just handed to you by your higher self or the Big Amigo or the muse or whatever you believe in.

That song delivers such a complex philosophy, especially for what is ostensibly a children’s movie. I was one of those children. Now I’m an adult and I’m still finding new meanings and implications in “The Rainbow Connection.”

“Who said that every wish would be heard and answered, when wished on a morning star? Somebody thought of that and someone believed it. Look what it’s done so far.” I think that’s a nice encapsulation of the power of faith. Jim instructed us never to write down to children. That was never the point. We were writing the story and the characters. I think the special thing about the Muppets is that they encompass every age.

Was there a decision to focus on the banjo in that first song?

We were meeting at my house, and we asked Jim how the movie was going to start. He said, “We discover Kermit sitting in the swamp on his lily pad.” Well, it turned out to be a log, because it was easier to hide Jim in a log. OK, we find him in the middle of the swamp. What’s he doing? Jim thought for a minute and said, “He’s playing the banjo.” Oh, OK. That’s your lead instrument. So we got to work. The way Kenny and I write, it’s almost like we’re one consciousness. I probably write about 85 percent of the lyrics and a little bit of the melody as I’m singing, and he writes 85 percent of the music and a little bit of the lyrics. It was a perfect collaboration for The Muppet Movie.

“The Rainbow Connection” is perhaps the first exposure to the banjo and more generally the notion of roots music for a lot of young viewers. Do you ever get that from fans? Has anyone ever told you that the picked up the banjo because of that song?

I should ask Steve Martin! He was playing the banjo with an arrow through his head long before The Muppet Movie came out, so I think he probably has that honor. But you asked a question that’s never been asked before. I’ve never even thought about it. If I was drinking and using — it’s been 29 years — I might have said something like, “The whole reason there’s banjo in America today is because of me and Kermit.” But now I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that. It’s wonderful.

It’s funny how things change, too. When I was working on Ishtar, I wrote a song that goes, “Telling the truth can be dangerous business. Honest and popular don’t go hand in hand. If you admit that you can play the accordion, no one will hire you in a rock ‘n’ roll band.” That was true in 1986, but in 2019 an accordion is a perfectly acceptable instrument in a rock ‘n’ roll band. So is a banjo.

Are there any covers of “The Rainbow Connection” that stand out to you?

Willie Nelson recorded it and then we did a duet together, just two old guys talking to each other. Hearing him sing those words — that was a career high for me. Sarah McLachlan did a beautiful recording of it. The Dixie Chicks recorded it. Jason Mraz and I did a duet. It’s had some remarkable recordings, and I hope there are more to come. And then I’ll get somebody telling me that their son or daughter is learning to play piano and learning “Rainbow Connection.” Or their children sang it at their kindergarten graduation. That’s what I call a heart payment. We got a life with that song.