Phantom Banjo

Phantom Banjo (1991) is the first novel in the Songkiller Saga. "All the devils of the world had a meeting to decide what they could do to make folks even more miserable than they already were." The answer was to take away folksongs. In this novel, the devils within the USA are attacking on all fronts. They mobilize politicians and bureaucrats, using red tape, blacklists, and rumors. They restrict the entry of international artists. They infiltrate the Songwriters and Arrangers' Legal Licensing Organization Worldwide -- SWALLOW -- to freeze out folksingers from the small venues and the Equity to keep them out of large concert halls. They modify IRS regulations to disallow normal travel expenses. More and more ordinary folksingers are having to find other lines of work. The songs and the singers are dying out, with a bit of help from the devils and their minions. The Library of Congress folksong archive is destroyed by terrorists and Sam Hawthorne, one of the folksinging greats, has a massive coronary upon hearing the report. Others die in airliner "accidents" and longhorn cattle attacks. Even the small fry are being attacked: George Martin is gunned down in a convenience store robbery and his wife Julianne is being misadvised by a so-called psychic with devilish powers. Willie MacKai retired two years ago, but he still finds himself targeted by the devils. He is kidnapped on a loco horse and then stranded outside the devil's own cathouse, miles from anywhere worth being at. His only transportation is a totally exhausted horse, but he also has a magical banjo, which is playing to itself "The Old Grey Mare She Ain't What She Used to Be". Willie doesn't think highly of the banjo's sense of humor. Brose Fairchild comes out to check on a report of horse abuse. After dumping a gallon of alcohol over the horse to cool it down and squirting gatorade down its throat to rehydrate it, Brose gives Willie and the horse a ride back to his place. When the police show up looking for Willie, Brose decides to drive to Maryland for a memorial concert for the recently deceased folksingers. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker, Julianne Martin, and take her with them to the concert grounds. The principal thesis of this novel is that people nowadays go to a bar or concert to hear folksongs rather than singing such songs themselves in their workplace or home. Without these roving folksingers, who knows what will happen to folksongs? Will people relearn how to sing away their sorrows? Will they sing about little triumphs while the establishment grinds them into the mire? This story is narrated by Augusta Turner, a bartender and the mother of Lettie Chaves. While not a folksinger herself, she is well connected to the folksinging infrastructure. Besides, she has personal reasons for sticking with the folksingers; her folksong publishing daughter and son-in-law are imprisoned on false drug charges. The first novel in a series like this is a

THE PHANTOM BANJO ---------------------Vol 1 in the "Songkiller Saga" Elizabeth Scarborough; Bantam-Spectra Books, ISBN 0-553-28761-3 This book made me laugh. It also, more often, made me cry, rage, and chilled me to the bone. It is fantasy-fiction, but some of the passages, and some of the plot-line, hits far too close to reality to make it a nice, casual and inoffensive read for me. You see, I am a professional singer and collector of folksongs. I was raised singing the songs of the Appalachian Mountains, discovered Mexican music, and then went nuts with the rest of the wonderful ethnic musics we have in America and Great Britain and Ireland....and this book tells all about the plot of the Devil to steal our -real- music from us; to take the one source of fun and comfort for the poor and hungry away.. ..and substitute the homogenized "corporate-pop" ("corporate-PAP!") culture...Sound familiar? Devil does it in little things...killing off the center of the folk revival, a tall, skinny, leftish banjo player that likes to lead his audiences in singing.....keeping foreign singers of folk music out of the country by pressures from the Unions (THAT is happening FOR REAL RIGHT NOW with the Dept. of Immigration!!!!).....making the Music Police get tough about royalty payments and Union membership (THAT is also happening for real right now in many places, and driving the small clubs out of the entertainment side of the business!!!!)....making the Music Police get overly tight-a**ed about copyrights....and taking away the memories of the words of the songs....destroying the collections in the Library of Congress and destroying personal collections too....many, many little things that (in the real world) are -really- happening.....scares me to death! But....see, that banjo player's banjo was made by a little old man in Appalachia who had "power," and he put that power into the banjo and all that singing for years and years put power into that banjo....and another folksinger has it now....and he, and several others, are fighting back! Fighting back against the Chairdevil, and the Bureaucrats and Buisnesspersons, and all the others that want to Take Control over something that can't really be "owned" by anybody because -everybody- owns it. So maybe all is not lost...the next book will take them to the British Isles; to the source of the music...where the devils haven't really touched....yet. There, they must re-live the old ballads, and bring them back! Supposedly, there will be a third book. I already have number two and three reserved at my local bookdealer! And if they ever come out in hardback, I intend to make them a permanent part of my library, right up there with Manly Wade Wellmann and Alan Lomax! GOOD STUFF, Maynard. And, as an absolute banjomaniac myself.... GREAT BOOK! And damn sobering in spots.