From the recording On the Shores of a Dream

In 1893 two artists painted pieces they called The Banjo Lesson. For years I've been fascinated by the two synonymous pieces' stark differences and striking similarities. I tried to capture just a glimpse of that in this song.
 
See Henry Tanner's piece here:
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/T/tanner/banjo_lesson.jpg.html
 
See Mary Cassatt's piece here:
http://www.marycassatt.org/The-Banjo-Lesson.html
 
And learn more about Mary Cassatt here:
https://www.artsy.net/artist/mary-cassatt

Lyrics

The Banjo Lesson
Copyright July 23, 2010
 
Rough-hewn pine boards for a sharecropper's floor
Blind light of sunrise pours in at the door
Come sit on my chair, son, and finger the strings
For all that he's tired this old man can sing
 
Puff-pillowed couches and satin-soft sleeves
Sisters clutch close neither giddy nor grieved
But list to my ballad of love long ago
Tis all of adventure that we'll ever know
 
And we're bound together, you and I
Velvet ribbons or baling twine
I don't mind
All the time we're together is fine
 
Such different histories and visions of life
Yet somehow two sides of the blade of the knife
Sharecropper's cabin, Edwardian manse
Could be the same house when the banjo strings dance