How reliable, kind and helpful so many of you are! Thank you for the messages in responce to my question about whether Mark Twain played the banjo. I haven't looked for his own account of the same incident where he may have mentioned a guitar instead of a banjo. I'm not as excited by mention of him and a guitar. Banjos played a big part of my teenage years as I had friends who played in New Orleans Jazz Bands. There was a time when I was the only girl in Sacramento who could CHARLESTON! I just saw the banjo player I knew back then at a mutual friend's 80th birthday party! He's a retired presbyterian minister who still appeared at our local annual Jazz Festival with the Silver Dollar Jazz band for years. I did find via google one of the songs mentioned in the article, which I had NOT heard of before. Thank you so very much for sharing what you know about the question. Arianne Laidlaw