Banjo Pete is an incredible guy. He's the soft-spoken, tattooed bass player in the legendary Baltimore punk The Fuses. But his real passion is building historically accurate gourd banjos in his rowhouse basement. With the zeal and precision of a Civil War re-enactor, he creates the instruments using only the tools that would have been available to banjo makers centuries ago. Pete's instruments are sought after by collectors and music historians, and they've ended up in museum exhibits around the world. In this piece, Pete recalls apprenticing under strange circumstances with banjo maker Scott Didlake, he talks about the link between slave-era banjos and the instruments of West African griots, and he makes some interesting points about the similarities between punk music and folk music. This story aired originally during a local arts & culture special on Your Public Radio, WYPR, in Baltimore.

Banjo Pete is an incredible guy. He's the soft-spoken, tattooed bass player in the legendary Baltimore punk The Fuses. But his real passion is building historically accurate gourd banjos in his rowhouse basement. With the zeal and precision of a Civil War re-enactor, he creates the instruments using only the tools that would have been available to banjo makers centuries ago. Pete's instruments are sought after by collectors and music historians, and they've ended up in museum exhibits around the world. In this piece, Pete recalls apprenticing under strange circumstances with banjo maker Scott Didlake, he talks about the link between slave-era banjos and the instruments of West African griots, and he makes some interesting points about the similarities between punk music and folk music. This story aired originally during a local arts & culture special on Your Public Radio, WYPR, in Baltimore.