Banjo Dancer Photo: Charmaine Lanham
I was lucky enough to meet Snuffy Jenkins at the Tennessee Banjo Institute in Tennessee 1988.
I had, of course, heard all the stories of how Snuffy was the one who taught Earl Scruggs to play the banjo, way back when in Shelby, N.C. Or was it that Scruggs learned rhythm from Snuffy? No one can tell what Earl might have learned from Snuffy.
When I heard Snuffy play, he was 80 years old. The rhythm coming from whatever instrument he played, was all buck dance rhythm. People rose up to “cut a rusty” on the dance floor along with the exciting music coming from this man; master musician, comic, vaudeville performer.
Snuffy kept up with the jam sessions day and night, along with Pappy Sherrill on fiddle. This lifelong duet was the best example of old-time banjo and fiddling that you ever heard. They played together, hand in glove, for 50 years.
Snuffy had a contraption he played great music on, a virtual Movable Washboard Feast. It was a cross between washboard, Harpo Marx’s squeeze horn and various gadgets to bang on and hit in time. Snuffy used four sewing thimbles on each hand beating time on the board. It sounded like he invented Timing.
I don’t know who will carry on the Tradition, who could find such a washboard instrument and eight good sounding thimbles. Maybe I won’t hear that Timing again. But I am glad I had my chance to spend some time with Snuffy.
