The following piece was written by the great fiddle player Casey Driessen on his website, who recently went on tour with the NY Banjo Summit. Be sure to click on the 'Read More' to get to the banjo jokes!

In the fall of 2013, I went on tour with the NY Banjo Summit. It was an unprecedented collection of banjo lineage—the catch being that the players had to have some association with New York State. The tour began with 12 people on a 12 bunk bus, plus our driver. There were 6 on banjo: Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Eric Weissberg, Richie Stearns, and Noam Pikelny; 4 in the band: Russ Barenberg, Jesse Cobb, Corey Dimario, and myself; and 2 crew: Richard Battaglia on sound and Peter Lesser as tour manager. But wait! there’s more! We were joined by banjoist and wife of Béla, Abigail Washburn, their 4mos. baby boy Juno, Béla’s mother and a nanny. By the end of the tour we were 17 (incl. driver) on the same bus. I know, it kind of sounds like a joke, but I’m not joking.

BUT! Going into this, I smelled all the ingredients for the perpetuation of a long standing tradition of banjo jokes. As one that enjoys being in the kitchen, I decided to bake up a batch, but with my own style—in picture. To prepare for this endeavor, I studied all 271 represented at the Canonical List of Banjo Jokes in addition to taking suggestions from my tour pals. The goal was to illustrate a banjo joke in picture, post it, and see if folks could figure it out. We had a fun time making these. 

Thanks to all for being great sports and for making fabulous music!

- Casey (@caseydriessen)