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But suddenly the brothers parted company. What happened?
The minstrel shows seems to bear much of the blame. White men with blackened faces playing stupid and banjo on stage. No negro desperately trying to re-gain his self-respect wanted to be associated with that!
So white man stole the banjo and left black man with the blues and a worn-out guittar. He then added the dinky string and the resonator to his loot and played a happy dance tune.
Or is that really what happened?
Reality is always more complex than history books, and blood is thicker than water, even in music. The two B brothers never lost touch completely. In the hustle and bustle of New Orleans they needed their instruments LOUD! The banjo was the perfect backing for the city's rough brass-dominated bands. (Eventually the music was called jazz, but blues is what it was.)
In Memphis Gus Cannon drove his motley crew on waving his banjo. (They never called that music jazz, although it's often hard to hear any difference.) And even in the most joyous goodtime-hillbilly-bluegrass-squaredance-fastlane banjo attack, a tiny shrapnel of blues remains.
(More coming up)