This afternoon, I drove up to Cookstown Ontario, about a 45 minute drive north of 27th Street to meet Dena Lee and visit her shop, the Story Gourd Workshop. I’ve wanted to do this for some time since I found out she was making gourd banjos just down the road.

Dena is a remarkable individual who not only builds banjos and ukes, but is also a physician. She makes custom banjos and also offers workshops in making gourd ukuleles and kalimbas. I’m looking forward to participating in a future uke workshop! Check out her site and also her page on facebook (I just saw a picture of me on there, playing one of Dena’s banjos!).

Let me say that Dena’s banjos are gorgeous! They’re beautifully crafted, and they fill the room. The tone is just beautiful, rich and deep, and the volume is remarkable. Most of her instruments are fretless but she’s just made a fretted one as well. I really liked the feel of the fretless neck. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected to find the notes and it is delightfully fluid.

Dena took the time to talk to me about her building process and show me her tools. I was particularly interested in seeing how she makes her necks because I’d like to make another oil can banjo, but this time with a fretless neck of my own making. Eventually I’d like to try making a gourd banjo and the other style of mountain banjo as well. All in good time.

I really enjoyed my visit to Story Gourd today. I learned a lot, and had a chance to meet Dena who is not only a great banjo builder but a super-nice person too.

Here’s Dena playing my oil can banjo. Banjofiles out there will notice right away that Dena is a lefty and my banjo is a righty so she was working it out “upside down”. It worked for Jimi on guitar, so why not for banjo.