Shields Landon “S.L.” Jones (1901-1997) was from West Virginia. He worked for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad for 45 years. After the death of his wife in 1967, he took up whittling figures and drawing as a hobby in his retirement. He also played the fiddle. “A person has to have some work to do, so I carve some and play the fiddle.”

This drawing hangs on a wall a few feet away from me. It features two bluegrass players – a banjo player and a fiddler. Although the banjo appears to be an open-back model rather than a resonator, I’d say these fellows are bluegrass rather than old time players. I say this because they’re dressed up in matching outfits, a common malady among bluegrass musicians. If they were old time players, I’d expect them to be wearing something more along the line of a seed company baseball cap.