Paul VanDerWerf: Banjo Blur: One of two bluegrass entertainers at the Saturday indoor farmers’ market at Fort Andross in Brunswick, Maine (CC BY 2.0)

Billy Redden, the Banjo Boy

Loved your slyly perceptive essay. It was an inspired choice to include an image of Billy Redden, the kid who played Lonnie the Banjo Boy in the movie Deliverance (1972). According to what I’ve read, Redden couldn’t actually play banjo, but he looked the part. An iconic figure for sure. See Tad Friend’s The Return of Banjo Boy in the New Yorker (November 17, 2003).

I used to love the sound of the word hillbilly. I called my ex-wife that—she was born and raised in Boone County, Arkansas—until I realized how much she hated it.