Banjo on his knee: Breland Green's love of music led him to an unlikely career as an expert craftsman of stringed instruments.

breland Green has remained among the ranks of American luthiers--or stringed-instrument makers--for more than 35 years. What was once a part-time hobby eventually turned into a full-time labor of love. In addition to banjos, the talented craftsman from Louin builds an array of musical instruments, including guitars, dulcimers, mandolins, violins, and the novel washtub base.

Green's passion for music dates back nearly half a century. In 1960, he ordered his first musical instrument, a Kay banjo, from Sears, Roebuck and Co. "At that time," Green recalls, "a banjo in a case cost $29.95. My grandmother said, 'You have lost every bit of sense you ever had for spending that kind of money on that banjo.'" Despite his grandmother's reservations, Green had no regrets over the purchase and spent the next 10 years mastering the banjo and other stringed instruments.

But his musical ambitions were not limited to simply playing.

"I was sitting around one Sunday afternoon," Green recalls, "and decided I wanted to build a banjo. I didn't fish or play golf, and I needed something to do on weekends." He took measurements from the banjo he had purchased and completed his first prototype in six weeks. "When I made that first banjo, I enjoyed it so much, I just went to work and made another one. And I made two the second year."

Around the country, banjo sales were on the rise, prompted in part by the television show "The Beverly Hillbillies," for which Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs employed the instrument in the theme song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." The banjo gained even more popularity in 1972 with the release of the movie "Deliverance." "'Dueling Banjos' had just come out, and everybody wanted [a banjo]," Green says. Orders started coming in from that day on.

While Green has been crafting the instrument for 35 years, the banjo has been an integral part of American music for more than two centuries. The banjo is universally acknowledged as a descendant of instruments brought to this country in the days of slave trade, under different names such as banjar, banjil, banza, and bangoe. The 1850s and '60s saw a high point for banjo popularity thanks to minstrel shows, and by the mid-1880s, America was in the midst of a banjo craze. Thousands of songs for the banjo were published. Composers and performers sought both to promote "American-made" music and to transform the instrument into one that would fit the middle and upper class. In this tradition, Green has produced many instruments for those with the desire to learn this American artform.

Many different woods, including walnut, mahogany, and maple, can be used for making banjos, "depending on the look you are trying to achieve," says Green, who personally prefers to use sycamore and birch. The local sawmill keeps plenty of his favorite woods in stock. "The old violin makers used to use sycamore here in the South. It's a wonderful wood. The more you use it, the smoother the wood gets. It doesn't wear, and it lasts for years and years."

When asked to demonstrate his musical abilities on the banjo to a visitor, Green replies, "I thought you would never ask." His renditions of "Dueling Banjos" and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" bring back memories of yesteryear.

But banjos aren't his only products these days. "I made banjos for 15 years, and in 1985, I decided I wanted to build a guitar," Green says. He now has a variety of guitars in his repertoire. Over the years, he has continued to expand his expertise in building stringed instruments to include such unusual items as a 14th-century lute and an upright harp. He has sold instruments to musicians from as far away as Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and France.

In addition to banjos and guitars, Green keeps a selection of dulcimers on hand. The name dulcimer comes from the Latin and Greek words "dulce" and "melos," meaning "sweet tune." It takes Green about 10 days to complete one of these delightful instruments.

Another stringed instrument found in Green's simply named Banjo Shop is the mandolin, which he builds on order. The mandolin entered the mainstream of American culture when a taste for the exotic and foreign began to dominate. It became wildly popular in the 1850s, when it was used to amuse the leisured middle class. Green manufactures this short-necked lute out of cherry wood and can complete one in about three weeks.

Green's washtub base is an attention-grabber for first-time visitors. The novel instrument, essentially an upright base fiddle, is made out of an aluminum washtub; any size tub can be used as long as the proportions and string lengths are properly calculated. "[People] start snickering when they see that base, but when they hear it, they stop," Green says with a smile.

After years of success selling his instruments, Green eventually added a room onto his shop, where he taught banjo, guitar, and fiddle lessons for many years. The additional room also provided a space for Green and other musicians to gather and play together. During the 1970s, Green and three other local musicians formed a bluegrass band called the Grassmen; they worked to promote bluegrass music and were billed at festivals with such legendary performers as Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, and the Sullivan Family.

In 1992, Green gave up his career as an electronic technician to devote all of his energies to his musical enterprise. The man affectionately called "the Andy Griffith of Louin" by his daughter, Shelley Jordan, has never regretted his decision, even though there are times when demand exceeds output. "Every now and then I get in a bind, and it reminds me of the old work days. But I try not to let it get that way. The Lord gives us all a little gift, and I think this is mine."

The Banjo Shop is located at 996 County Road 16, Louin; telephone [phone].