THE BANJO MAN| HOMEWOOD | ALABAMA

WORDS AND PHOTO BY SIMON URWIN Jason Burns was raised in a musical family. His father, uncles and aunts all played gospel and honky-tonk, even appearing on local, live TV in the ‘Country Boy Eddie Show.’ Fascinated by how musical instruments worked, his first experience as a luthier was taking apart his dad’s electric guitar as a child then putting it back together again. Later, he worked in a recording studio near Birmingham, AL, where he’d perform repairs for musicians laying down tracks. He started making banjos around 15 years ago after searching in vain for an open-back model to play, so built one himself from scratch. Burns now makes custom-build banjos to order – each takes four to six months to complete – but he admits he enjoys repairs and restoration work most of all. ‘I get to touch and play 21 instruments I’m never going to own; I get to put my hands on works of art’.