Posted by bill on June 11, 101 at 07:26:51:
Funny. John had a sense of humor totally unique to himself. After playing "Uncle Pen" with Grisman and Mike Seeger, John announced the song as "written by Eli Whitney about the time he invented the cotton gin. He wrote it about his uncle who was named 'Uncle Pencil.' He was going to call it 'Horse Shit' but he didn't think that it would get alot of radio play with that title...which was frustrating because the radio hadn't been invented yet." You can view a couple of my Hartford photos at www.trestone.com click on Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival 1999 and Rockygrass 2000