nherited from his maternal grandfather and namesake, Lafayette "Lafe" Waterbury, the 5-string banjo was very much a part of LRH’s musical heritage. Used by Lafe in minstrel shows through the late 1800s, banjos of this type were also very part and parcel of the distinctive Western sound of Ron’s youth. As he later pointed out, it was essentially an imported sound, derived from balladeers aboard Mississippi steamboats. It was entirely fitting, then, that he, too, used Lafe’s 5-string banjo while a balladeer on radio WOL, Washington, DC.
