In 1972, a movie called Deliverance starring John Voight topped box offices around the country for weeks. The theme song of the hit movie about life in Appalachia was Dueling Banjos. Two pickers squared off against each other, strumming the tune at ever faster rates until they reached speeds that were seemingly impossible for humans. Walking down Wilson in the summer of 1974, I found these two men strumming the same tune but with a banjo and a guitar. They were almost as good as the pickers in the movie. During the 1970’s, Uptown was often called “Hillbilly Heaven” because of all the people who migrated here from Appalachia. According to a reader who wrote me, the Wooden Nickel bar in the background catered to the country crowd. It frequently booked performers like these to play their guitars and banjos.
