Banjamin

Mike’s Moonshine Moonshining Banjo

SUMMARY

Banjamin ain’t just an instrument. It’s Mike’s one true companion, forged in fire, whiskey, and the kind of madness that smells like motor oil and bad decisions. He found it half-buried in a bathtub behind a gas station near the Mississippi border — glowing faintly, like it had a soul… or was stealing one.

Some say the banjo’s haunted. Others say it’s blessed. Most agree it plays itself when Mike’s too drunk to remember the chords. There’s a story going ‘round that when the lights go low, and the strings start humming, you can see a face shimmer inside the wood — looks a lot like Uncle Earl.

“The Banjo That Knew Sin”

Mike Moonshine Universe Character Lore

“It plays loud, it plays mean, and it never judges me. That’s all I need”​

– Mike Moonshine

PERSONALITY

UNYIELDING STRINGER

You don’t tune Banjamin — Banjamin tunes your soul… whether you want it or not.

GROOVE-POSSESSED

Every note sounds like it came from a funeral, a jail cell, or a motel sex tape. Sometimes all three.

SPIRITUALLY POSSIBLE

People whisper that Earl’s ghost lives in the neck. Others say Mike just dropped acid in Alabama.

NEON SLICK & SIN-STAINED

It glows. It hums. It’s been used in bar fights and baptisms. Once at the same time.

STORY

They say Mike didn’t find Banjamin — Banjamin found him.

It was a stormy night. Mike was shoeless, shirtless, and halfway through a bottle of something labeled “for engines only.” He stumbled behind a busted-out Shell station, following a noise he said sounded like “a scream in C major.”

There it was: a banjo in a clawfoot tub, glowing faintly like the dashboard light of a haunted truck. Mike picked it up, strummed it once, and puked on his own boots. Said it felt like destiny.

He’s played it ever since. Through heartbreak, hangovers, possum attacks, and one awkward threesome with a fiddle and a dulcimer. And though he’s tried to smash it, pawn it, and exorcise it, it always finds its way back.

Some say that glow means Earl’s spirit is trapped inside — fused to the frets, damned to play dirty chords for all eternity.

But that’s just folklore.

Probably.

“Banjamin don’t play songs. He plays confessions I didn’t mean to say out loud”

– Mike Moonshine