Last Words
Canjo
by Larry Clark ’94 | © Washington State University
You’ve enjoyed the cheese, but what do you do with a Cougar Gold can?
John Elwood ’01 builds fine stringed instruments—dulcimers, mandolins, banjos, harpsichords— so using the iconic tin Cougar Gold can to craft a banjo seemed a logical choice. The Palouse-area resident created a canjo, a fretless, tunable instrument for all ages.
“These are three-string, robust instruments, have the scale dimensions of a violin, and are inexplicably pleasant to the ear,” says Elwood. “I blame it on the excellence of the cheese.”
His affection for WSU’s signature cheddar developed early as he helped his father, Lewis Elwood ’65, clean Troy Hall, the former home of Ferdinand’s.
Elwood was not alone in thinking to put strings on the musical can. Last year, the WSU Creamery received a canjo built by Dennis Skelton, an instrument maker in Georgia and father of Pullman resident Duane Skelton.
Watch a video of John playing the Cougar Fight Song and children's classic "Shortnin' Bread" on the canjo, and his own composition on the dulcimer.
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