Watch the video.

Watch Steve’s banjo teaching video.

Play this on the jukebox and listen to a lot of other versions too.
You can also download all the different musical versions, in the order they went up.

Check Steve’s website for more info.

From Steve: “The gourd banjo you see here holds no secrets. It is just a gourd with a banjo neck sticking out of it. No frets either. A lot of folks call a banjo without frets a ‘fretless banjo’, but here in California we’re very politically correct and we refer to it as a ‘fret-challenged banjo.’ It’s totally fun to play Janis’s new tune on this instrument. In fact, the first thing I did the very next morning was crawl out of my bunk, (the video is from my boat, where I am currently in isolation), pick up the gourd and play the piece again. Hey. Better Times have already come!” 

From Janis: What can I say about Steve? That he made a gourd banjo to play this song? That he lives on a boat most of the time? That we met in Asheville NC during the Swannanoa Gathering, and he tried in vain to get me to play the way he does? Nah. Just enjoy these two mp3’s, one of Steve solo, and one with his friend Ryan Harlin adding harmonies. Not to mention the techie-wondrous home-grown videos. Thank you both!

BETTER TIMES WILL COME
(Janis Ian)

Better times, better times will come.
Better times, better times will come.
When this world learns to live as one,
oh, better times will come

When we greet each dawn without fear
knowing loved ones soon will be near
When the winds of war
cannot blow any more
Oh, better times will come

CHORUS

Though we live each day as our last
we know someday soon it will pass
We will dance, we will sing
in that never-ending spring
Oh, better times will come

CHORUS

Words & music by Janis Ian; © 2020 Janis Ian. All rights reserved; used by permission.