David 'Stringbean' Akeman was born in 1915 in Annville, Kentucky, into a musical but severely impoverished family, and traded a pair of bantam chickens for his first banjo at age 12. This episode follows his Depression-era path through the Civilian Conservation Corps, a talent contest judged by Asa Martin, the on-stage slip that gave him his name, and the night a missing performer pushed him into singing and comedy.

The hosts explain how semi-pro baseball led to Bill Monroe and a 1943 to 1945 stint as Monroe's banjo player, why being replaced by Earl Scruggs became a catalyst rather than a career end, and how the long shirt and knee-belted jeans built his stage persona at the Grand Ole Opry and on Hee Haw from 1969. They then confront the darker reality: a Depression-born distrust of banks, rumors of cash hidden in his cabin near Ridgetop,  ...