In 1969, however, the banjo started to make an appearance in Garcia's musical career. It wasn't constant, but it showed up too many times to say that it was a casual coincidence. Garcia played banjo on the song "Hoedown" (and pedal steel guitar on "It Comes Right Down To You"). Jerry Garcia Family LLC | All Rights Reserved © 2014. , so for the moment I just want to focus on the surprise of Garcia playing banjo at all. So while the banjo must have been broken out occasionally, there's no actual evidence of it. Announcement of the 2020 Steve Martin Banjo Prize Winners! Ultimately it was decided that they would release an album on Round Records, produced by Garcia.