To Fete a Feat of Feet
As the BRC founder and spouse ready to travel to The Lone Star State for a Thanksgiving weekend with the grandkids, there is a long list of things big and small for which to be thankful: Family, friends, fellow musicians, and our appreciative audiences who generously donate to the Children`s Hospital. A recent and frequent addition to our Sunday afternoon benefit gigs is a young lady who jumps up on the stage and dances her heart out for the audiences who then loosen their pursestrings to donate eagerly to the Children`s Miracle Network.
The band calls her “Dancing Girl”, and her mother tells us that the little whirlwind has no formal training in her footwork. Check-out and enjoy the below video link (IMG 0029) and decide for yourself whether this prancing little lady is Irish step dancing or clogging- or both. Thank you, Dancing Girl!
IMG_0029 (Ed.) Kiddo`s a natural…
A Legend Remembered
Last month, a giant in the Bluegrass world passed away, and the banjo community worldwide respectfully remembers Bill Keith as an innovative genius and craftsman. A friendly and unassuming guy, Keith was a pioneer in developing the ground breaking melodic style of picking the 5-string which increased the vocabulary of the banjo manifold. He brilliantly designed the inboard D-tuner pegs which bear his name.
In this 1963 photo, a young Bill Keith is holding a classic archtop bow tie inlay Gibson Mastertone. The brother of the BRC founder purchased an identical vintage banjo in 1963 and generously gave it to the BRC founder 20 years ago, and it still delivers the volume and timbre to power-through a bluegrass band in full flight.
Keith not infrequently lectured on the harmonic mathematics of Bluegrass music and is pictured here with the BRC founder who attended one of these insightful and fascinating seminars at a banjo camp several years ago.
Farewell Bill, and thank-you for all you taught us.
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