The BRC workshop produced a couple of 5-stringers for exhibition at the community art gallery this Spring. The “Terrapin” banjo was donated to a fund-raising Patron Party in support of the Art League. Surprisingly, it was conspicuously displayed as a frontispiece on a central pillar at the entrance of the exhibit hall. The Terrapin will be raffled-off at a gala auction that has now been postponed.
Also this later Spring, the gallery is opening a juried show entitled “Visual Mixtape” that has challenged members to submit entries mirroring the master artists who influenced their works.
The BRC founder has entered a “High Lonesome Sound” banjo to reflect the unique sonic quality of Bluegrass music and its distinctive lineage of pioneer musicians like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers.
Amidst the tuning pegs on the headstock is a treble clef that is pierced by a bolt of lightening and surmounted by the profile of a wolf`s visage.
Clawed wolf paw prints track along the fretboard among gold stars and paua abalone treble clefs.
For the eyes only of the musician, the “Hi-Lo-So” banjo neck has a large paw print on its heel which is a signature location for a mother of pearl inlay on BRC 5-stringers.
By request, the Art League has asked for a small photo of the artist who influenced each member`s submission to be posted with the work in the now rescheduled exhibit. The BRC founder provided a picture of himself taken at a banjo camp with Grammy Award winner Eric Weissberg- his boyhood banjo hero.
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