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G&F Singers

Bluegrass Caroling

December 19, 2018

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As in years past, the BRC founder`s singing group  “The G&F Trio” sang Yuletide favorites last week at the bedsides of young patients at our local Children’s Hospital. The kids were gifted holiday themed surgeons caps sewn by operating room nurses which brought smiles to the faces of vigilant but wearied parents.

 

 

This week, the Gainor & Friends band again entertained in the activity room of the University Hospital`s psychiatric ward where audiences of adult and adolescent patients were convened.IMG_0718 - Version 3

The staff happily joined in the festive song-a-longs and served punch and cookies to all. The  G&F musicians often remark that the two concerts on the psychiatric ward are their favorite gigs of the whole year.

Our singers and pickers wish our faithful BRC readers a joyous Holiday Season and all the very best in 2019.

Cell Perches & HVO

The Banjo Politic

December 4, 2018

A message of political activism on a folk musician`s instrument is not new. Pete Seeger`s banjos often displayed a decree condemning hate. In 1957, he was indicted for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate  with the House Un-American Activities Committee, a conviction that was overturned in 1962. His legendary singing group, the Weavers, was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. One of Seeger`s personally autographed 5-string long necks is in the American Banjo Museum collection in Oklahoma City where it is admired by visiting patrons.

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American songster Woody Guthrie served in the merchant marine during World War II. On his first voyage, his ship hit a mine. On his last tour of sea duty, his ship was torpedoed off Utah Beach during the Normandy Invasion.

His guitar of that era issued a stern warning to oppressive regimes.

Let us hope that music of the Holiday Season might foster peace and understanding among all peoples. Through the all-inclusive language of song, a homespun but worthy model of fellowship and collegiality among folks of diverse political persuasions dwells in our monthly jam session at the capital city yogurt shop.01 Jamming at Yoyums copy

Music is a universal language without borders. As echoed in the 1971 Coca Cola advertisement that later became a pop tune,  ” I`d like to teach the world to sing/In perfect harmony.” All blessings this Season to our BRC readers.

Art Shows

A Chord among Nations

November 17, 2018

In a world conflicted by strife at every corner of the earth, even the smallest and humblest voice for reconciliation merits to be heard.  Hence, the BRC founder submitted his “Peacemaker” banjo to the community’s annual “Gift of Art” show which inaugurates the holiday season.IMG_5789 - Version 2 (1)

Ironically, the name for this 5-stringer is adapted from the single action Colt 45 six shooter that was a favorite among lawmen and outlaws in the Wild West. Music, however, is a universal language that brings people together. Below a soaring white dove, the peg head displays the international peace sign which also appears at the 5th and 22nd frets.IMG_5713

Fluttering doves descend the length of the fingerboard. The octave fret presents an ecclesiastical Latin PAX inscription (kiss of peace), a term derived from the Roman goddess of Peace.

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For the eyes-only of the musician, an additional pair of CND peace emblems (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) are located on the heel of the neck, a signature site of mother of pearl inlay on BRC banjos.

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Whatever small tool might bring harmony among peoples and amity among nations could be a useful instrument in a troubled world.  As originally sung by the International Childrens Choir in 1955, “Let their be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”

 

Music makes the world a better place. Have a restful Thanksgiving holiday.

 

Antique Banjos

Ancients, archives, and autumn

October 30, 2018

Not infrequently, musicians will drop-off old dusty mystery banjos for study and/or comments at the BRC, and sometimes the instruments are left there forever.  An antique “Conservatory” 4-stringer recently appeared in our shop featuring a peg head surfaced with so-called pearloid.IMG_5729

This primitive plastic was first synthesized in the late 1860`s by swirling pieces of celluloid (nitrocellulose) in a solvent and letting it cure into a solid mimicking mother of pearl. The material was first used to make attractive ivory-like knife handles in the 1870`s, and by the 1920`s it decorated drum rims.  Gibson began using it to inexpensively ornament guitars in the 1930`s. Since then, the glimmering imitation pearl has earned the waggish title “mother of toilet seat” and is also known by the acronym MOTS.

Not too long ago, an otherwise unmarked 5-stringer with a brass “Puritan” plaque at the base of the fretboard was left-off at the BRC for an estimation of its date of manufacture.

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The banjo proved to be built circa 1895 as confirmed by a search in the “Encyclopedia of American Fretted Instruments, pre-Civil War to WW 2”  on the <mugwumps.com> website. This impressive anthology of over 1800 stringed instrument builders and their brand names was a work-of-love by the late Mike Holmes, an archivist of folk music instruments.

 

download (1)At a recent Farmer`s Market surrounded by flame-colored autumnal foliage, a plucky trio of Bluegrass musicians bravely huddle-up in late Fall chilly temperatures to entertain shoppers with archival, if not ancient, old time music. Tips went to the Children’s Hospital.

 

 

 

 

Art Shows

Show-Me art, music, & the money

October 16, 2018

Our university hometown is nestled in the rolling terrain of the Heartland where the prairie meets the Ozarks. Boone County is named after the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone who moved his family to Missouri in 1799. During the 19th century, fleets of riverboats churned the waters of Big Muddy supporting the busy agricultural economy of the Missouri River Valley.IMG_5643 - Version 3

This month, the local city bank and community art league co-hosted their 59th Annual Boone County Art Show. Unintimidated by over 230 eclectic works of art submitted to the contest, the intrepid BRC founder entered his “Riverboat Gambler” 5-stringer into the exhibit, and his instrument  (no surprise here) was the only banjo in the mix.

To his delight, it sold the morning that the exhibit opened.

While stopping-by to see the show, a curious patron made a withdrawal from the bank for an evening planned at a nearby riverside casino . He noticed the Riverboat Gambler and inquired what `lucky` card was beneath the pair of dice on the peg head? The banjo guy advised, “It`s the Queen of Hearts, and she may break yours.”                                                   IMG_5754 - Version 2

Since 1995, the BRC founder`s band has been performing benefits for the local Children’s Hospital. Last month, our total donations to the Children’s Miracle Network surpassed $23K. Two-thirds of these tip monies have been collected at a family-friendly microbrewery where we have performed weekly since 2009.  Located just across the street from the art show, the brewpub was recently the site of a video project recorded by university journalism students.