Mid-Mo Banjar | Banjo Rehab Center, Banjo Restoration

Bio, Jamming

Ojai Again

July 8, 2023

After a covid hiatus, the BRC craftsman and spouse journeyed last month to California to renew their attendance of the annual Ojai Music Festival. The 2023 invited Musical Director of this 77th annual Fest was banjoist Rhiannon Giddens. Known in the 5-string community as an eclectic folk musician, a focus of Ms. Giddens` artistry has been to give voice to the voiceless. With her praiseworthy agenda of humanism, she assembled a marvelous admixture of international musicians whose diverse instruments blended together per her prediction like “cousins talking” and sharing their heritages.

Pictured below in the Ojai community center, the banjoist/musical director had an afternoon city park performance moved indoors during the Fest because of briefly inclement weather. She was accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi on percussion.

A versatile musician, composer, and writer, Rhiannon plays violin (below center) amidst some instruments from foreign lands. She is currently authoring a series of children’s books. Her varied creative works have won a MacArthur Grant and two Grammy Awards.

Although initially known as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops folk trio, Ms. Giddens has a seraphic opera-trained voice. She demonstrated her spell-binding vocal skills singing (below far right) with the Attacca String quartet. During this collaboration, a dog and a coyote had a barking dual in the ravine behind the outdoor stage. The performers and audience were undeterred.

Rhiannon`s voice also joined the chorus (below) in the performance of the Pulitzer Prize winning opera “Omar’s Journey” that she had co-authored with Michael Abels. The libretto chronicles the true story of a slave kidnapped in Africa and brought to America.

With a host of gifted international musicians at the Festival, Ms. Giddens sang in English, French and Italian. She was accompanied by her partner, the astonishingly powerful pianist Francesco Turrisi. Spanning several octaves, she sang ragtime, pop tunes, and arias.

After she rendered a particularly tender love song in Italian (below) that was woven with his keyboard underpinnings, Turrisi dabbed an eye and confessed softly in his microphone, “She made me cry.”

The Musical Director also sang in Japanese and Chinese during the festival further underscoring a world rich with overlapping musical traditions. With Giddens on the banjo and Wu Man playing the Chinese lute, the two musician demonstrated (below) that music is borderless.

Ojai proved again to be a multifaceted learning environment. As the township is an artists` community, the Music Fest coordinates yearly with an open house tour of artists` homes, so festival goers can visit the studios and galleries of local painters, sculptors, and artisans. This educational program is especially valued by the BRC spouse who is a painter.

The annual four day event was concluded with a rollicking evening jam session presented by the visiting international artists who again confirmed the communicative language and fellowship of music. For past postings on previous BRC visits to the Ojai Festival, enter “Ojai” in the homepage search engine.

In the spirit of the annual Ojai Fest, the BRC traveler revisited a familiar local jam session of Bluegrass pals to experience again with them the mutual joy of music and song.

A very special thanks is owed to the guitar craftsman (far left) who again graciously supplied a banjo for the visiting BRC musician to pick during the weekly Sunday afternoon jam at the nearby Oak View Community Center.

From the BRC: We hope our readers and the good folks pictured above, had a restful Fourth of July holiday and enjoy a splendid summertime.

BRC Activities

The Concordia Banjo

June 24, 2023

The summer members` show at the local community art league is an annual open and un-themed competition. This enables artists to submit a diverse range of works. In a world troubled with conflict, the BRC craftsman fashioned the “Concordia” banjo named after the ancient Roman goddess of harmony or peace. The peg head and lower neck present snowy doves carrying a sprig of olive branch- a traditional symbol of peace.

The upper neck echoes these universal motifs of amity. Although each BRC banjo is a one-of-a-kind instrument, the ever important theme of global peace has been a design feature of several of our 5-stringers that can be accessed by entering “dove” in the search engine on the BRC homepage.

At the gala opening reception of the exhibit, gallery visitors closely study the Concordia banjo and its harmonious imagery.

For the eyes only of the musician, all BRC banjos have a signature inlay (below) on the heel of the neck. Nearby, the inscribed serial number of the instrument is located on the rim. The Concordia banjo was purchased by a patron before the exhibit opened.

From the BRC: Wishing us all everywhere a peaceful summer filled with harmony.

BRC Activities

$30K & Thanks

June 13, 2023

About 15 years ago, the Gainor & Friends jam band evolved its moniker at the Artisan Cafe which was located nearby the University campus. The popular coffee house was a student haunt, and we performed weekly noontime gigs on Thursdays for the Children`s Hospital. For a back-story on our tenure at this venue, enter “artisan” in the BRC homepage search engine which will take you to the “At the Artisan” posting of December 5, 2020.

One day in September of 2009, we showed up at the Cafe door with our instruments, ready to pick and sing. To our surprise, the basement establishment was darkly shuttered, locked-up, and permanently closed-down. Undaunted, we crossed the street and walked up an alley leading to the back door of the newly opened Broadway Brewery which faced the main thoroughfare of our university township. One of the owners of the family-friendly brewpub consented to have us play a few gigs as an audition. By December, the management agreed to have us perform weekly as the house band with all tips going to the Children`s Hospital.

Initially, we were housed in an alcove next to the stairs leading down from the main street to the microbrewery front door. Although we were somewhat cramped, customers could glimpse our live-music band on their left as they descended the steps to the entrance of the restaurant.

Despite the close quarters, the acoustics were surprisingly well-balanced in this small corner locale. We performed in the alcove (below) for several years until the summer of 2015 when the owners built a stage for us on the other side of the main dining area.

Our weekly performances were then moved to Sunday midday when the peak number of families came to dine at the brewpub. We were initially worried about the acoustics in this spacious stage location, but the newly-built stout wooden platform proved to enhance the tone of our instruments. The stage easily accommodated double the number of musicians compared to the small corner alcove. For the new Sunday gigs, the Brewery provided afternoon snacks for the G&F musicians during our break-time.

Since its inception in 1995, the G&F musicians have donated all tips to the Children`s Hospital, and our total collections recently surpassed the $30K milestone. Three-fourths of those monies have been donated by the generous patrons of the Broadway Brewery. We salute the brewpub owners for hosting our weekly benefit gigs all these years and the faithful customers for their support of our University pediatric medical center.

From the BRC and the G&F musicians: Thank-you everyone.

Art Shows

In Touch with Friends

April 22, 2023

The springtime exhibit at the community art league gallery is entitled “Touch.” Does this subtle message seemingly invite viewers to actually contact the artful items on display with their fingertips or to just imagine what the texture of the submitted works might feel like?

In the spirit of the theme of this juried competition, the BRC founder crafted the “Amity Banjo” displaying touching hands that illustrate friendship and peace- valuable commodities in our troubled world. In concert with the title of the exhibit, a hand inlayed at the fifth fret space points to the 5th tuning peg inviting the viewer to touch it.

The upper neck fingerboard depicts hands posturing a heart, the peace sign, and an image similar to the Irish Claddagh which traditionally represents love, loyalty, and friendship.

At the opening reception of the exhibit, a curious gallery visitor reaches out to touch the 5th string tuning peg as suggested by the pointing hand.

The “Amity Banjo” was purchased by a local artist who is a masterful oil-on-canvas painter and pictured above (cowboy hat) with his wife while recently meeting the BRC craftsman on a local hiking trail that they all frequent.

From the BRC: Keep in touch with your friends and the world around us.

Bio, CD songs, Jamming

Springtime in the Ozarks & more

April 15, 2023

With March winds and April showers, our Spring season in the Heartland has been wet and blustery. Despite cool and rainy days, the neighborhood daffodils and tulips have bloomed, trees are leafing-out in the countryside, and turtles have re-surfaced in the lake behind the BRC workshop. This week, temperatures surprisingly crept up into the low 80’s, and our Wednesday afternoon jam session in a village nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks was convened at an outdoor pavilion in the township`s municipal park. Although a very breezy day, bluegrass pickers and singers cheerfully gathered as the sun spilled down around us. School kids merrily romped in the adjacent playground while fitness walkers paused to enjoy the music, dance with our clogger, and sing-along to familiar gospel tunes.

It looks likely that the pavilion and its lively greening environs will become our regular jam session venue for the months to come.

Between 2004 and 2006, the BRC craftsman wrote and recorded 4 solo CDs of original music. Three of the discs benefitted our local Children`s Hospital, and one disc was in support of Health Volunteers Overseas, a medical philanthropic international organization.