Jamming

If you’re looking for a thrill/ It’s at the Salamander Grill

Where you can get your fill of/Bluegrass pickin` and chicken

Down Home Country Fried!

When the Hitchin` Post saloon was sold, the Sunday afternoon Bluegrass jam session took up residence at a newly opened and freshly renovated venue only a few doors down the street. The owners graciously welcomed the pickers and the patrons that followed our music there, and cigarette smoke was not an indoor environmental issue in the spacious family style eatery. It became a popular Sunday luncheon locale for many neighboring families. Although handy on the banjo, the BRC founder would sometimes play mandolin when a song called for it.

The local press took an interest in the revitalized music scene in the village of Hartsburg, and the Grill owners asked the BRC founder to record his original tune “The Salamander Grill” for a radio advertisement. With his son on rhythm guitar, the banjo builder recorded a stanza of the song with the above refrain as the catch-phrase. In the below sound file of this up tempo theme song, all the instruments and vocals were multi-tracked by the author on his initial CD to benefit the Childrens Hospital. Enjoy.

A Handful Banjo

For the autumn 2020 juried exhibit, the community art league tasked its members with the following directive: The tradition of the human figure in art continues to inspire and challenge artists today. Whether abstracted or realistic, we experience the figure in art both visually and physically. We want to see your contemporary take on interpreting the ancient practice of recreating the figure.

In response to this assignment, the BRC founder built the “Play Your Hand” banjo which was accepted and exhibited in The Figure art show among 56 other entries of photographs, sculptures, watercolor and oil paintings, mixed media abstraction, wood, metal, and fiber works- each reflecting the human form.

The human hand is a marvel of communication second only to the face in its ability to convey emotion. We give and take with the hand. We wave a greeting and bid farewell with it. A handshake confirms connection, and fingertip kisses are blown to departing loved ones. Holding up two fingers in a V is a sign of peace, and a tightly clasped fist held overhead is a symbol of protest. We pointedly accuse with the hand, and both are held overhead to indicate surrender. A salute offers recognition of office, and a circle made with the thumb and index finger is the universal emoji for OK. Fingers are crossed for good luck, and flattened palms are pressed together in prayer. We wring our hands when worried and flap them in frustration. The extended index finger in front of pursed lips is a non verbal request for quietude. Historically, thumbs-up is a positive indicator of affirmation, and thumbs-down is negative. Holding up the palm vertically is a signal to stop, and a firmly clenching hand is a barometer of anger.  We affectionately caress loved ones with the hand, and in some traditional cultures, kissing the hand is a gesture of deferential respect. Sculptors and painters fashion their works by hand while silently crafting their artistic vision. The hearing impaired communicate with a vocabulary of sign language. A choir conductor gestures wordlessly to guide a chorale, and an orchestra makes music with its fingertips following the direction of the maestro`s hand-held baton. 

 

Bluegrass musicians spend endless hours honing their craft, and many banjo players wear fingerpicks to amplify their tonal palette (enter “picks” in the homepage search engine). According to 5-stringer lore, Earl Scruggs estimated that 10,000 hours of practice were required to master a musical instrument.

 

At a festive outdoor gig for the Children’s Hospital, the BRC founder poses with his fiddler who lost a finger in a severe power saw injury some years ago. After staged and complex surgeries, the fiddler devotedly rehabilitated his hand and retrained it to full musicianship.

 

 

 

From the BRC: Be well, practice hand hygiene, and keep on picking.

 

 

Growing up in the Show-Me state, our children flourished as teenagers. The older sister was an artist, and the younger sister was a scholar. Mom bought our son a guitar, and he soon conquered it as well as the cello for school orchestra. His dad reactivated dormant banjo skills, and the lad taught his father how to play bass. Before long, they were performing at gigs together.

The Hitchin` Post, a bottomland saloon near the Missouri River, was choked with patrons and cigarette smoke on Sunday afternoons when the Hartsburg pub hosted its weekly Bluegrass jam session. The father-son duo not infrequently played back-up for fiddlers, pickers, and singers.

The BRC founder became a regular banjo picker at the pub, and he soon polished-up his knack for tune smithing by penning “The Hitchin Post Song.” It became a wrap-up anthem at the conclusion of Sunday jam sessions when all assembled adjourned to go “ridin` home late.” He collected this and other newly written tunes into a file that he called the “Hartsburg Anthology- songs mostly about Missouri ” which became the title of his first CD recorded to benefit the Childrens Hospital (Copyright 2004). On the below sound file, all instruments and vocals are performed by the author. Enjoy.

It has been decades since the last Hitchin` Post picking session in Hartsburg, and BRC life is now populated with grandchildren. In recent years, a new jam scene has sprung-up a only few miles down the Jeff City Rd. at a yogurt shop in our state capital of Jefferson City.

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In this pandemic era, however, the musicians practice precautionary behaviors of outdoor picking on the sidewalk in front of the shop, mandatory masks, and safe distancing.Songs from the “Hartsburg Anthology” CD are performed when requested by listeners during these evening jam sessions, and we disperse after sundown when all assembled adjourn to go “ridin` home late.”

From the BRC: Be safe, be well, keep on picking.