Cell Perches & HVO

In the spring months when the Missouri River not infrequently crests its banks, schoolchildren are introduced to the Regionalist artwork of Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) who graced the cover of Time magazine in 1934. Benton painted the classic “Spring on the Missouri” in 1945 which depicted a farm family fleeing the Big Muddy`s flood waters under angry skies.

In the last couple of decades, our Sunday jam session venue has been shut-down twice by these surging seasonal waters. About 20 years ago, the spring flood tide gushed through the township of Hartsburg towards our Hitchin` Post saloon jam site. National Guardsmen, prison gangs, farm families, and bluegrass jammers worked side by side to build a 10 foot leeve that spared half the town and the Hitchin` Post where the parking lot was submerged under 9 feet of water. When the brackish torrent finally subsided, jovial musicians helped re-open the the bar.

About 10 years ago, we were convening our Sunday jam sessions at “Lucy`s” burger restaurant in the village of McBaine, when the eatery went under 5 feet of spring overflow despite being miles from the banks of mighty river. The turbid floodwaters left a permanent bathtub ring on the window by the pool table that we would point-out to customers resting from the nearby jogging trail who wanted to know how high the Missouri River had spilled-over.

Click on the below link to hear Ron, our mandolinist/bassman, describe the Big Muddy`s rogue wanderings, and then listen to us sing “Waterbound”. Enjoy the Spring!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCwjXocuVlk

To commerate Veteran`s Day this year, the local `Missourian` newspaper  published an article chronicling the rediscovery of an all but forgotten mural painted circa 1945 in a building that once housed a Black Officer`s Club at Ft. Leonard Wood, an Army training base in southern Missouri. Although a mystery for many decades, the identity of the artist was confirmed in recent years by diligent detective work. The 4 x 10 foot mural was painted over the building`s fireplace by Staff Sergeant Samuel Albert Countee,  and the pastoral scene depicts an African -American couple having a picnic while the man quietly strums a banjo. The small building`s stone works and chimney were constructed by POWs.

The work was completed when the end of World War II was in sight.  All soldiers, regardless of race, longed for peace, demobilization, and resuming life at home. University of Missouri professors are working to have the historic oil-on-wood mural restored.

Albert Countee (1909-1959)  was an aspiring young artist who earned a scholarship at the Boston Museum of Art and later became its Artist-in-Residence. He was briefly an art fellow/instructor at Harvard.  He painted scenes of African-American culture including “My Guitar”  in 1936 which celebrates the 6 string instrument`s role in black folk music and its offspring- the blues.

The US Armed Forces were desegregated by Executive Order #9981 issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman, a Missouri native son. The BRC founder salutes all his fellow veterans and gratefully thanks all men and women in uniform for their service to our nation.

Although 5 string pickers are comfortable in their world of folk music or Bluegrass, in a rare quiet moment they might wonder: what is the difference between a plectrum and tenor banjo?  Both instruments have 4 strings, so why the puzzle?

To wit: The plectrum banjo has 22 frets, and the strings are tuned C-G-B-D not unlike the folksy C tuning of its 5 string cousin. An optional D-G-B-E  is called “Chicago tuning”. A staple in early jazz, this instrument is plucked with a flat pick, and the hyperkinetic Eddie Peabody is its most famous virtuoso. 

The tenor banjo evolved just prior to the 1920`s as a dance band instrument, and it first bore 17 and later 19 frets. It is tuned in perfect 5ths  C-G-D-A like a viola or mandola. Popularized by Barney McKenna of the Dubliners, the  traditional Irish tuning of G-D-A-E is like a mandolin or violin. This allows the 4 stringer to mimic the fiddle in Celtic music. In the adjacent photo, the BRC founder chords a friendly busker`s tenor banjo by an 11th century church near Paris, France.

There are many other iterations of the banjo like the rediscovered cello banjo, the  bass and 6 string and long neck banjo, the banjo uke (banjolele), the banjo  mandolin, and the guitjo. A champion of the 5 string banjo and social justice, the revered and legendary Pete Seegar probably introduced more generations of pickers to the banjo than any other ambassador of the instrument. Thanks, Pete.

In a tribute to diverse picking styles, enjoy a Bluegrass rendition of `Cripple Creek` in the below link and watch the BRC founder (black T-shirt at 2:00 mins) clawhammer the tune with his ring finger- a trick taught to him by  his older brother decades ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_tIbrexWgM

For decades, the BRC founder and spouse have attended small concerts at the historic Senior Hall on the campus of a nearby women`s college. In the entry way of the antebellum building hangs an intruiging photograph of a 1920`s school jazz band featuring an open back 5 string banjo.

Legend has it that a student hid her her boyfriend, a wounded Confederate soldier, in the bell tower of the Hall while Union forces searched for him. The two lovers later eloped on a stormy night but drowned crossing a swollen river. Their mournful ghosts allegedly haunt Senior Hall.

When these apparitions roam the hallways, maybe they gaze nostalgically on the jazz band photo remembering the banjo as a favorite musical instrument enjoyed by Yankee and Rebel soldiers alike.

In 1864, war artist Winslow Homer painted an unforgettable image of a banjo player on the front lines at the Siege of Petersburg (see below link).

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Defiance,_Inviting_a_Shot_before_Petersburg.jpg