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G&F Singers

Music is kid stuff

February 14, 2019

For about a dozen years, the BRC founder`s vocal group “The G&F Singers” has been performing at the Children’s Hospital every few months usually aligned with calendar holidays like the Fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas, and St. Paddy`s Day. This year, our annual Valentine`s Day gig in the pediatric ward play room was a joyous songfest with patients, siblings, parents, grandparents, and staff. Surgeons` caps sewn by an OR nurse and whimsically adorned with hearts and flowers were gifted to the kids. We are blessed to share our music with these grateful audiences.

IMG_0788            “If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.”   J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan                                                                    

A quarter century ago, the BRC founder was a regular jam session picker on Sunday afternoons at a bottomland saloon near the Missouri River. He wrote and recorded a tune entitled “The Hitching Post Song'” as a sing-a-long anthem for the musicians and patrons. The jam session was frequented by a older couple from a nearby community who admired the music, fun, and fellowship. Years later, their daughter worked at a hospital with the BRC founder, and she recounted how much her aging dad enjoyed those Sunday afternoons of Bluegrass jamming. IMG_0820

 

For her father`s 90th birthday party, she invited the BRC founder to surprise her dad at the nursing home with the Hitching Post anthem. The activity room was thronged with family, friends, and well-wishers who videoed the performance and then erupted in festive applause. Music is kid stuff for the young at heart ages 9 to 90.

 

P.S. Check-out the BRC “Ozark Rose Mallow” open back banjo on eBay from Feb. 24-March 3.

Art Shows

Over Indulgence

January 26, 2019

The local community art league opened its 2019 exhibition season with a competitive show entitled “Gluttony” as its theme. How does a banjo builder address this visceral subject when the available canvas is a 2 x 26 inch fretboard and peg head? Decades ago when the BRC founder and spouse lived in the Sunshine State, backwoods Floridian restauranteurs would speak fondly of “cooter” soup.  A nickname for turtle, these dishes were a delicacy in colonial times, and canned terrapin meat for stew or soup is still available online for those who have cultivated a palate for this historical entree.IMG_5758_2 - Version 3

Traditional cookbooks in the southeastern US still offer such recipes for the adventurous chef. Accordingly, the BRC workshop fashioned a banjo entitled “Soup de Jour” emblazoned with mother of pearl cooters on the peg head which were presumably destined for the  serving dish.IMG_5768 - Version 2

 

 

 

The fretboard featured terrapins swimming to and fro-  perhaps hoping to evade the stewpot?

 

 

A 16 inch snowfall postponed the exhibit`s opening reception, and the rescheduled gala was cancelled because of a subsequent wind-whipped winter storm with bitter temperatures. By happenstance, the gallery had its annual fund-raising  “Let Them Eat Art”  food fest showcasing local chefs at the end of the month. What overly indulgent event could serve more ideally as an occasion for the “Gluttony”  exhibits`s overdue awards ceremony? Eager patrons, albeit weary of winter, hungrily gathered at the festive culinary benefit and puzzled over the unlikely 5-string entry that was stationed among watercolor and oil paintings depicting a gustatory array of edibles. Turtle soup was not among the gourmet cuisine offered to the guests.IMG_5876 - Version 2

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With his son on bass, the BRC founder avoided the risk of overindulgence on the banjo by setting down his 5 stringer and playing a rollicking harmonica tune on the blues harp at a recent Farmer`s Market. Tips were donated to the Children’s Hospital.

Antique Banjos

Travels of the Dumpster Banjo

January 2, 2019

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Long ago, a banjo picker living in San Diego rescued a discarded banjo from a dumpster. Dan preserved the abandoned 5-stringer and transported it to the Heartland when he relocated to Missouri decades later.

 

Years past by, and Dan joined our G&F bluegrass band. He gave the forlorn instrument to the BRC founder who had just opened a basement banjo repair shop.  Although it was otherwise unmarked, a patent date of Nov. 19, 1901 on the `No Knot` tailpiece confirmed that the instrument was manufactured over a century ago.IMG_1200

 

Rather than dress up the wayfaring banjo to become a permanent decorative wall hanging, the 5-stringer was refitted into playing condition and submitted to the three young sons of one of our fiddlers for field testing. The kids happily experimented with the instrument and loved telling the “dumpster” story to family friends.

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Shared among this trio of active siblings, the restored 5-stringer held up favorably, and it was deemed sturdy enough to be gifted to the BRC founder`s grandson in Texas where it resides today.

 

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Dan has since retired from the G&F band and is much missed, but his son Terry has joined us adding masterfully nuanced  guitar work to the band`s repertoire.

 

 

How many vintage banjos have been fated to a trash bin and vanished forever?

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.