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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

The little  guitar? The mighty mandolin is a powerhouse Bluegrass staple valued for its `bark` and pulsing off-beat chop. In comparison, a Bluegrass resonator banjo has a `pop`, and the open back 5 string has a `tubby` sound coveted in the old timey genre. A flattop guitar is called a boomer or a cannon if it is a `banjo killer`. Describing the tonal qualities of a BRC banjo on eBay is a seller`s challenge in descriptors: resonance, sustain, bright, twangy, plunky? This handsome hybrid banjo, recently auctioned online, had a `mid-range` tone because of its uncommon open back and arch top design

Although the text of a melody can be described onto scaled paper, only the sonic actuality of its performance on an instrument can translate the unique character of the music and the instrument. A few years ago, an e-mailer from New Zealand queried us about the sheet music for a You Tube mandolin solo picked by the BRC founder (see below link) at a coffee house gig for the Children`s Hospital. Our polite response: what is sheet  music? The knack to play music by ear, however, is a fanciful myth. It is best described as being a bard who does not know the alphabet. Listen to the BRC founder`s mandolin solo (at 1:48 mins) on “Glendale Train” per the below link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4tLaA7ZZdY&list=PLBADC586625A34D06)The

Check-out the below link for a neighborly thread about the Banjo Rehabilitation Center as offered by our brethren at the Mandolin Cafe. The BRC founder has long hoped to author a mandolin-friendly book entitled `Why Banjos Matter` but has been unable to set pen to paper. Is this a description of writer`s block?

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?73475-Funny-Banjo-Repair-Site

P.S. See the new Hall of Fame member- a mandolinist!