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Passing the Torch

September 3, 2012

As Labor Day Weekend  slips through the Heartland on Isaac`s stormy rains, the parched grounds and gardens surrounding the Banjo Rehabilitation Center taste water for the first time in a long dry summer. Although there is a touch of autumn in the Missouri morning air outside our workshop, thoughts turn back to the sunny California beaches where the BRC staff enjoyed a well-deserved holiday only a few short weeks ago. As pictured in the below beach photo, the BRC founder passes the family musical torch to our harmonica-playing CEO thus linking a generational chain that began with the youngster`s great grandfather. In the background, the CEO`s guitar-picking uncle is beach combing with his tiny daughter, our Senior VP of Sales.

Check-out our first BRC banjo autumn offering on eBay from September 3-10 (sold).

Upon receipt, the buyer e-mailed, “Banjo is just what I wanted; Just the sound I was looking for; Beautiful too….Great work!”

 

Bio

End of summer postcard

August 13, 2012

The Banjo Rehabilitation Center was briefly closed for a short mid August vacation. Beneath towering palms on a deserted beach in San Diego at daybreak, the BRC founder leisurely polished-up some rusty mandolin chops, as puzzled seagulls swooped overhead.

Only a few weeks earlier in Chicago, as seen in the below video clip, our Senior Vice-President of Sales danced joyfully to the music of her father and grandfather at our CEO’s birthday party.

Only a few days ago, our Senior VP of Sales celebrated her birthday overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and our CEO watched her blow out the candles.

Refreshed by the holiday, the BRC workshop staff wishes our readers a happy summer season.

 

 

G&F Band

Summer banjo fun

July 29, 2012

At the recent 8th Annual Street Party for benefit of the Children`s Hospital, the BRC founder`s band “Gainor & Friends” gave its yearly performance. As pictured at the kids` festival, the BRC founder gives his “Born to Pick and Grin” T-Shirt to a young and faithful Bluegrass music admirer. Over the last 8 years, the band has donated $11K in gig  tips to the Children`s Miracle Network. Well done pickers. It`s the Bluegrass way.


On the following sunny afternoon, the Banjo Rehabilitation Center`s CEO received a 5-string birthday present from his grandfather`s shop. Maybe, some day our CEO will step-up and replace his ‘Papa’ in Gainor & Friends and play banjo for the benefit of the Children`s Miracle Network. Let`s keep our pickin` fingers crossed.

 

 

P.S. Note our CEO`s right thumb postured in the ready-position over the nylon strings and the pinky finger anchoring the hand on the head. Kids don`t miss a thing- a promising sign.

 

Bio

Quarter Tones in the Desert Sun

July 14, 2012

In Petra, Jordan, the BRC founder listens to an Arabic musician play a spike fiddle called a rabab, rababah, or rbab. This banjo-like instrument is used to accompany poetry recitation and played with a horse hair bow.  The Bedouin version, as seen here, has a rectangular sound chamber covered with a skin and a solitary horse hair string. Although quarter tones of Middle Eastern music are foreign to the Western ear, they are occasionally  heard in the American blues genre when a guitarist “chokes” a string for a whining-crying effect or when a harmonica player “bends” a note.

Cell Perches & HVO

A Banjo Man All Four Seasons

June 16, 2012

In the late 1950’s, a young trumpet player in a Dixieland jazz band also performed on tenor banjo during gigs in the northeastern college circuit. He and his band were featured in a 1958 magazine article about a NYC jazz fest (see him in clipping).

With the dawn of the folk music revival, this multi-talented musician became interested in the bluegrass 5 string cousin of the tenor banjo. He rigged a 5th string on his tenor instrument to adapt it to either style on the bandstand, as he had visions of bursting into the middle of an up-tempo Dixieland jazz tune with an explosive solo from a Scruggs style banjo. His dreams of merging these two disparate genres lapsed when he became preoccupied with medical school studies.

His visionary aspirations came to realization, however, more than half a century later when Del McCoury and his bluegrass band released an album jointly recorded with New Orleans` world famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band. To this day, the trumpet player (pictured wearing a BRC T-shirt) remains an inveterate fan of banjos, jazz, and fine wine.