Art Shows

The annual winter Food Show at the local community art league is entitled “Savor” this year. In this juried exhibition, artists are challenged to express their connections with appetites and sustenance. In addition to an opening reception, the show is later formatted as the “Let Them Eat Art” gala evening fundraiser where local chefs and bartenders (mixologists) offer their entrees and beverages in a contest judged by the votes of the gallery guests. The BRC founder fashioned a “Moonshine” banjo for these savory events.

Twenty-seven years ago, the BRC craftsman formed his Bluegrass band “Gainor & Friends” to play benefit gigs for the Children`s Hospital. In its early days, the group was called the “Moonshyne Reunion” for a while. These musicians are pictured below while providing entertainment at a hospital picnic circa 2004.

The Moonshine 5-stringer fingerboard features bolts of white lightening and topsy-turvy jugs reflecting a potent beverage within. These laser cut wood images spill all the way down the fretboard amidst an occasional star.

As always, BRC banjos have a signature inlay on the heel of the instrument for the eyes only of the musician.

The opening reception was postponed because of the omicron surge, so the art league Director taped a video tour of the Savor exhibit for the artists and patrons. Displayed at the entrance of the gallery, the Moonshine banjo was the very the first work that she presented to the online viewers.

To benefit the Children`s Hospital in 2004, the BRC gig master recorded a solo album of original songs entitled, “Hartsburg Anthology”. An  aged fiddler reminisced that many decades previously, moonshine “white lightening” liquor was sold by the gallon not too far from the rural village of Hartsburg. A sound file of the song “Moonshyne Reunion” from the CD is below.  Enjoy. (copyright 2004)

From the BRC: Be safe, be well, best wishes on Groundhog Day.

In the Show-Me State,  the Gray Wolf (Canis  lupus) is an endangered species that wanders into Missouri from adjacent northern regions. Known as the timber wolf, about 50 of these four-legged creatures may transiently inhabit our woodlands and prairie at any given time, but there are around 200 residing in captivity breeding programs. The Red Wolf (Canis rufus) is extinct in Missouri, as the last one to be identified here was in 1950. As it is estimated that only 20 red wolves remain in the continental back country, the St. Louis Zoo has an ambitious captive breeding program on a wildlife preserve in Franklin County to restore this dwindling species. Some of the animals produced by this program have already been reintroduced into the hinterland of northeast North Carolina.

For the annual 62nd Boone County Art Show sponsored by a local bank, the BRC craftsman fashioned a banjo entitled “The Wolf.” To invoke the wilderness, the installed inlays are made of laser cut wood, mostly birch, instead of the usual mother of pearl materials. On the peg head, a solitary wolf howls at the moon.

The truss rod cover and fretboard are tracked with paw prints among a wolf pack baying at the night sky. Is this the model for the “High Lonesome Sound” that we  strive for in our Bluegrass music?

On the heel of the neck, a BRC signature inlay site for the eyes only of the musician, is  laser cut wooden wolf crying at the distant lunar glow.

Visiting the 2021 Boone County Art Show, the BRC grandkids study Grandpa Doc`s 5-stringer and learn about the challenges of this species that struggles to survive in a world of shrinking natural habitat.

From the BRC: Be well, be safe, protect the environment.

Last month, our Chicago grandkids stayed at the BRC domicile for a week in order to attend a horseback riding camp at a nearby ranch. One morning on the drive to the countryside venue, they thrilled to witness a magnificent bald eagle swoop down in front of their vehicle to seize some roadside carrion with its spikey talons.

On the weekend, the youngsters visited the Veteran`s Pavilion op-up art exhibit on display in the lobby gallery of the Central Bank of Missouri to see their grandfather`s Sky Rover banjo (for details please enter “rover” in the homepage search engine to visit the “Sky Rover & Happy 4th” posting of July 4, 2021). They studied the mother of pearl eagles on the fretboard and learned that all BRC banjos have a signature inlay on the heel of the neck for the eyes only of the musician.

The BRC craftsman is a student of military history and has an extensive collection of original vintage and contemporary posters, and many of them depict striking images of our National Bird- the bald eagle.

The Veteran`s Pavilion art show concluded at the end of July with an evening reception to honor its participating Show-Me State former members of the US Armed Forces.

From the BRC: Eat healthily, exercise regularly, get the vax.