Bio

In the summertime, the lake behind the BRC residence is a dynamic biosphere of activity. To accommodate the many species that visit or inhabit these waters, the BRC craftsman moors a “turtle ramp” off shore each Spring, so many of these creatures can find a comfortable perch to enjoy the fair weather.

Earlier this summer, a large BRC turtle ramp was dry docked for repairs and replaced with a smaller version of the floating structure. Terrapins climb aboard this newly launched mini ramp daily to warm themselves in the solar rays. Note the baby turtle riding on its mother`s back (far left).

Sometimes, a friendly water snake will join the throng to peacefully share the sunny warmth.

In the evening when the turtles dive deep, ducks will frequently occupy the ramp overnight while shedding feathers as seen below. Geese never perch on the mini float because their hefty size is too top-heavy and risks capsizing the narrow planked structure. They prefer the terra firma of the nearby dam.

Late last month, a new goose family paddled by the floating wooden ramp enroute to the open waters of the lake to rejoin their flock. Note the partially submerged turtle preparing to climb aboard the sunny platform.

From the BRC: We delight in having this seasonal vision of a busy biosphere in our own backyard.

A fiddler recently loaned the BRC craftsman a 400 page biography of Merle Travis written by musician Deke Dickerson. The author spent his boyhood in the same township where the BRC workshop is located. Dickerson`s parents still live here and have visited our weekly Thursday evening jam session. As a youngster many years ago, the BRC craftsman grew up along side his musically inclined oldest brother, and together they learned to play the five-stringer and the guitar during the Folk Music Revival era of the 1960s. They constructed their first long neck banjos from parts left-over at a fire sale. Years later, both became surgeons.

In addition to mastering Scruggs style and clawhammer banjo, sometimes called frailing, the future BRC craftsman also learned the eponymic Travis style and Elizabeth Cotton style finger picking methods on the guitar. In those pre-Internet days, both of these techniques were exactingly taught to him as employing three fingers plucking the strings. In general, the thumb provided a steady bass foundation and tempo on the heavier-wound strings while the index and middle digits provided the melody on the treble strings. Although focusing nowadays mostly on banjo, mandolin, blues harp and electric bass, the BRC craftsman recently endeavored to closely reexamine the digital stylings of the two aforementioned artists on YouTube.

If you study the online videos of Merle Travis playing the guitar with his famous technique, you will clearly observe that the master uses only 2 digits to execute his tunes. The thumb performs a steady alternating bass note pattern while the index finger alone busily picks the melody on the higher-tuned strings.

Elizabeth Cotton was the nanny in the famous Seeger folk music household where Pete and his siblings grew-up calling her “Libba.” She composed the classic tune “Freight Train” at age twelve. Cotton was left-handed, so she played a conventionally-strung guitar rotated 180 degrees thus reversing the sequence of the strings. With the fretboard inverted, her left thumb picks-out the melody on the upper treble strings while the index finger alone plucks a steady alternating bass rhythm on the lower-heavier gauge strings.

Curiously, the Merle Travis and Elizabeth Cotton unique two-digit picking styles are executed with completely opposite thumb and index finger tasks. These days, BRC craftsman is revisiting his rusty three-finger guitar picking techniques learned decades ago.

He has a circa 1964 dreadnought Gibson SJ (Southern Jumbo) guitar that his Texas son enjoys picking when visiting and jamming at the old home place as seen above.

His dad mostly plays a 1982 cut-away Martin MC28 six-stringer with which he performed when singing with the G&F Trio at the Childrens Hospital. In his younger days, the BRC craftsman was not enamored with the cutaway design in acoustic guitars, but over the years he has grown very fond of this unique feature.

To hear the BRC craftsman play Travis style guitar (with three fingers), enter  the word “folksy” into the homepage search engine and hit enter. This will take you to the CD file of his original tune “A Long Way”  on the posting of August 15, 2020. Listen closely to the intro and enjoy.

From the BRC: Keep on pickin`, bro.

The BRC craftsman passed another calendar milestone this week, and so he again shares with readers his all-time favorite birthday card sent to him long ago by a sibling:

Playing the banjo for well over 60 years, he has bought, sold, and built many 5-stringers. The only instrument that he ever regretted selling was a circa 1963 Gibson J-200 sunburst guitar that he purchased for $300 while exploring the blues idiom during his college days. Soon drifting deeply into the Bluegrass genre, however, he sold the dreadnaught 6-stringer to a school chum for the aforesaid purchase amount. Although this vintage instrument retails online nowadays for up to $18K, what he nostalgically remembers is the unforgettably deep rich tone of this magnificent guitar pictured below in an archival 1967 home photograph.

To paraphrase Missouri`s favorite son Mark Twain: Good judgement comes with experience, and experience comes with having made bad judgements. Within a year of selling the iconic J-200, the BRC craftsman procured a circa 1964 Gibson SJ (Southern Jumbo) guitar for $75 that he has faithfully kept ever since. It is valued online these days for around $4K. At a recent jam session, a fiddler pointedly admired the marvelous tone of the SJ flat-top.

Felicitous greetings to all website visitors who share a birthday this month with the BRC craftsman and are likewise a year older and wiser. Shortly after this aforesaid calendar milestone, the BRC craftsman and spouse babysat the grandkids` dog at our home while the youngsters visited cousins in Chicago. One morning at daybreak, the hound reacted with barking when a hot air ballon passed over our backyard lake whoosing its hot air jets. The sunrise shared its skyline with another orb as photographed from our upper back deck.

For other photos of dawn at the BRC, enter sunrise in our homepage search engine.

From the BRC: Wishing all our readers a sunny long life, good health, and the very best of pickin` and song.