Bio

Every Sunday afternoon, the G&F Band performs for our university Children`s Hospital at a nearby family-friendly brewpub. During the lunch hour, curious youngsters come to the foot of the bandstand to dance while their parents happily take photographs. Some of the more adventurous kids will wander up onto the stage to examine our musical instruments and sometimes sing along with us.

Last Sunday, a young listener about age 5 years old spent her lunch hour industriously sketching the band. Periodically, after completing a few drawings, she would step-up onto the bandstand and distribute her works to the musicians.  Over the time frame of her family meal, each band member was gifted two sketches. These playful images surprisingly reflected our music and fellowship.

Our banjoist was among the first to receive such an artwork as seen above.

Soon thereafter, one of our guitarists was gifted an impressionistic rendering (ala  Picasso…?) of his instrument pouring-out music.

Our bass player happily accepted an artful representation of her oversized instrument sprinkled with musical notations.

Lastly, and most importantly, we were presented with the young artist`s perception of our happy faces, while we were pickin` & grinnin` & singin`. She anonymously autographed this final work with “Love,  Friend (sic)” In all, we were gifted with about a dozen of her sketches, and the Mom took a photograph of her talented daughter on stage with us grateful musicians. It was a joyful afternoon for all.

The previous weekend, the BRC founder and spouse visited their daughter`s family in Chicago for the local high school Homecoming festivities. Our talented grandson (seen above center) plays horn in the brass section of the school marching band, and he sings and dances regularly in school theatre productions. This young fellow and his friends decided to dress-up as the “Blues Brothers” for the post game evening dance party.

His grandfather instructed the young musician how to play blues harmonica in preparation for the evening of fun. All ready proficient on a wind instrument in the marching band, the kid proved to be a  “natural” on the blues harp.

From the BRC: Our family tree is blessed with musicians.

A college chum recently mailed some archival photos to the BRC owner. In those days decades ago, photography was an active hobby for the BRC banjoist, and these forgotten B&W pictures had been developed in his dark room. The vintage images depicted the modest Florida bungalow and flourishing backyard vegetable garden of the young BRC husband and wife. As seen below, a B&W snapshot portrayed the youthful BRC musician playing his long neck Ode banjo that he had procured circa 1972. This open back 5-stringer still resides in his music room, and it offers a mellow and wife-friendly tone especially suited to clawhammer tunes.

The engraved leather shoulder strap seen above was fashioned by the BRC craftsman in the mid 1960’s when he was in a folk music duo with a pal who also enjoyed hand crafting. Nowadays, this strap resides on the mandolin featured in the previous website posting last month entitled “The Mandolin Option.”

Another engraved shoulder strap from that era is on his vintage Gibson Mastertone banjo. These leather straps have been preserved and remained supple over the intervening decades via annual applications of mink oil. In more recent years, however, the BRC spouse has fashioned many splendidly decorated shoulder straps at her sewing machine for her husband’s collection of acoustic instruments as depicted below.

These wide and well-padded straps are valued and comfortable accessories.

From the BRC: Welcome to Autumn.

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.