BRC Activities

The BRC craftsman grew up in the Northeast folk music scene. In 1960, he built his first banjo, a long neck 5-stringer, from parts left-over at a fire sale. He later procured a decaying pot-belly or “tater bug” mandolin and performed with it occasionally in a folk music duo. The ancient mandolin eventually crumbled in disrepair.

Years later, the BRC musician relocated to the Southland for medical training where he was also immersed in the surrounding Bluegrass music culture. His professional journey eventually settled him and his young family in Mid-America where he discovered a vibrant music scene. His interest in the mandolin revived, so he purchased one in the early 1990`s from a local craftsman/musician who he befriended in a weekly jam session that convened in the basement of a hardware store. The payment check dated Feb. 5, 1992 still resides in his instrument case as a keepsake.

The luthier personally delivered the hand-crafted mandolin to its busy new owner. With its marvelous tone, the splendidly constructed instrument became the musician`s go-to option when a jam session needed a crisp “chop” to focus the off-beat accented rhythm of Bluegrass music.

Mandolin strings are duplicated and strung in like-pairs. As evidenced below, a musician`s fingertips experience double duty compared to when picking the single light-guage strings of a banjo.

When jamming with a younger and flourishing banjoist, the BRC craftsman regularly turns to the mandolin to give a burgeoning 5-string musician room to polish-up some chops.

Above far right, our bassist routinely wears a glove on her right hand to protect her fingertips while manipulating hefty bass strings. She is also a skilled hammer dulcimer player which requires no protective wear. Far left is the BRC craftsman`s Texas son who joins our Thursday evening jam sessions when visiting from the Lone Star State. He also plays electric bass for us when needed.

From the BRC: Happy picking y`all, whatever instrument you play.

Last month, the brewpub band performed at a memorial gathering of friends and family to honor a very special lady who loved music and passed away at age 94 earlier in the summer. It was a bright sunny day, and the home was thronged with visitors. One of the guests (center) was a soprano singer who joined our ranks to augment the group vocals.

The musicians and assemblage of guests enjoyed the blended harmonies of our songs performed in front of the living room hearth. It was an especially lovely occasion to remember a very lovely lady who lived next door to our banjo player.

From the BRC: Peace.

The BRC craftsman and spouse have resided at our lakeside domicile for 4 decades. Since our early years here, we have enjoyed observing a colony of terrapins along our shoreline including two huge tortoises of the snapping turtle variety. We named the oversized twosome Bruno and Brunhilde to invoke a romantic pairing from a Wagnerian opera. These impressive creatures can grow sometimes up to 14 inches long and dwarf the much smaller box turtle species as seen below. Note the baby terrapin perched on the expansive shell of a gigantic half-submerged snapping turtle.

Over the years, Bruno and Brunhilde frequented a favorite recessed area along the shoreline behind the BRC workshop to sunbathe together as seen below. They would promptly flee into the lake, however, if anyone ventured too close for a photograph. These impressive amphibious creatures can live up to 30-40 years or longer. Also noteworthy in the below photo is the shadowy figure of a hefty grass carp in the nearby shallows.

This summer, only Brunhilde has returned to our shoreline, but a new young snapping turtle has surfaced to investigate the aforementioned favorite terrapin sunbathing spot. We will probably name the newcomer Siegfried.

From the BRC:  Wishing you a sunny summer observing Nature.

Having recently read the biography of Merle Travis, the BRC craftsman was reminded of his own finger-picking guitar stylings from years ago while living on the East Coast. In his younger days, he played Travis style for decades before relocating ultimately to Missouri and becoming immersed in the Bluegrass genre of the Heartland. Although finger-picking the six-stringer is popular in East Coast coffee houses, the standard back-up to the five-string banjo in the Midwest is a flat-picked rhythm guitar.

Since reading the Travis biography, the BRC banjoist has slowly but surely rekindled his very rusty and long dormant finger-picking guitar skills. After warming-up his aging digital joints on the banjo at a recent jam session, the BRC craftsman borrowed a mandolinist`s guitar to play the Merle Travis classic tune “Nine Pound Hammer.” At the end of the song, the mandolinist (above center left) exclaimed that this surprise performance made her guitar “sparkle.”

From the BRC:  Hope you have a sparkly Fourth of July.