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BRC Activities

Bio, BRC Activities

Amongst Kith and Kin

July 23, 2022

The week before the Fourth of July holiday, our out-of-state offspring converged with their families on the lakeside BRC home, so the grandkids could attend a nearby horseback riding camp. Included in the visiting assemblage was a large dog that slept everywhere and anywhere. During the week-long equestrian tutorial, the youngsters frolicked in the refreshingly cool waters of our backyard lake after each long sunny day in the saddle. The canine proved itself to be an ardent swimmer. Picking, singing, and fishing followed in the evenings. The BRC father and son (dark shirts) attended the weekly Thursday night local jam session as seen in the below photo taken by our fiddler host.

Our Texas granddaughter, who soon starts 7th grade, entertained us after dinners with a crystal clear songbird voice that had won her a place in the high school Varsity choir. Proficient on the ukulele, she is a 4th generation musician in our family tree.

Two of the Chicago grandkids joined their grandad`s Gainor & Friends band on stage for a song at the local family-friendly brewpub during a weekly Sunday afternoon benefit gig for the Children`s Hospital.

From the BRC: The arbor of family and friends is a precious and leafy tree.

 

BRC Activities, Cell Perches & HVO

Preserve the Environment: Tiny Steps

March 12, 2022

Banjo pickers are eco-friendly. Scratch a Bluegrass musician, and you will find an environmentalist underneath. The BRC workshop was founded 11 years ago, but we overlooked its 10th anniversary last year while distracted by the pandemic. Over the past decade, unused spare parts have steadily accumulated in the workshop. To avoid dispatching these materials to a land fill, our 10th year of business will be celebrated belatedly by the purposeful re-incorporation of extra materials into inventive mini projects.

The local community art league has an annual “Tiny Things” competitive show each Spring where artists submit works measuring no more than 8x 8 inches in size. As a banjo clearly exceeds these dimensions, the BRC craftsman decided to apply left-over inlay inventories into decorating cell phone holders and submit these tiny entires into the yearly competition. Hopefully, these inlayed and practical desktop items would be of interest to the judge adjucating the exhibit, gallery visitors, and musicians. What banjo player would not want a smartphone stand to check-out online picking turorials?

Last year was our first occasion to experiment with this modest eco-strategy, and “The Lair” was accepted (above) into the springtime Tiny Things show. After the annual community exhibit concluded, this prototypical and planar pine model was gifted to an out-of- state friend. The dragon image on the front was so fearsome, that the new owner reported months later that the family dog had mauled the piney item beyond repair one night.

Despite the almost poetic Viking`s demise of The Lair, a peaceful array of leaping dolphins had resided quietly on the flip side. To see previous dolphin-themed BRC banjos, enter “dolphin” in our home page search engine.

This year, the BRC craftsman has ambitiously fashioned two upgraded desktop items for submission to the Tiny Things exhibit. Both feature a sturdy center post secured with wood glue and a stout rebar-like screw. The smaller cedar model (below) entitled the “Unicorn Cell Perch”‘ measures just over 3 inches at the base.

It is inlayed with enamel-covered laser cut wood images and some mother of pearl stars.

If you look closely, you might recognize the inlays that appeared on the “Unikorn” and “Moonshine” banjos previously depicted on the BRC website.

Another slightly larger and even more rugged red oak iteration for this year’s competition is entitled the “Tree of Life Cell Perch.”  It measures just over 6 inches in length and is decorated with mother of pearl leaves and iconic Tree of Life symbols.

The leafy mother of pearl inlays may remind you of our “Time for Tea” and “Tea Leaves”  BRC banjo. The aforesaid 5-stringer can be reviewed by entering “tea” in the search engine on our home page. It is hoped that the serene imagery on this year`s fortified smartphone holders will not provoke canine reactions.

The BRC focus remains building art show crafted banjos at modest prices for entry level buyers. Although desk top cell phone stands with fingerboard inlay decorations could potentially attract a niche market of stringed instrument musicians, or perhaps evolve into a profitable franchise for pet chew-toys, these diminutive but sturdy items will mostly be devised in our workshop around the time of the annual Tiny Things art show. This mini project is our small step to preserve the environment.

From the BRC: Be well, be safe, be eco-friendly.

P.S. Have a happy St. Paddy`s Day.

 

BRC Activities

Best to You this Season

December 18, 2021

The BRC workshop has been busy supplying 5-stringers to Holiday gift givers for delivery near and far.Maybe, Santa has a banjo planned for someone special on your shopping list?

Have a wonderful Holiday, and keep on pickin`.

From the BRC: We wish you Peace this Season and Good Health in the New Year. 

BRC Activities, G&F Band

Milestone & Music & Monarchs

September 10, 2021

Since its inception in 1995, the BRC banjoist`s Gainor & Friends band has entertained listeners with Bluegrass music and donated all tips to the local Children`s Hospital. The Broadway Brewery graciously began hosting our Sunday brunch jam sessions in 2009, and we are grateful to this family-friendly brewpub for its generous community spirit. After a music hiatus during the 2020-2021 pandemic months, our performances resumed in the springtime, but we are again on-hold because of delta variant issues. This summer, nonetheless, our total collections for the Children`s Miracle Network surpassed $27K. Almost three-fourths of these monies have been donated by the faithful patrons at the Brewery. We salute them all as partners in achieving this milestone, and we look forward to stepping-up on stage once more sometime soon to entertain them again. For a while, the G&F pickers (below, all vaxed) will be jamming Sunday afternoons on the back patio of the band leader’s lakeside home.

During a Spring visit, the grandkids had occasion to pause with their BRC grandfather on the brewpub stage (below) to welcome the brunch hour guests while their mom Lisa and Grandma looked-on.

The BRC craftsman is especially thankful to his daughter Lisa (pictured above) for upgrading the BRC website last month and giving its format new wings by making the content much more accessible to our faithful readership. With much appreciation, Grandpa Doc.
In the meantime, our historical Thursday night jam of 3 decades duration is currently on hiatus with the pandemic, but the Wednesday afternoon outdoor picking session in a small village nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks remains active. Last month, however, the blistering August sun not infrequently drove the above musicians into the air-conditioned basement of a nearby church.
 
 As the monarch butterflies migrate south to Mexico and autumn draws near, we thank all these musicians for renewing and sustaining Bluegrass music during our shared and strange journey through these unusual and shadowed times. Peace.
From the BRC: Be safe, be well, mask-up.
BRC Activities

Shipwrecked Banjo

April 10, 2021

Having plied the lake waters behind his workshop with a sailboat and windsurfer, the BRC craftsman is a reader of  historical fiction and eye witness accounts of adventures and mishaps on the high seas. One such astonishing narrative, the “Endurance: Shackleton`s Incredible Voyage” involved a banjo. During the ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton`s three-masted ship the Endurance became fatally trapped in crushing ice.  As the crew abandoned ship, each sailor was allowed to bring only 2 pounds of personal possessions to face the brutal survivalist ordeal ahead.

The only exception to this injunction pertained to  the ship`s meteorologist Leonard Hussey (below) and his 12 pound Windsor zither banjo. Knowing cruel  trials would be faced by all in the hostile ice cap environment, Shackelton pointedly advised the banjo owner to bring the instrument along as, “It`s vital mental medicine, and we shall need it.”

While the marooned shipmates struggled for months to survive in harsh glacial environs not dissimilar to a year-round polar vortex,  Hussey entertained them with his banjo and morale-raising sing alongs.  Crew members keeping journals recorded, the “…banjo does, as Sir Ernest said, supply brain food,” and another grateful shipmate praised “…Hussey`s indispensable banjo.”  One mirthful wag reported, “Hussey is at present tormenting (us) with his six known tunes on his banjo.” With Shackelton`s determined and indefatigable leadership, the stuff of legends, the entire crew was eventually and miraculously rescued.

Located  in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, the Windsor banjo factory manufactured thousands of banjos over its lifetime until it was destroyed during World War II by an air raid in 1940. Hussey eventually donated his banjo, signed by all the crew,  to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. In 2013, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, the Great British Banjo Company was founded and launched its commemorative “Shackleton Banjo” model which became a runaway best seller.

From the BRC: Be safe, be well, be vaccinated.