Browsing Category

BRC Events

BRC Activities, BRC Events

Pictures & $35K & Thx

April 11, 2026

Last year, a jam session guitarist (center right) took a vacation photograph of the Chiricahua Wildlife Refuge south of Albuquerque, NM. He shared this picture with the BRC spouse (center left) who is a ribbon-winning oil on canvas artist in the community art league. She painted the landscape image and gifted it to the aforesaid guitar picker at a recent weekly Thursday evening jam session as seen below.

On the next morning, our jam band chat page chronicled glowing accolades like,  “Great painting! What a treasure!” and “Gorgeous!!” A boyhood shutterbug pal of the BRC webmaster soon forwarded a text to him with a reminder that their mutual home state of New York was the cradle of American landscape painting as popularized by the Hudson Valley School. This mid-19th century group of artists shared an aesthetic vision of panoramic landscapes that was shaped by Romanticism. The BRC webmaster and his artistic spouse resided in the Hudson Valley during their newlywed days decades ago.

Above is a picture of a colorful stencil designed by the BRC musician which was imprinted on T-shirts that were sold at an inaugural fund-raiser for the local Childrens Hospital at the annual 1995 Pumpkin Festival in the farming village of Hartsburg, Missouri. His band initially called “The Bluegrass Jammers ” performed at the community fest for several years. By 2000, the Jammers were playing at other weekend venues, and the group was renamed the “Moonshyne Reunion.”  In 2005, these musicians began to gather informally with the BRC picker at the popular Cherry Street Artisan Cafe coffeehouse near the University campus on Thursdays at noontime, and the name of this jam session evolved into “Gainor and Friends.” The newly named band enjoyed several years of spirited weekend performances and enthusiastic Cafe audiences. We were voted one of the top live  bands in our university town.

The Cafe suddenly closed in 2009, and we promptly migrated nearby to the newly opened Broadway Brewery where the G&F musicians have routinely performed on Sunday afternoons ever since. The G&F band recently surpassed the $35K milestone in tip donations to our local pediatric medical center. We thank our audiences for their generosity and the brewpub`s staff and ownership for their hospitality.

From the BRC:  Springtime is unfolding in our surrounding Missouri prairie landscape.

 

 

BRC Events

Another milestone & many thanks

October 18, 2025

The G&F bandleader established his inaugural acoustic music group in 1995 and named it ‘The Bluegrass Jammers.”  Performing at picnics and community events, all tips and fees were donated to the local Childrens Hospital. The band`s generic moniker sufficed until the year 2000 when its name somehow morphed into “The Moonshyne Reunion.” In 2005, the group leader began playing solo Thursday noontime gigs at the Artisan coffee house near the University campus. Slowly but surely, members of the aforementioned jam bands began to join him on stage during these midday performances. Soon, this amalgamated bluegrass band began performing regular weekend evening gigs at the coffee shop and then simply billed itself as “Gainor & Friends”.

One morning in the autumn 2009, however, the Artisan cafe suddenly and unexpectedly closed down. We musicians were literally left standing at the darkened and locked front door with our instrument cases in hand. A new brewpub had coincidentally just opened on a nearby street, and so we trudged up the alleyway to its back door and offered our services to the owners. After a few trial showcase performances, we began playing weekly Sunday afternoon gigs at the family-friendly downstairs brewpub. The band was initially housed in a alcove by the steps descending from the sidewalk to the front door; and despite this crowded venue, the acoustics there were marvelous. After a couple of years, the owners built us a roomy stage overlooking the main dining room where we continue to perform today.

The youthful and generous sketch artist featured in the previous BRC website posting of 9-27-25 entitled “Young Artists Emerge” was photographed on stage with the band by her mother who later kindly forwarded the above photograph to us. The musicians are holding the drawing that each was gifted by the talented young artist who stands next to the kneeling G&F bandleader. These drawings are especially noteworthy to the band, as we have just surpassed the $34K milestone in donations collected for the University of Missouri Childrens Hospital. We G&F musicians are grateful to the faithful patrons and generous owners of the Broadway Brewery for their years of joint support of our local pediatric medical center.

From the BRC: Again, a special thanks to our young artist and her mom for their gifts to us.

BRC Events, G&F Band

New Guy on the Block

April 5, 2025

At a recent Sunday afternoon benefit gig at the brewpub in support of the local Childrens Hospital, a youthful banjo player joined his mandolinist grandfather on the bandstand during the jam session. No stranger to stage performance, this talented teenager (foreground left) is a skillful musician in his high school marching band and active in musical theatre and sports.

The young fellow was picking his “Dragon Master” BRC banjo that was crafted by his granddad at the end of last year. For close-up details of this 5-stringer, enter dragon in the search engine and hit enter. Hardly alone as a ‘new guy on the block’, this youngster was one of three 5-string pickers on stage that afternoon. Count `em.

Also newly arrived on our block, Springtime has come to the Heartland prompting the flowering trees to issue their colorful blooms. Our favorites, the lily magnolias, have unfolded their lovely their pink blossoms. If you look closely, the back decks of the BRC domicile are visible across the lake in the background. The Magnolia Lilliflora is originally native to southwest China, and it was formerly known as Magnolia Quinquepeta honoring the French botanist Pierre Magnol (1638-1715).

 

Just out side the back door of the BRC workshop, a sprawling lily magnolia displays its splendid flowers on a sunny Spring morning.

From the BRC: In the Heartland, April showers bring May flowers.

BRC Events, Jamming

Tributes to a Mentor & a Friend

February 15, 2025

During the mid 1980s, a local shop owner established a Thursday evening jam session in the basement of his busy hardware store. Pickers were recruited by invitation, and a gracious and endlessly cheerful cowboy-song guitarist was instrumental in helping establish the weekly get-together. The shop owner was a former school teacher and had a special gift for cultivating musicians who had only faint familiarity with the Bluegrass genre. Within a few years, a family physician-guitarist joined the weekly jam, and his skills flourished in this setting to where he soon took up the fiddle. Later, a surgeon joined the ranks of these jammers circa 1990, and his banjo musicianship and harmony singing skills also benefitted in the learning environment.

The jams were convened year-round regardless of rain, sleet, ice storm, or snowfall. The surgeon soon established a spin-off band that performed for the benefit of the local Childrens Hospital. In the autumn of 1996 at the inaugural Pumpkin Festival in the nearby farming village of Hartsburg, the generous shop owner (seen below) played mandolin in the surgeon`s street-side band performance that collected donations for the University pediatric medical center.

The collegial Thursday evening jam sessions flourished over the years and attracted musicians with an array of skills. In the below photo, the generous jam host sits in the foreground, and on the right is the jovial guitarist who supplied a delightful compendium of classic cowboy songs. On the left is the guitar picking family physician who evolved into a capable Bluegrass fiddler per this weekly get-together.

After hosting decades of these Bluegrass picking sessions, our aging jam host sadly fell ill and succumbed in 2022. To honor the leadership and memory of this generous musician and band leader, the two doctors have ever since continued this Thursday evening musical tradition by hosting the jams on alternating weeks in their nearby homes. Our gentlemanly and beloved cowboy-song guitarist (above right) passed away peacefully in his sleep a month ago at age 94.

We sang at his funeral at the request of his widow and family, and his grand daughter (far right)  joined us in performing the traditional gospel classic “I’ll Fly Away.” The congregation sang along with the familiar tune.

At a recent Thursday night picking session, the BRC domicile entertained two very special guests who reminded us all of the long and rich history of these weekly musical meetings and its friendships. In the center of the photo is the 90 year old widow of the founding jam host, and their daughter is far left in the picture. These two honored  visitors delighted in listening to our music and singing that were cultivated in the basement of their hardware store in years past.

From the BRC: We are thankful for the privilege of sharing years of music and fellowship with two fine gentlemen.

BRC Events

A Five String Dragon Mastered

January 4, 2025

Not too long ago, the BRC workshop produced a banjo decorated with themes of mythology. The peghead portrays a fearsome dragon and a knight in armor who will tame it.The upper neck fretboard contains frightful visages of werewolves and the heads of hungry dragons.

The lower neck reiterates these scary mythological creatures and their claws.

As all BRC banjos contain an inlay on the heel of the neck for the eyes only of the musician, the base of this neck revisits the image of the fearless knight.

The pot is made of ash, walnut, and cherry woods, and an inscription thereupon (inverted) documents that this instrument is the 105th banjo produced by the BRC.

Over the recent Holidays, the “Dragon Master” 5-stringer was gifted to a grandson who has special interests in musical theatre and musicianship. He and his BRC grandfather (below) were soon jamming together.

From the BRC: All good wishes to our readers in the New Year.