Jamming

For years, our so-called Rock Island McPickers band has jammed inside and outside of a yogurt shop on the main thoroughfare of our capital city in the shadow of the Missouri state legislature building. Like all  social gatherings, the global pandemic has sharply curtailed such musical get-togethers for well over a year. This autumn, as the curve of the recent delta surge has been flattening, the Bluegrass pickers elected to reembark on outdoor picking sessions on the shady afternoon sidewalk in front of the popular snack bar.

Passers-by were cheered by the reappearance of our street side singing and picking which offered glimpses of pre covid normalcy, and local townsfolk of all ages danced to the spirited music.  A newspaper photo journalist happened upon the scene, and a picture of the musicians appeared the next morning on the front page of the Jefferson City News Tribune.

Our mandolinist, the jam hostess and co-owner of the yogurt shop, is poised to sell the enterprise, and so will bring an end to this venue of sidewalk entertainment (not to mention free yogurt for the musicians). We thank the proprietors for generously providing a performance platform for many years where faithful and appreciative audiences came to hear Bluegrass music and cell-phone video the festive scene.

P.S. A special thanks to the shop owners for pistachio yogurt- a BRC banjoist favorite.

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

Got the “Delta Blues” from the pandemic mutant infestation? During the first wave of this global affliction, the G&F band migrated outdoors to jam weekly on the patio behind the BRC workshop where they paused (below) for a dock photo taken one year ago. We navigated the subsequent winter months by retreating indoors and picking in a heated and ventilated garage, and we rejoiced when Springtime finally blossomed and returned us to outside jams.

Our brewpub music for the benefit of the Children’s Hospital was on hiatus for more than a year, and we resumed performing Sunday afternoon gigs for a couple months until the delta variant arrived. We have now migrated back to outdoor jam sessions on the patio behind the BRC domicile as seen in the recent photograph below. The expansive wood porch surmounting the patio brings welcomed shade to the musicians and provides marvelous acoustics for their stringed instruments.

It has been a goofy journey, but all the G&F musicians remain healthy, vaxed, and eager to play Bluegrass music. Our shared fellowship is enjoyed in this safe environment where overhead a young bald eagle frequently patrols the shoreline. Lakeside neighbors text message the BRC spouse their appreciation for the music that floats over the water on Sunday afternoons. We count our blessings whenever one of us kicks-off the “potatoes” intro to signal the tempo of the next tune. As the leaves paint their seasonal changes around the lake perimeter, we wish the very same to you.

From the BRC: Be well, be safe, keep on picking.

After a bleak winter of dreary weather punctuated by a bitter polar vortex, the Rock Island McPickers eagerly made springtime plans last month to reinstate their weekly outdoor Wednesday afternoon jam sessions at the municipal park pavilion. Despite dark clouds gathering in the weather forecast on the eve of the jam, the BRC banjoist resolved to journey to the Ozark picking session rain or shine. The next morning, menacing thunderstorms darkened the online weather radar screen, and overnight torrential rains had submerged the municipal park terrain under water.  At the last minute, the jam venue was hurriedly relocated to a nearby church basement.  En route to the newly designated picking place, the BRC craftsman’s windshield was briefly pelleted twice by clusters of mini hail. A McPicker mandolinist urgently communicated that high winds were coming soon, while another observer claimed that the sun was coming out again at the churchyard. The temperature began dropping precipitously in mid Missouri, and a worried clogger cautioned that dime-sized hail had peppered her home earlier in the day. By early afternoon, a tornado warning was issued in a neighboring county despite a local observation that the sun had reemerged near the alternate jam venue. Several musicians, not without some trepidation, slowly filtered into the church basement and proceeded to pick and sing while the storm washed over the building`s steeple and moved-on. Mark Twain is said to have advised, “If you don’t like the weather in Missouri, wait five minutes.” Although still overcast later for the post-jam car ride home to the BRC domicile, the gray skies by late afternoon had quieted. Two nights later, record low temperatures visited the Heartland followed by a snowfall.

A few weeks thereafter, the pickers again planned to reinstitute their weekly Wednesday outdoor jam, but the weather prediction indicated thunderstorms all day. The musicians chose to retreat once more to the church basement while ominous cloud banks roiled overhead. The jam session concluded in the late afternoon during which only a single thunderclap was heard. When the pickers got safely home, monsoon-like rains abruptly fell upon the Heartland obscuring the landscape, and a tornado warning was issued south of the Ozarks. By morning, the spillway at the end of the BRC lake was cascading overflow like a hydroelectric plant to bring the brimming water level down. Such is springtime in Missouri.

From the BRC: Like the four guys above have all ready done, get the vax.

It has been one year and one month since Gainor & Friends last performed its weekly Sunday afternoon gig at the brewpub to benefit the Children’s Hospital. A mid week picking session at a nearby rural burger shop is in abeyance, and a pre-weekend evening jam session once convened in the basement of a hardware store has been quieted. The world has been overcast with the cloud of a global pandemic that has left no one untouched. While patiently hoping for better days somewhere ahead, the G&F musicians confined themselves last autumn (seen below) to jamming on weekends behind the BRC workshop to the occasional applause of lakeside neighbors.

Lately, a flicker of light blinks at the end of the coronavirus tunnel suggesting that perhaps some kind of end or new normal might be just around the corner. Maybe, this sub microscopic organism is beginning to loosen its grip on us? 

Embracing a cautious sense of optimism, the G&F band patiently polishes its repertoire on the BRC front patio in hopefulness of resuming brewpub performances on Sunday afternoons before socially-distanced customers. After 13 months of community tumult and uncertainty, spring flowers are a floral prelude to sunnier days that await our music and future audiences. 

From the G&F musicians: Get in tune, get picking, get the vax.

Last month, a February polar vortex gripped the Heartland for most of a week. Arctic  temperatures and multiple snowstorms clamped a lockdown on citizens who were already  stuck-at-home because of the pandemic. One evening, the overnight temperature fell to -8 degrees. The frigid weather slowly began to turn, and a week later, the thermometer unexpectedly soared up to 67 degrees melting the snow. Neighbors came outdoors again to stroll the streets and greet each other. Children bounced on a nearby backyard trampoline like frisky colts. Bluegrass musicians gathered on the sunny front patio of the BRC domicile, and passersby paused to listen to the music while their kids danced to it. 

In a matter of 7 days, the thermometer had spanned an interval of 75 degrees. Taking advantage of this spell of moderating weather, the pickers eagerly reconvened the next weekend reminding the BRC founder of his Latin dictum: Feliciteus conditunae, feliciteus musikernae. This translates  as  “Happy conditions, happy musicians.” Although the First Day of Spring is March 20th, glimpses of it are visiting the Heartland.

Concomitantly, last month the BRC founder and his spouse shared a 50th wedding anniversary. Over the past half century, his wife has often experienced living with more than a dozen banjos in her house at one time or another. Their kids sent the couple celebratory chocolate cakes: one sporting a banjo and the other adorned with a palette for the award-winning artist wife. How many 5-stringers under one roof simultaneously is too many banjos? It’s all a matter of degrees…..

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