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.

Bio

Another Year

March 27, 2021

The BRC founder`s older brother played trumpet in a Dixieland band during college and became interested in the tenor banjo. With the arrival of the Folk Revival around 1960, both he and his younger brother were attracted to the curious 5-string version of this  instrument. Sixty-one birthdays ago,  the BRC founder and his jazz  musician brother built their first long neck banjos from damaged parts purchased at a fire sale. The twosome honed their picking skills together for years, but the younger sibling did not build another 5-stringer for half a century. The two brothers got busy being bone doctors in distant cities, and the BRC craftsman received an occasional thematic (Hallmark) birthday card.

In recent years, hand-crafted birthday greetings (below) are now provided by grandchildren.

This Spring, the BRC founder shared a birthday occasion with another senior fellow musician at an outdoor springtime jam session (below) where both were gifted celebratory cupcakes, each adorned with a solitary commemorative candle.

From the birthday guys: be well, be safe, be vaccinated.

Jamming

A Matter of Degrees

March 13, 2021

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.

Vega Martin Stories

T2XL and Temps

February 27, 2021

From the BRC Mailbox:

Dear M.C.: Thank you for the prompt photos of your Vega Martin Tu-Ba-Phone long neck banjo with serial number 1811 manufactured per Shop Order 2339. This instrument was built in Nazareth, PA, in 1977 which was a year that C.F. Martin experienced a difficult luthier strike. The Company`s banjo enterprise began to wind-down in 1976 when V45-5, V41-5, and FW-5 models were shipped to Japan for assembly.  Soon thereafter, VW-5 parts were transported to Canada for the same purpose, and serial numbers began to become undependable.

 

The first long neck Tu-Ba-Phone or T2XL with serial number 1607 was produced in early 1976, and this model appears in the 1976 VM catalogue. The last T2XL with serial number 1915 was built in 1977. The banjo shop logbook ends with serial number 1945. The very last banjo manufactured in Nazareth by C.F. Martin was a 4-string Vega Vox IV assigned serial number 1969, and it was accompanied by an official letter of authentication by Martin’s first historian Mike Longworth.

 

 

 
In 1978, Martin published a flyer advertising the new Tu-Ba-Phone line of instruments, but the T2XL long neck model was not illustrated in this two page document. Please consult my <banjorehab.com> website for “Vega Martin Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe: Lost or Missing Link?” posted on January 9, 2016, which provides a background on this unique instrument line. Also, please check-out the “A Long Way & Long Neck Vega Martin” posting of August 15, 2020, which details an identical T2XL to yours with serial number 1807 that was also manufactured per Shop Order 2339. Both of these earlier postings can be found by entering “tu-ba-phone” in the search engine on the BRC homepage. Thanks again for your query to the BRC website and letting our readership learn about your lovely T2XL.

With appreciation, Barry

 

Folks in the Show-Me State respond to fickle weather changes by intoning a remark attributed to favorite son  Mark Twain: If you don’t like the weather in Missouri, wait five minutes. One day earlier this month, frosty February temperatures surprisingly climbed to 55 degrees. Our Wednesday afternoon outdoor jam session, on winter-pause since Thanksgiving, promptly mobilized for a fresh air picking session on the steps of the local church where our gals sing in the choir.

Under the bluest of skies, we musicians picked and sang Bluegrass standards while warmed by a blazing winter sun. The next day, our environs were bitterly swept by a wind-whipped snowfall, and the overnight temperature on the following evening dropped to 9 degrees. A glacial polar vortex soon followed. Hopefully, however,  our afternoon in the sunshine foretells that springtime is somewhere just around the corner.

From the BRC: be safe, be well, and “…keep on the sunny side of life. “

Art Shows, CD songs

A Banjo Myth Dispelled

February 13, 2021

In the year 1320, Dante finished his colossal poem the Divine Commedia (Divine Comedy) which depicts his vision of the afterlife. This three-part narrative poem contains over 14K lines describing the soul`s journey through the Inferno (hell), Purgatorio (purgatory), and Paradisio (heaven). For the inaugural juried art show of 2021, the local art league tasked its members with fashioning works based on Dante`s classic literary trilogy.

Because of the allusion to “banjo hell” in many contemporary cartoons as seen below, the BRC founder studied Dante`s 9 Circles of Hell described in the Inferno verses. Misdeeds such as lust, gluttony, greed, heresy, violence, and fraud are each assigned a separate Circle in the descent into Hades, but the banjo appears nowhere in the catalogued strata of wrongdoings. Where did the satanic 5-string myth begin? Traditional fiddle tunes include such mysterious titles as “Hell Among the Yearlings” and “Devil in the Strawstack.” In the old-time fiddle favorite “Hell Broke Loose in Georgia” recorded in 1929 by Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, the banjo is barely detectable.

 

Is the aforesaid infernal habitat of the banjo a misplaced appellation? To challenge this cultural and puzzling injustice to the 5-stringer, the BRC founder designed an instrument entitled “Devil`s Dream” which was accepted and exhibited in the Divine Comedy art show.

 

Devil`s Dream is a spritely fiddle tune of unknown origin which has been adapted to the banjo because of the melodic flurry of notes in its up-tempo theme. The BRC banjo builder first heard the instrumental performed by clawhammer banjoist Michael Cooney on an LP of sea chanteys recorded in 1973 by the National Geographic Society. In Ireland and Scotland, this old reel is known as “Devil Among the Tailors.”

The satanic mother of pearl imagery and molten brimstone of crushed opal on the peg head, fingerboard, and heel speak for themselves. Studying the fretboard cavalcade of skulls, a gallery visitor remarked, “Alas, poor York! I knew him…” (from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1).

The Devil`s Dream 5-stringer hangs amidst a field of 62 watercolor and oil paintings, sketches, sculptures, and multi-media works.

To acknowledge the misguided myth of demonizing the banjo, the ninth mother of pearl inlay traditionally stationed at the 19th fretspace on this banjo neck was treacherously moved up to the 20th fretspace on the fingerboard (above). The Ninth Circle of Hell is treachery. The heel of the banjo, a BRC signature site for a mother of pearl inlay for the eyes only of the musician, displays a skull with fiery opal eyes gazing at the banjoist (below).

In a facebook online video tour of the juried show, the art critic who judged the entries commented that the BRC craftsman was “famous” for his banjos. The art league executive director predicted this “rock `n roll” 5-stringer would sell promptly.

(Ed. Note: Is there a banjo heaven?)

 

A few years back, the BRC founder penned a ballad he called the “Fiddler`s Hymn” to nostalgically honor an elderly old-time fiddler who had passed away. This tune appeared on his first BRC album to benefit the Children`s Hospital.

 

 

The song was broadcasted on the radio as background music for a public service announcement about the pediatric medical center. Enjoy the above sound file. All music and vocals are by the author (copyright 2004).

From the BRC: Don`t fiddle around- wear a mask, practice social distancing and hand hygiene.