Jamming

WSDE and KOPN

January 2, 2020

This merry group of Bluegrass enthusiasts regularly congregate in the activity room of a burger shop in a rural Missouri hamlet every Wednesday afternoon. During the recent holiday season as pictured above, they performed a couple of times at a nearby nursing home inviting clients to sing-along or try a few gentle dance steps with our clogger (front left in red). Although this jam band has no official name, they sometimes call themselves the “Wayward Sons and Daughters of Eldon.” The abbreviated WSDE appellation sounds like a radio station.

Established decades ago, our university town has its own community radio station KOPN that features diverse talk shows and a wide spectrum of music. On New Year’s Day, the G&F band members were invited to be featured on the weekly “Farm and Fiddle” show which is a program that explores and celebrates life and culture found on farms and in small towns of central Missouri. What could be more enjoyable than cramming into a broadcast booth to play Bluegrass music being aired across the Show-Me State and live-streamed to faraway continents? What a fun way to spend the first day of 2020.

G&F Singers

A Dozen Wintry Songfests

December 19, 2019

 

Every December since 2007, the G&F Bluegrass musicians and singers have entertained patients and staff at the Children’s Hospital and on the psychiatric ward of the University Hospital.

 

These sing-along performances of seasonal tunes are annually favorite gigs with our band members and vocalists who not infrequently must overcome snowy roadways to get to the venues. For these special Yuletide occasions, a generous nurse sews surgeon`s caps with holiday decorations that are gifted to the kids and siblings at the Children`s Hospital.

We are privileged and abundantly blessed to yearly entertain these patients, families, and care-givers. The G&F musicians and singers wish all our faithful BRC website visitors a Prosperous and Healthy New Year.

G&F Band

184/mo+1.07M=Thx x2

December 2, 2019

Ten years ago this month, the Gainor & Friends band began performing regularly at the famly-friendly Broadway Brewery on behalf of the Children’s Hospital. The staff and patrons have been generous in their support of our weekly Sunday afternoon benefit jam sessions. In the last year, our tip donations to the Children’s Miracle Network have averaged a remarkable $184 per month. Eight years ago, the Banjo Rehabilitation Center was established and went online, and website search engine hits have passed well beyond the 1M mark. The BRC founder and the G&F Bluegrass band thank our supporters for their year-round friendship and generosity.

Seated next to the BRC founder with her cello in the above group photo is a welcomed guest musician who occasionally joins our jam sessions. All assembled wish each and everyone of you a joyous Holiday Season filled with music. With the approaching New Year, take a few moments to check-out the below link connecting to a website profiling the “Banjo Rehab Center” which was constructed last month as a project by four university Journalism School students. Enjoy. https://nreijmer2.wixsite.com/banjocenter

 

Art Shows

Interconnectedness

November 18, 2019

The concept and mystique of the Tree of Life spans millennia, cultures, and religions. In the autumn, trees shed their leaves and look dead in the winter. But, in springtime, buds appear on the naked branches, and soon the tree is renewed with a fresh garment of resplendent foliage. For the community Holiday Season art show this year, the BRC founder submitted a Tree of Life banjo to the exhibit offering a motif that we are all interconnected.

Bronze, brass, silver alloy, and mother of pearl trees are linked by a continuous network of roots on the peghead and fretboard. The pot displays a sine wave curve of dark cherry and black walnut sinuously coursing through a field of brightly toned ash wood like an endless cycle. The banjo was marketed via an online auction, and the new owner reported in the auction`s Feedback Profile, “Gosh, what a wonderful piece of “art” this banjo is. A pleasure doing business.”

As a class project, a team of university students from the School of Journalism attended the exhibit’s gala opening reception to interview the BRC founder about his curious banjos and Bluegrass music endeavors. They videotaped his band performing for the Children’s Hospital at the nearby brewpub and photographed the banjo builder in his workshop. Pictured below, the students stand beside a rare WWI poster published in 1917 by the university Journalism School, as this original document resides in the BRC founder`s military history memorabilia collection.

On Thanksgiving weekend, let us all take pause on our journeys and enjoy a moment with friends and family in the shade of the Tree of Life while gratefully sharing our interconnectedness.

G&F Band

Hearts of Gold

November 4, 2019

Each summer for more than a dozen years, Jeanne has organized a sprawling parking lot festival for kids at the Harley Davidson dealership to benefit our Children’s Hospital. To entertain these crowds, she would invite musicians, dancers, popular university athletes, and set-up games of family fun like dunk-the-doctor for wanna-be baseball pitchers. Parents, patients, and hospital staff would attend the street party. In the springtime, Jeanne would organize a gala dinner with a Roast-a-Doc evening extravaganza on behalf of the Children’s Hospital. Families and staff would attended to watch nurses and doctors gently poke fun at a favorite physician.

Last month, however, Jeanne announced her retirement. As always, Gainor & Friends performed Bluegrass music welcoming arriving attendees to her final fund-raiser, a farewell dinner dance party. She holds a bouquet of flowers in the center of our above band photo.

After our pre-dinner performance, the band adjourned to a nearby restaurant for our annual family and guests meal together.

During the yearly repast, we reflected on Jeanne`s generosity of spirit and boundless energy. All will miss her precious heart of gold.

For as many years, the G&F Singers have entertained quarterly on the pediatric ward. A few days before the above festivities, the quartet performed an autumn fun-filled songfest in the play room to the enjoyment of kids, parents, grandparents, and staff.

Thank-you ladies, for your heartfelt and golden group vocals.