Art Shows

A Busy Season

March 21, 2020

The BRC workshop produced a couple of 5-stringers for exhibition at the community art gallery this Spring. The “Terrapin” banjo was donated to a fund-raising Patron Party in support of the Art League. Surprisingly, it was conspicuously displayed as a frontispiece on a central pillar at the entrance of the exhibit hall. The Terrapin will be raffled-off at a gala auction that has now been postponed.

Also this later Spring, the gallery is opening a juried show entitled “Visual Mixtape” that has challenged members to submit entries mirroring the master artists who influenced their works.

The BRC founder has entered a “High Lonesome Sound” banjo to reflect the unique sonic quality of Bluegrass music and its distinctive lineage of pioneer musicians like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers.

Amidst the tuning pegs on the headstock is a treble clef that is pierced by a bolt of lightening and surmounted by the profile of a wolf`s visage.

Clawed wolf paw prints track along the fretboard among gold stars and paua abalone treble clefs.

For the eyes only of the musician, the “Hi-Lo-So” banjo neck has a large paw print on its heel which is a signature location for a mother of pearl inlay on BRC 5-stringers.

By request, the Art League has asked for a small photo of the artist who influenced each member`s submission to be posted with the work in the now rescheduled exhibit. The BRC founder provided a picture of himself taken at a banjo camp with Grammy Award winner Eric Weissberg- his boyhood banjo hero.

Banjo Kid Pledge, G&F Band

The Banjo Kid Pledge

February 27, 2020

During our Sunday afternoon benefit performances at the local brewpub, parents often bring their children to the bandstand to see and hear live music up close.

In between songs, the BRC founder will step down from the mini stage to greet the families and encourage the kids to freely strum his banjo. When the child becomes acquainted with the instrument and the parents have photoed the fun interaction, he then offers the youngsters to take “The Banjo Kid Pledge.” With their right hands raised, the children are invited to recite, ” I promise to always do what my Mom and Dad say.” The new inductees are then instructed, “You are now a Banjo Kid forever.”

Although non binding, this oath extends into adulthood and can be renewed on any Sunday afternoon. The above siblings recently returned with their parents to the brewpub brunch to reprise their recitation of the aforesaid vow. As they posed for the above ceremonial picture, a woman dining at the adjacent table pleasantly surprised us with her fashionable banjo earrings, and she took a photo of the kids` pledge reenactment. She then made a generous donation to the Children`s Hospital in the open banjo case stationed for tips in front of the G&F bandstand.

G&F Band

Thanks Again

February 13, 2020

Almost a quarter century ago, the BRC founder and a crew of Bluegrass jam session musicians performed a benefit gig at an outdoor festival and donated all tips to our local Children`s Hospital. An archival photograph of that era depicts the jammers making music at a sunny farm fest in a Missouri River bottomland township.

Over the years, Gainor & Friends has received many gracious notes of appreciation from the Children`s Miracle Network.

We are grateful to a host of faithful musicians, some pictured above at a recent radio station gig, who have shared their time and talent with the G&F band. This month, we surpassed $26K in collections for the Children`s Hospital. Of these monies, 70% has been donated by generous patrons at a family-friendly brewpub which has supported and housed our weekly benefit performances since 2009.

From the BRC, a very Happy Valentine`s Day to each and everyone.

Bio

Our World & Banjo Heaven

January 30, 2020

Nearly three-fourths of the our world`s surface is covered with water. The ocean is a complex biosphere and food source, and greenhouse gases are trapping the sun’s heat causing rising global water temperatures which stress marine and coastal ecosystems. The food chain from plankton up to the great whales is impacted by these climatic changes. As stewards of this Earth, we are obligated to protect the environment and the creatures that dwell in it.

To kick-off the new decade, the BRC founder completed a banjo named “The Dolphin” to portray the ocean which is under siege in its fragile roll as a food source. Although the dolphin is a magnificent creature of beauty, power, and grace, like all things that swim in the sea, it is vulnerable to climate change, plastics pollution, and overly-aggressive industrial fishing. Might we all take heed to the mother of pearl “Save Us” message at the 19th fret space and up-regulate our commitment to recycling and environmental conservation. The Dolphin is a BRC postcard to Mother Earth for Valentine`s Day.

The banjo was marketed via an online auction and sold. In the feedback profile of the auction website, the new owner reported,” Beautiful Dolphin themed 5-string Banjo. Fast shipping, Packaged well, Thanks!”

Departing the snowy Show-Me State, the BRC founder and spouse journeyed to Texas to visit grandkids and attend a spelling bee. As class projects, the new art teacher at their elementary school had her students fashion banjos from construction paper, yarn, paints, and glue.

 

 

 

 

 

Hundreds of these colorful images wallpapered the hallways of the school, including a “Picasso” banjo by an imaginative young artist. Is this banjo heaven?

 

 

 

After days of family fun in the Lone Star sunshine, the grandparents bid farewell to their cheery grandkids and returned home to the wintry Heartland and Missouri grandchildren who live only 3 blocks from our lakeside home and its BRC workshop. The lake is frozen-over, and a resident flock of Canada geese cautiously tread its slippery ice. Trumpter Swans, a protected species and the heaviest extant birds native to North America, visited here a month ago. Our world is a precious place.

 

P.S. Have a Happy Groundhog Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.