Jamming

Out on a Limb

September 2, 2023

A few years ago, several of the ladies in our mid week jam session in a Lake of the Ozarks township formed a splinter group  called “Out On A Limb.” These musicians perform regularly at nearby retirement homes and church functions, and they regale their audiences with lilting three-part harmony singing. In addition, one band member is a veteran clogger and a burgeoning harmonica player. Recently, the band was scheduled to perform at a local church luncheon for handicapped citizens, but at the last minute one of the musicians was unable to attend the gig. The BRC banjoist was hurriedly recruited to round-out the quintet.

The church staff provided a splendid sound system, and the banjo picker filled-in baritone harmony vocals for the missing voice. During the performance, the BRC craftsman also played a novel harmonica duet with the clogger in a nostalgic rendition of “Red River Valley” as seen above. The delighted throng of luncheon guests, their care providers, and church staff applauded approvingly.

After the gig, the banjo guy was presented with  a marvelous jar of peach preserves freshly canned by the guitarist. He gratefully thanked  “Out On A Limb” for inviting him to share in their music before such an appreciative audience.

From the BRC:  Ladies, please call upon him again, soon.

Art Shows

Together

August 19, 2023

The business community in our township sponsors a social meeting hall that hosts monthly exhibits by invited area artists. The curator of this private gallery is an erstwhile director of the local art league. This month, the BRC craftsman and his artist wife (below) were invited to present a joint show to mutually display their diverse works.

An evening opening reception included club members and invited guests who milled about studying the unusual admixture of oil paintings and banjos. The crowd delighted in the painter`s commentary of vision and style as translated on her seventeen canvases that were hung in the gallery, and the banjo builder explained the features of his banjos to curious visitors.

The festive event included a Q&A intermission where both the BRC wife and her craftsman spouse addressed the assembled crowd to explain in detail their uniquely individualized media and answer many questions. The BRC musician demonstrated one of his three displayed banjos by taking a 5-stringer down from its wall hook and performing “Greensleeves” in four movements with three successive time signature changes and four styles of finger picking.

Generous applause was offered to both exhibitors concluding a gala opening reception on a warm and humid summer evening. With a wink, the banjoist quietly joked to his artist wife that his nickname for the show was “The Sacred and the Profane.”

From the BRC:  Keep it cool and together. Autumn is just around the corner.

 

Art Shows, BRC Activities, Cell Perches & HVO

A Perch and Mailbox

August 5, 2023

The unique theme this year for the end-of-summer art show at the community gallery is “Bare.” Whether realistic or abstracted, the human form has challenged artists since the beginnings of time-  from cave wall drawings to modern day computer simulations. Vexed to design a banjo based on the unadorned human frame, the BRC craftsman instead designed a cell phone holder entitled  “The Bare Bones Cell Perch.”  For an almost fully retired orthopedic surgeon, this skeletal smartphone holder was an instinctive  project.

While the gala opening reception offered plenty of abstruse nude paintings, mysterious sketches, and the occasional puzzling sculpture, gallery visitors (below) closely studied the anatomically accurate features of the “Bares Bones” desktop implement.

From the BRC:  Whenever resolving a bone of contention, it is wisest to stick to the bare facts.

Recently From the BRC Mailbox:

Dear BRC: Hi. I bought what looks like a 1970s Vega banjo in Tokyo. It does not have C. F. Martin on the back and is quite plain. The pot has 0728 as a serial number carved into it. Also pasted inside is a handwritten note (below) that reads, “Original Martin made Vega Banjo neck is V-41 prototype. Martin inlaid the pearl in the peghead. The rest is inlaid & finished by Homer C. Ledford, Luthier.” My question:What is it? It plays fantastically by the way. Cheers, R.S.

From the BRC:
Dear R.S. : Thank you for your correspondence to the BRC mailbox.  Per the existing website/Wikipedia, Homer C. Ledford (1927-2006) was a respected luthier and musician in Kentucky. According to my data, C.F. Martin made twenty-eight model V-41 five string banjos, but the serial number 0728 does not correspond with anything in my files. In the 1971 Martin price list, the V-41 listed for $850 by special order only. The V-41 model appears in the 1972 and 1976 Vega Martin catalogues. The last V-41 banjo parts that C.F. Martin manufactured were shipped to Japan in mid 1977 for assembly. Martin acquired the Vega franchise in 1970 and sold it overseas in 1979. You are welcome to send me photos of the instrument to see if anything might be learned from its hybrid features. Most importantly, however, is that it plays well. Thanks for your query. From the BRC, Barry
From the BRC: Dear R.S.- Thanks for the photos. The inlay on the fretboard appears to be a flawless reproduction. The pot looks like Martin woodwork but seems deeper than usual. Happy picking from the BRC. With much appreciation,  Barry

 

BRC Activities, Jamming

Dear Friends

July 22, 2023

A couple of members of the G&F jam band and kin have family connections to local retirement homes. Not infrequently, gigs will be scheduled to entertain the folks residing in these facilities, and the residents are always grateful for some spirited live music and sing alongs. We discovered that one of the establishments had a client who was previously linked to show biz, and he happily provides the role (seated below right) of a chatty master of ceremonies for our performances. His fellow retirees love it, and so do we.

One of the favorite and very senior members of our long-term Thursday night jam sessions recently relocated to a nearby retirement facility. For decades, he was an unfailing resource for the lyrics and tunes of old cowboy songs, and he can still perform these classics, as he did in years gone by. It is a joy for the G&F pickers and singers and his spouse to revisit these fond musical moments with him (below right guitar). Another resident who was a previous G&F banjo player quietly sat by the band enjoying the familiar sing alongs.

From the BRC: Dear friends bring us precious memories.

Bio, Jamming

Ojai Again

July 8, 2023
After a covid hiatus, the BRC craftsman and spouse journeyed last month to California to renew their attendance of the annual Ojai Music Festival. The 2023 invited Musical Director of this 77th annual Fest was banjoist Rhiannon Giddens. Known in the 5-string community as an eclectic folk musician, a focus of Ms. Giddens` artistry has been to give voice to the voiceless. With her praiseworthy agenda of humanism, she assembled a marvelous admixture of international musicians whose diverse instruments blended together per her prediction like “cousins talking” and sharing their heritages.
Pictured below in the Ojai community center, the banjoist/musical director had an afternoon city park performance moved indoors during the Fest because of briefly inclement weather. She was accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi on percussion.
A versatile musician, composer, and writer, Rhiannon plays violin (below center) amidst some instruments from foreign lands. She is currently authoring a series of children’s books. Her varied creative works have won a MacArthur Grant and two Grammy Awards.
Although initially known as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops folk trio, Ms. Giddens has a seraphic opera-trained voice. She demonstrated her spell-binding vocal skills singing (below far right) with the Attacca String quartet. During this collaboration, a dog and a coyote had a barking dual in the ravine behind the outdoor stage. The performers and audience were undeterred.
Rhiannon`s voice also joined the chorus (below) in the performance of the Pulitzer Prize winning opera “Omar’s Journey” that she had co-authored with Michael Abels. The libretto chronicles the true story of a slave kidnapped in Africa and brought to America.
With a host of gifted international musicians at the Festival, Ms. Giddens sang in English, French and Italian. She was accompanied by her partner, the astonishingly powerful pianist Francesco Turrisi. Spanning several octaves, she sang ragtime, pop tunes, and arias.
After she rendered a particularly tender love song in Italian (below) that was woven with his keyboard underpinnings, Turrisi dabbed an eye and confessed softly in his microphone, “She made me cry.”
The Musical Director also sang in Japanese and Chinese during the festival further underscoring a world rich with overlapping musical traditions. With Giddens on the banjo and Wu Man playing the Chinese lute, the two musician demonstrated (below) that music is borderless.
Ojai proved again to be a multifaceted learning environment. As the township is an artists` community, the Music Fest coordinates yearly with an open house tour of artists` homes, so festival goers can visit the studios and galleries of local painters, sculptors, and artisans. This educational program is especially valued by the BRC spouse who is a painter.
The annual four day event was concluded with a rollicking evening jam session presented by the visiting international artists who again confirmed the communicative language and fellowship of music. For past postings on previous BRC visits to the Ojai Festival, enter “Ojai” in the homepage search engine.
In the spirit of the annual Ojai Fest, the BRC traveler revisited a familiar local jam session of Bluegrass pals to experience again with them the mutual joy of music and song.
A very special thanks is owed to the guitar craftsman (far left) who again graciously supplied a banjo for the visiting BRC musician to pick during the weekly Sunday afternoon jam at the nearby Oak View Community Center.
 From the BRC: We hope our readers and the good folks pictured above, had a restful Fourth of July holiday and enjoy a splendid summertime.