April 18, 2015

By:  Karen Hefter
Photos by:  Bob Nelson and Karen Hefter

It was a beautiful day for shearing sheep (and playing the banjo) at Forest Hill Farms in San Ramon.  We played in a (mostly) shady corner, outside the old barn, from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm.  This was one of our longest playouts ever!  It was very low key and was well attended.  Betty and Larry took turns leading the club, since the playout was so long.  We had lots of singers for the day, including Sheila, Bob, Kit, Terry, Don, Chris, and Bud.   Our players were:  Guy Black, Tom Brunetti, Betty David, Clyde Dedmon, Bob Ehrhorn, Don Granberg, Karen Hefter, Terry Horner, Ardie Jarrett, Garry Kerr, Chris Lardge, Dina Melamed, Linda Myers, Phil Myers, Kit Nelson, Dick Neumann, Bud Pearce, Larry Risner, and Sheila Welt.  Bob Nelson was our photographer.

We also set up our “Try A Banjo” area and it was staffed by Karen, Phil, Sheila, and Ardie.  As usual, we had a great response to this. Lots of kids, including an adorable one and a half year old named Mary Ella,  tried our banjos and ukuleles and we even had several adults who were able to learn the chords to Camptown Races well enough (in about 5 minutes) to play the song along with one of our banjo players. They took business cards and might actually show up at a club practice and learn to play the banjo!  We can hope…  We also had a few people who wanted to try their hands at the washboard and gut bucket.  One man played the gut bucket so long that I was afraid that Terry wouldn’t get it back!

We also had an old friend, Jack Burros, visit our area.   Jack currently plays with the San Francisco Banjo Band and is a former member of the East Bay Banjo Club and the Oakland Banjo Band.  He borrowed a banjo and played along with us for awhile.  He even sang a song, which was fun.  Another man, who introduced himself as Gary,  visiting from Indiana, came up and asked to sing “Indiana.”  We are a flexible bunch and let him sing along with Bob Ehrhorn.  All in all, it was a fun day.