Banjo Jubilee

September 8, 2013

By: Karen Hefter
Photos by: Bob Nelson and Linda Myers
Video by: Linda Myers

The East Bay Banjo club celebrated its 50^th anniversary by giving a rousing performance at the 41^st Banjo Jubilee. We would like to thank our hosts at the Peninsula Banjo Band for putting on this wonderful event and we congratulate them on their own 50^th anniversary! We were extremely fortunate to have 2 top artists (and EBBC members) join the East Bay Banjo Club on stage for our performance: the extremely talented Jack Convery and Hall of Famer Cathy Reilly. Our band has never sounded so good!

In honor of our club’s 50^th anniversary, Betty David, our new Music Director, selected classic banjo band songs for that have withstood the test of time. She led us through a series of banjo favorites, including “Just Because,” “Shantytown,” “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby,” and many more. Cathy Reilly added wonderful color and harmonies to our performance. We had a small, but mighty group of performers for this event that included: Guy Black, Jim Blankenship, Jack Convery, Betty David, Barbara Findlay, Don Granberg, Karen Hefter, Mickie McDonald, Phil Myers, Kit Nelson, Bud Pearce, and Cathy Reilly. We had lots of audience support from club members Mary Black, Rich Boss, Mickey Finn, Deb Hodson, Garry Kerr, Linda Myers, and Bob Nelson.

The rest of the day was filled with performances by the Sacramento, Peninsula, and Happy Time Banjo Bands, as well as performances by a number of talented artists, including Dave Marty, Bill Lowery, Mickey Finn and Cathy Reilly, Charlie Tagawa and many of his family members. The Happy Time Banjo Band broke new ground as they closed their portion of the show by putting on sunglasses and rocking out to “Wipeout.” All in all, it was a well organized and wonderful day. We are looking forward to next year’s Jubilee!