View Rob Bourassa's Homepage

Read Rob Bourassa's Bio

View Teacher Profile

Contact Rob Bourassa

MyFeed

The gift of banjo.

Hi all,

I haven't had a 5 String of substance since 1980. I quit picking banjo professionally around then and turned to guitar to support myself. Every time I'd get the notion to buy a 5 string and get back into it, something would come up.

I was given a little Goodtime at a guitar workshop I performed around 10 years ago but the neck got broken so I haven't been able to do much in the way of serious playing with it. I would borrow my buddy Russ' Liberty from time to time to do special shows, and even used it for a few banjo lessons on YouTube for my guitar instruction channel.

I have had trouble getting free videos finished because I don't want to be a louse and keep Russ' banjo for too long, so it has been a hard thing to find time for everything.

I called Russ on his birthday last week to say hello and to my surprise, things worked the other way around and he gave me a birthday gift. He gave me his Liberty Quadrille. 

That banjo has been my favorite for years. I used to keep a Liberty catalog on my nightstand as a teenage boy, and look at the Quadrille before I turned in at night. I can't say how overwhelmed I am. This is a wonderful gift.

Russ isn't giving up picking. He has two beautiful Great Lakes banjos, one of which was just refinished. Still, I have never seen such a beautiful charitable act of kindness, and am dumbfounded.

I had actually gotten calls from a couple of banjo manufacturers who wanted to work out a deal, having me use their banjos on my YouTube channel in exchange for free advertising. I also had several generous folks from this forum and YouTube contact me, offering to give me a banjo to use for lessons, but I really didn't want to use something that I wasn't happy with, and would not have felt good about using the Liberty again.

I'm glad I waited. The Liberty is my favorite banjo in the world and always has been.

I don't know how many of you folks have friends like this, but I am more than blessed.

Thanks buddy,

Rob

Recent Forum Posts

Foggy Mountain Breakdown Lessons (1349 days ago)
Find all non-archived posts by Rob Bourassa

Groups

Michigan Pickers
Liberty Banjo Co.
Great Lakes Banjo Co.

Friends

Rob Bourassa has 120 friends. View entire friends list.

Tonecaster Chesapeake Richard Caudill dgill Michael Keith jahenbo Poppy Pablo9364

FriendFeed  maryzcox replied to topic 'Do you think money corrupts people?' 5/19/2013 8:26:39 AM  ty3993us replied to topic 'Playing badly together' 5/19/2013 6:36:24 AM  Frostymama replied to topic 'Hearing picks on the head' 5/18/2013 5:40:37 PM  earlsgranada replied to topic 'Picking with Alan Munde' 5/18/2013 1:45:42 PM  Frostymama replied to topic 'Hearing picks on the head' 5/18/2013 6:24:05 AM  Wayne Holcombe replied to topic 'Vintage Stromberg Voisinet Banjo Repair???' 5/18/2013 4:04:36 AM  Wayne Holcombe replied to topic 'Dating Gibson RB-250' 5/18/2013 3:53:21 AM  earlsgranada posted tab for 'The Rifleman Theme' 5/17/2013 10:37:38 PM  Frostymama replied to topic 'Hearing picks on the head' 5/17/2013 10:33:46 PM  maryzcox replied to topic 'What are some of your dreams/goals as a person?' 5/17/2013 9:31:04 PM  Frostymama posted forum topic 'Hearing picks on the head' 5/17/2013 8:26:26 PM  merenderos97 replied to topic 'Backing Tracks' 5/17/2013 11:08:47 AM  maryzcox replied to topic 'Rich hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney' 5/17/2013 10:43:39 AM  maryzcox posted forum topic 'Lots of banjo here :)' 5/17/2013 10:29:52 AM  maryzcox added a blog entry 'Florida Folk Festival 2013/Memorial Day weekend :) Lots of banjo events too :)' 5/17/2013 10:24:47 AM Browse History >

Music (0 files)

Newest Photos

View All Photos