Boogies to Ragtime, Behrensmeyer music is a Folklife favorite

Ned Behrensmeyer poses on the bench in front of his 130-year-old Hazelton Brothers piano at Java Jive. Behrensmeyer, a classically trained pianist, entertains Folklife Festival goers each year by playing Scott Joplin, Ragtime and Boogies in front of Main Street’s iconic coffee shop, Java Jive. When not in use, the piano becomes part of the ambiance at Java Jive. Contributed photo

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

A 1894 Hazelton Brothers piano adds to the ambiance of Hannibal’s Java Jive.

If you follow the direction signs and go in the “in door” and out the “out door” at North Main Street’s quaint coffee shop and eatery, you can’t miss the piano situated along the historic building’s interior wall.

The piano is the property of Ned Behrensmeyer, a third-generation Pike County, Ill., farmer who is perhaps best known for keeping Northeast Missouri and West Central Illinois pianos in tune.

Behrensmeyer bought the piano from the Central Baptist Church in Quincy, Ill., paying $300. “At the time, it had an action problem nobody but me knew how to fix. I took it home and fixed it and brought it here,” to Java Jive.

“It is just a wonderful old classic ragtime piano,” he said.

“(Katy Ayres Welch, the store owner) is kind enough to let me keep it here and push it out on the street for various events,” such as this weekend’s Folklife Festival.

“I’ve been part of Folklife for all these years. People come to look for me. One man made an hour-long video, put on DVD and I still have it. It’s pretty cool.”

This week Behrensmeyer has been practicing up on his standards, many of which he plays from memory.

“I’ll typically get there 11 (on Saturday); it depends on the temperature. “I’’ll play from 11 to 4 or 5 o’clock; play all day,” taking a few breaks.

“I have hours and hours of memorized repertoire,” he said.

Though he is classically trained, for the festival he plays “Ragtime, Scott Joplin. People love it when I play Boogies,” some of which are original.

“I’m 71; no health problems, playing the piano is part of what I do to keep stability in my life.”

Ned Behrensmeyer grew up on a farm near Payson, Ill., the same farm that he and his sister own and operate to this day. Ned’s daughter lives nearby. The farm has been in his family since 1936. His father (Charles F. Behrensmeyer 1908-1960) was a Quincy, Ill., architect who was killed in an automobile accident when Ned was just 7.

“My father minored in music at the University of Illinois, and my strongest memories of Dad are (when he was) playing the piano.”

While always keeping strong connections to the farm, Ned also followed in his father's musical footsteps.

While he started lessons at the age of 6, “I didn’t get really serious about playing the piano until I was in my teens and saw what the real piano world looked like,” he said.

“I’ve always been a student of the piano; it’s a very difficult thing to do well. I do it as well as I’m able.”

Ned attended the University of Oregon, and also studied in  Western Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, he met a friend who took him to New York. “I saw the high power piano world and it freaked me out.

“I’m not a self promoter, I didn’t like the pressure and I didn’t want to be that one sided as a person.”

So he learned how to tune pianos.

“Tuning gave me a way to make a living without being a teacher. I could still play when and how I wanted to, to be able to show up when I feel like it and play what I feel like playing.

Finding the right balance of desire to play, a lifelong passion for playing, and not having it become just a job. When it becomes like that, it is no longer fun.”

When he returned to Payson, Ill., in 1987 to help take care of his mother (Anna Lane Allen Behrensmeyer, 1910-1991) he started tuning pianos as a job. “The first week, I nailed down two accounts, the Hannibal schools and HLG. The Hannibal schools had 20 pianos at the time.”

Ned has a niece who went to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and is now trying to make it as a singer and songwriter in Los Angeles. “That is not a life I would want at this point. She’s happy. (But to me) trying to make as it as a musician seems like more trouble than its worth.

“I never wanted to be confined to one thing.  I’m classically trained; I love Bach and Handel and Chopin, I climb those mountains.” But he does so on his own terms.