I had the wonderful opportunity to drive up into the Poconos north of Scranton, about two hours from town on a beautiful fall morning. The leaves are turning above the Blue Mountain, so it was a celebration of the new fall season.
I was asked back to this Jibberjazz Production for another, what I call, ‘hippies in the hills’ festival. Actually it is a classy array of jam bands, blues, bluegrass, soul, R&B for campers off in the hills. I play in the kids area for kids who are up and about on a Saturday morning and I’m fine with that. I started the first session early ’cause I was early and kids were there. I attracted some adults as well and we jammed on various tunes. One of the guys played jews harp pretty well, and we did a good session. Broke out my new Thunder Tubes again.
My next set wasn’t until 1 pm, so I wandered around the various Grateful Dead vendors as the folks started to stir into the gorgeous day.
The second set was sparse, to say the least, so I just played. Seems the guy at the crafts table was the booker of the show, Jon, and he said, “You’re really good. You should be on the stage.” Yup. I did that four years ago with my 10:30 kids show but it wasn’t really the proper way to connect with kids, but I’m hoping he means I could do my adult stuff later in the day for the adults. I’m going to offer that for next years. Give me the kids early and the hippies later.
I passed through Factoryville to and fro, passing a sign saying, “Home of Big Six, Christy Mathewson.” Raised on baseball lore, that was really cool. Mathewson was one of the great early pitchers, Hall of Famer, vet of WWI and part of that farm boy history of early baseball. I love it.
Back to Allentown to play the Art Museum this evening. A study in contrasts today.