An interesting afternoon celebrating the music scene in the Valley. This was the 15th and it has come a long way in that time in a lot of ways. The production was good in the Musikfest Cafe, relatively crisp pace, nice musical combinations and lots of my fellow musicians in the house.
It has been embarrassing in the past. Lousy acts, noisy crowd, poor selections of some of the musicians, weak presenters (“Our next preformer…”). My friend Peter Scapegrace and I waited all 3 plus hours to have our awards on a table back stage. And there is something not quite right with fan balloting.
Anyway, it was a good show with friends and colleagues on stage, including Rick Levy from Out on a Limb and early RockRoots with his Limits (Hub Willson on drums, Wayne Smith on bass and Chris Jones on guitar).
I was up for awards in the Children’s category and won Best Children’s Performer (a fan-based award) and Best Children’s Performance (music industry award). It was nice to be acknowledged but I’m sure its not considered a main-stream award. Not adult, and it is still just the Lehigh Valley and the children’s field is sparse. Anyway, it was nice to be recognized by and in front of my peers.
I didn’t get to say anything as I came up. The stage was filled with American Idol runner-ups who presented. The plaques were shoved in my hands and that was that. Too bad. I think I could have said something pithy.
I came up again for the Godfrey Daniels – Music Supporter Award. The presenter started out saying, “Geoffrey Daniels” so I started my walk up from the far side of the auditorium. He was off mike and I wasn’t quite sure when he was finished so I lingered off stage. Dina Hall, who was a co-presenter bought some time, introducing me as the Godfather of Folk and her mentor (blush). On the way up I grabbed a cane from the awards table (??) and shook it at the audience. Mike Duck described it in the photo as Dave tells the kids to stay off his lawn moment. Exactly.
Given the mike this time, I rambled on about my being proud of the community events during the week and the professionals on the weekend, mentioned Ramona and Dina and retreated. Sometimes I’m naked without a guitar.
All in all, a good day. Proud, humbled. and that’s good.