A curious day that happened to dawn on me later than I thought. March 19th, 1976 was the opening night of Godfrey Daniels. Phew. and, as I said, it didn’t really dawn on me til I got home from my gig in NJ.

I went to the gym, looked at the chem trails in the morning sky, meditated by the train tracks and settled in for an interesting day.

I met this afternoon with other LV arts-entrepreneurs for a session with Lehigh Univ. students, part of a course on entrepreneurship (yes, they study this stuff..) …later….

I headed out for a RockRoots family night show in S. Jersey. ….later….

But I got back around 9 pm and realized, sitting at this computer, that it was really 39 years ago (as we type) that I (WE) opened Godfrey Daniels..

It was a home-grown production featuring Mary Faith Rhoads, the Shimersville Sheiks, Ruff ‘n Reddy, Terry LaSorda and others, plus many good friends who supported the effort. Jan Sprague, Cindy Dinsmore and her whole family, LA Williams, Pete Skelly and so many more.

It behooves me to speak on this solemn occasion.

It came to me that there should be a listening club in this community. One respectful of the music, of the musicians and of the audience. Simple, no?

With a small ground-swell of community support, some loose financial shenanigans and quite personal leaps of faith, Godfrey Daniels opened on the first day of spring in 1976, an auspicious year on it’s own.

What I can remember is… opening with Here Comes the Sun. It was, and remains a very hard song to play on guitar, but a trans-formative lyric that challenges me every time I play it. It remains a touchstone for me.

The Sheiks, Mary Faith, Terry LaSorda, Ted Kornweibel, Ruff ‘n Reddy played sets and it was a celebration of community. So very fine.

We got it started with: good musical friends, a small but supportive folk music community, and a fairly subversive South Bethlehem business culture. And it continues today.

It’s been a good and reflective day.