I was asked to come play for this small town’s family festival, and I would share the stage with Mr. Mike’s Dino Show. Sounded good to me, though the lady asked me to do four half hour sets between 5:30 and 9 pm, splitting the time with Mr. Mike. I’d rather do a couple of longer sets, but I agreed. It worked out fine.
We were in a parking lot downtown, with various community organizations doing raffles, selling snow cones, etc. It was a gorgeous evening and families stopped by, though very few sat in the chairs in front of the stage. I started out at 5:30 with Skip to My Lou and broke my D string towards the end of the song. It’s happened before. I excused myself to find a replacement string in my guitar bag, and, lo and behold, no strings. (Fool!) So, I had no choice but to go on and finish the night with my Martin 5-string guitar, hoping I wouldn’t break another one. I didn’t.
I limped through my remaining sets with a decidedly less-than-robust sound on guitar, but I did my best to roll on. Various folks stopped by and it was fun to have toddlers come up and grab instruments from my bag and dance and play to the delight of parents and grandmoms.
Mr. Mike’s Dino Game Show was engaging, as he got kids to guess on dinosaur names, whether they were real or made up. His patter was hip and fun and together we provided a good mix of family entertainment. As the sun disappeared and a glorious sun set provided a rich orange and purple backdrop, we finished up the gig.
The woman who booked us thanked me for my music, saying many of the songs I played reminded her of Raffi. I smiled and said thanks. (Raffi still haunts performers like me.) But, that was okay in that it was what she was hoping for. I gave her two CDs for her young family.
I have traveled up in this neck of the PA woods many times, and I really enjoy passing by so many familiar towns, country vistas and businesses that I remember from gigs past. A good connection with my many travels locked up in my memories.