I had my spring visit to Flint Hill Farms on Sunday for a set outside the barn at the farm. This remains one of my favorite places to perform, with kids sitting on bales of hay, nice sunshiny day and families drifting by, checking out the animals, taking wagon rides. I love the opportunity to engage the kids in this situation, with the instruments and the songs. Lots of small, magical moments with the kids and the parents and grandparents.
As always, it’s starts out small, with one-on-one engagements along with the enticement of the bag o’ joy. I simply take it from there and others take note as they pass by and join in.
At the end of my set, I connected with a special little girl who kept on asking me to play another song, even as the current song ended. Her mother said that she was exceptionally gifted in many ways, and as I played, I found that out. Her mom said she had perfect pitch and had dabbled in some songwriting previously. As I finished up, I started to play a chord change in C, she started out singing “Cowgirl” so I adjusted and we sang something about cowgirls. She took off on the riff and I simply played a progression that fit. She took the lead on the song.
As we finished up, I gave her a CD and asked her name. In jest, I asked for her real name, not her stage name. She responded that she didn’t want to use her real name (Elizabeth) but her name-of-the-day, which turned out to be ‘Cowgirl’. It was important to her. Phew. This is some kind of wonder girl in the making and it was a pleasure to explore her creativity here, outside of PA bank barn on a farm outside Hellertown.