I finally scored a gig at my local farmers’ market, a mere block away from home. Good weather but not too many folks around, although the vendors were glad I was back on board.

As I set up, there was a family sitting around a table with the kids bitching at each other while the mom gathered some food for the family. I came close to asking them to stop the whining while I was getting ready to do my job. I decided to engage them with some chat about one of the boy’s saxophone lessons in school. He really locked into what I was doing. It seemed a good start in connecting.

As I started out, I tried to get the kids to grab a tambourine to play along. Over the course of four songs or so, they refused to play rain stick (!!) or any other instrument and the older siblings didn’t put down their Iphones. Not one of this family of 5 kids took a chance in engaging directly and physically with me. We had fun chatting, but no one committed to picking up an instrument. Too much pressure within the family dynamic. I found this a rather sad commentary on today’s culture. So it goes.

Though there were few folks, there were some people appreciating various songs. It was good to sit down and bang out two hours of material. Last year, I enjoyed flexing my muscles on guitar and honing my songs and vocals, and I felt today was not quite up to last year’s level, but something to work towards as the summer moves on.

Nice to play in my neighborhood.