My friend Mike Duck has put in tremendous effort to put together a concert for No Place for Hate, a national (and locally, Bethlehem School District) program to promote understanding, diversity and anti bullying in schools. I’ve done several of these with Mike and Pentley Holmes here at Godfrey’s and this was a bigger effort on Mike’s part. In spite of posters, flyers, social media and more, we played to a house of about 20 people. Such is life in the Lehigh Valley.
It was a particularly good show with some quite talented folks from our musical community: Dina Hall, Mike, Pentley Holmes, John Huie (Beth. School District percussion teacher), Alyssa Allen (Soul Folks) and myself. Put together by Mike, he was able to steer the music towards the positive (some great Sam Cooke, Motown, CSNY and more) and included some original music by Mike, Pentley, Dina and John. Some magic moments and nice humor.
I supplied We Are Welcomed, Bright Sunshiny Day and Step By Step. They all were on point with the thrust of the evening and I was glad I could add some substance to the proceedings. I especially love the chance to sit in on mandolin. It’s a rare and beautiful thing that stretches my creativity.