A couple of months ago I got a message from Major Jean from the Bethlehem Salvation Army asking me if I would play for their weekly seniors’ gathering and lunch. I figured why not. Well, the date rolled around and I headed over for a 10:45 “show” and spaghetti and meatballs afterwards.
It turned out to be a good gig. We met in chapel area that seemed to be acoustic fit for an ‘amp-less’ presentation so I set up ahead of time. As the folks gathered I surmised that this would a fairly hip and responsive audience, and I was right. I did the material that works for this type of group, mixing folk, kids music and my random chatting about what I do for a living and various antidotes that are amusing. I think I took Major Jean by surprise. Some folks knew who I was, and the new folks had a great time.
The spaghetti and meatballs were served up hot and I got to talk with Jean, her husband Dave and a few other folks at the lunch table. Many of the men and women came up and thanked me, shared their folk experiences. One lady said that her granddaughter’s first music experience was listening to my version of The Cat Came Back on her grandfather’s computer. Not quite the old “sitting on grandpa’s knee on the porch”, but pretty cool anyway.
I packed up and headed to Philly for a folk radio show at 3 pm.