This was my first Madison Green Farmers’ Market of the season; a long haul for small pay, but I was reminded why I enjoy the trip. When the traffic’s fairly light (if I leave early enough on a Friday morning), I get to enjoy listening to my podcasts and full albums in the car. That’s actually a rare experience these days.
I got there in plenty of time, set up under the old oak tree. It was a stellar day, weather-wise and I set into my three hour set. I gathered a few kids early on, and there was some fine interaction. As usual, most of the elder shoppers breezed on by but picked up a few tips from parents and grandparents.
About an hour in, as families gathered on the green behind me, I turned my chair around to face the new audience. It seems young families use the opportunity to spread out blankets and socialize and let the kids hang out together. It’s a nice scene.
There are familiar faces, moms, kids, etc. and always some new folks there to capture the moments with their kids. Six pm rolls around quickly enough and I head back to PA into the sunset, appropriately. Tips were much better this time – around $60 and I got my check for $100, cheap, cheap, cheap. (I had asked for more but the vendors and market managers said no.)
Again, I enjoyed the ride home, alone with my music and my thoughts.
RockRoots had two NE Philly gigs this week, and there’s no direct route to these interesting neighborhoods. Our Wednesday afternoon gig was at Our Lady of Port Jefferson, in a fairly tightly-packed neighborhood. We were lucky to find some parking to unload out front, but latter gained access from the walled parking lot near the stage exit. Whew. 
Friday’s gig was another NE Philly school Holy Innocents with a slightly smaller audience of 150 4 – 8th graders. This neighborhood was a little more spread out: I could see lots of sky today. And we were able to load in from near the stage. (We have to plan our escapes very carefully) This was held in a big gym, and since the group was smaller, we like to eschew the stage and play on floor with the kids.
I was a little bushed from a RockRoots doubleheader in the morning, but had some time to recompose for Wednesday’s Dave’s Night Out with my friend Jack Murray. We figured we’d explore the space between Country Music and Folk Music, and it turned out to be very good topic. Jack has a mind and a gift for exposition on stuff like this so he came armed for bear with a great list of songs, and I put some thought into it as well. The conversation was easy between Jack, myself and the audience.
This turned out to be a remarkable gig at Coopertown ES in Bryn Mawr, PA this morning. It was good for me, for a change, not to worry about my part in the show. The post-Covid cobwebs have been, for the most part, banished and the show and my confidence is back in good shape. Travel was easy and Kevin called and said he’d be late. No problem.
This is the third RockRoots in Catholic schools this spring, and it’s good to back in the saddle again. Mother of Providence School is in Warrington, PA, not far from our school gig on Wednesday and about an hour and a quarter down the Blue Route (476) into the burbs outside Philly. We set up again in the gym on an increasingly hot Friday afternoon.
The smaller amp seemed to do just fine, though with less bass, but enough volume to fill the space in front of me. I’m able to keep things down so the vendors can chat with the customers. Rule #1. I started off with Shoo That Fly and felt right at home.
My friend, Amy Forsyth, runs an instrument design class for Lehigh students, and invites me for the final display and critique of the class’s projects. I did this several years ago in the basement of one of the buildings on campus, but this year, they’ve moved up to a spacious lab on the Mountain Top Campus. 
Rentler up, to join in on some jamming and commentary. We were out on the lawn this afternoon in temperate climes. As the students demonstrated their works, we talked about what worked and what didn’t, and I was able to add some folk history and context to some similar instruments, noting that colorful instruments helped the joy of community music in many culture.
We headed down the Turnpike to Levittown for a Wednesday morning assemble, near Bristol, Pa, hometown of my folks. I got there early, introduced myself to the principal (dressed in full beard as Joel Embiid!!) and set up in the gym. As the band arrived, we had a chance to go over The Snippets – the short medley of regional R&R styles, and that proved to be beneficial.
This was a flash-back to a DNO that we did four years ago, almost to the day, with my friends Bill Hall and Gregg Cagno. I started with Going Away from Utah Phillips and then passed off to Gregg. Early on, we talked about Jersey songwriters like them (I included John Gorka) who had access to the NYC folk scene and were able to head into the city to see the greats and play the open mikes, as well. As we rotated amongst the three of us, Gregg and Bill did some really fine original tunes. I was able to bring in my new arrangement of Imagine, Branching Out, Rodeo Rider (on 12-string), and my Lessons From Pete.
Part two of my very rare Saturday doubleheader. A local riding academy Equi-librium held and informal volunteer recognition fling at the nearby Mountain View Ice Cream/Miniature Golf/Snack Bar above Nazareth, PA. I was asked by my friends Rita and Ted to provide some background tunes as the folks gathered together. It was a grey day but temperatures were in the 60’s and not too bad. The proprietor asked me to set up facing the restaurant so as to not further piss off the neighbors behind the place. I dragged out my new amp for the occasion.
The stables are part of a therapeutic effort to mix horses with special needs people, and the volunteers certainly deserve celebration. “Healing Through Horses.”
I spent four or five sessions working on an arrangement for it. I like doing this stuff. Listening to the original, jamming with the chords, looking them up, finding a key I can sing in, and then just playing the tune for a while.
The farmers’ markets are starting to roll in, and I had my first of the season on Thursday a block away from home at Farrington Square (formerly Campus Square). It was a grey and somewhat breezy day with temps in the upper 50’s, still a little chipper, but a good day, none the less.
I set up my new combo vocal/guitar amp for the first time outdoors and I was mostly pleased with it, in spite of a few annoying barks when I overdrive my guitar playing. (What, me, bangin’ on the guitar?!) I also baptized it with a new dent when it tumbled off my wagon at the end. Oh, well. All in all, a nice addition to my gear for some of these small gigs.
I had trepidations about my two-hour set at the Easton Public Market, partly because of the horrendous parking situation in Easton these days and partly because of my rusty performance chops. Pleasantly, it turned out well on both counts.
A friendly trio moved up front early on. They were quite enthusiastic but the husband started asking for the standard standards. I said tonight’s theme was “Songs I Know” and started Mr. Bojangles, which defused the whole situation. When I mentioned it was “Middle Child Day”, they all pointed at each other – the husband, the wife and the mom. It was pretty funny. We had a good connection and made the early set interesting.
These Dave’s Night Outs were formed somewhat tongue-in-cheek back when I was gigging quite a bit. Well, not so much anymore as they are evenings when I actually get out of my apartment for some music with friends.
It’s great to be back in the classroom. I’ll be doing four Wednesday’s after school at Fountain Hill ES working with ten 3rd and 4th graders working on a project called Big Plans. We’ll be focusing on developing a world-view for these kids, to imagine what they can be in the future. We had a good start. I started by saying that this is my job. I play music. I introduced the tools I need for this job and talked about my guitar.