I knew this would be a strange gig as we set up at 5 on stage in the community pavilion. No kids and families were gathering, but old folks with lawn chairs started setting up in and outside the pavilion. I was glad that I was asked to take part in this summer series but I don’t do oldies, polkas or youth band stuff. But I knew I had a full sound with John Christie on guitar and Kris Kehr on bass, and I was right.

We started strong from the beginning with Don’t Call Me Early, The Cat Came Back and July. We followed with Mr. Bojangles, Nadine and other equally strong material but no amount of clever patter and good renditions of obscure songs could hold this particular audience. Bit by bit old couples drifted off to their cars in the far parking lots and after an hour (out of two), the energy was ebbing in the building. This is a challenging kind of music for the general public.

I sprung BoJangles and We Are Welcomed on the boys and they did fine. I also did Here Comes the Sun out of nowhere and they did fine not playing. Spontaneity!

I had to check myself from making comments (I did make a few) on the departees, but thanked those who hung around. About an hour and quarter in, I felt that we should end it up early (9pm?! closing time), so we finished up with Pay Bo Diddley, Lessons, Dixie Chicken and brought it home at 8:40. The organizer lady didn’t complain and said she enjoyed what we did.

I realize I don’t have the repertoire for these kinds of gigs – giving ’em what they want. In spite of no drums, chick singers, etc. John, Kris and I have a remarkable full sound, especially on this wooden stage. It was Phat! and each of us played strong. I’m proud of what we did.

A couple of times I found myself distracted by the departing audience, muffed a few words in Rosie is a Friend of Mine and didn’t set up the right rhythm for Dixie Chicken (came out Bo Diddleyish), but the lads caught on. My Martin roared, John got nasty on guitar and Kris rocked on bass and I sang well. All in all, a good, creative gig.

Often my summer vacation boils down to this one gig in rural PA outside of Reading. A loose organization of friends and musicians have been holding this weekend gathering in a hidden grove behind a corn field and down a dirt road. Amateurs, semi-pros and a few folks like me have the chance to do a short set on a nice, rustic stage with fine sound equipment and play for each other. It is the epitome of do-it-yourself folk music and I relish the chance to perform here.

I missed last year and folks were glad I came back this year. I got a 1:30 slot, and after a longer than usual trek, I got there with time to spare. I got ready and took the stage on time. Shane, the sound guy, makes it so comfortable and a listening crowd gathers in the grove so I was ready.

I started with We Are Welcomed and nailed it. I followed with I Can See Clearly, Giant, Lessons from Pete. I broke a string and my friend Dan lent me his Martin and I finished with July. I could have done another one, but without my Martin and in the spirit of the occasion, I packed it in. It was a righteous set and worth the drive.

I hung out a little bit, changed strings on my Martin for Sunday’s gig and enjoyed the beautiful summer day in a peaceful glade in Nowhere, PA.  My soul is soothed.

I’ve enjoyed my yearly visits to Christ Lutheran Church as part of their summer series of services. Normally, there has been a fairly sparse turnout but today was a full house, thanks, mostly because of the return of their youth group from a week of outreach in Houston.

Regardless, I have had the opportunity to play some of my family songs, usually aimed at the children. (The elders like these songs, too.) Today I took a different aim.

Pastor Phil was in the house for the first time (usually out of town) and it was good to have his leadership. He asked me to do Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds (performed by Pete Seeger) and I was glad to be able to work it up. “All made out of ticky tacky….”

I started with a mandolin medley as folks gathered. The folks were quite chatty (and late) so I ended up running through quite a few of my tunes. Long medley! After the minister prefaced the service, he introduced me to the congregation and we sang Little Boxes. As Phil delivered the children’s message and felt moved to join the kids on the edge of the “stage”. A couple of “cools” from the kids.

After the youth group’s presentation about their trip to Houston (this takes me back to my time in First Pres in Albany), I sang We Are Welcomed with the lyrics in the bulletin. This sanctuary is a delicious place to play, with copious wood and a congregation that is willing to take chances and sing along. It rocked.

I decided to do Lessons from Pete as the anthem and introduced the song with Pete’s ” It’s not so important to have music in people’s ears. It’s more important to have it on their lips.” I also talked about the hormonal “trust” that happens when we sing together. I added ‘church’ to the lyrics (that’s where we sing together…). Only screwed up once.

I finished up with Chuck Pyle’s Step By Step and the congregation picked up on the chorus nicely and, at the end, I let them hear their voices alone. It was a pleasure to play today.

As I was wrapping up my instruments, a gentleman came up and purchased two Troubadour CDs. His grandchildren were in town for the weekend so I offered Peanut Butter and he said they had it already, so I gave him Playground for good measure. He then talked about how his mother had a grand piano in his home. Oh, my! I asked if he listened from underneath it and he said enjoyed crawling around under it.  But he related how his family would gather around the piano on Sundays and sing hymns and songs along with that magnificent instrument and his mom on the keys. Powerful stuff.

As he was telling me this, relating this story to  my Lessons from Pete, he started to mist up. He said that this song touched him deeply and he had teared up while I was playing it. My goodness. This moment brought the whole gig home for me.

Afterwards, the minister thanked me, bought a CD and asked about my religious upbringing. I mentioned my Presbyterian roots in Albany as well as our youth group’s activism. I had, at the time, considered becoming a minister. I also mentioned my lapsed UU background. He said that this congregation is similarly progressive and I did recognize it.

I get to play a wonderful variety of venues, in front of a wide demographic of audiences and in some sonically wonderful rooms. This one had it all; one of the good ones.

I was booked at a daycare center in Westbrook, CT, about 180 miles from home on Friday morning at 10 am. I planned to couple this with a pickin’ party at my friend Ron’s house that night. I left at 5 am in order to miss I-95 traffic and it was smooth sailing up to the shoreline.

I got a call from the center two days before saying that they couldn’t swing the two sets and would I be able to cut my price in half. I said I couldn’t drive 8 hours to play for half but settled for 60%. I talked myself into being comfortable with that. As it turned out, the single show was enough, the teachers and the owner were quite pleased and are willing to have me back during the school year as well as for next summer. So I guess that’s all for the best.

It was a facility with some toddlers as well as some kids in the K – 3rd grade level. They had the toddlers in a play area fenced in from the other kids due to some regulation but it was strange to play for two sets of kids, one group separated by a fence. Shades of the current brewhaha.

The teachers particularly had a great time. There’s lots of spaces for some extemporaneous humor and they caught all the bait. These show are really for the kids and the adults and that’s what makes them successful.

I was done at 11 and took my time headed back to Northford to Ron’s place. I checked in with my neighbor Mike and gave him a CD.

The pickin’ party was just among a few friends and I was disappointed that more of my old friends didn’t make the time to stop over. Perhaps this ship has sailed, now eight years after my departure.

I split for PA at 5:30 am. I like getting up and out and driving at dawn. I made it back by 8 am thanks to little traffic. A nice hop, skip and a jump to CT.

This was a good gig. I was asked to play for the Family Fun Day for the Community Services for Children here in the Lehigh Valley at their facilities on South Mountain in Allentown, near the State Hospital. It was tough to find but my gig instincts kicked in and wound my way up a couple of small streets to the campus. The organization had rounded up lots of community outreach groups, fire trucks, police cars, served up hot dogs, gave away teddy bears and information to the families that came up.

I was initially asked to do this pro bono, but I insisted on my minimum fee for this, and I’m glad I did. I was treated with respect, and, at the end, thanked profusely from many, many folks, and asked back for next year. I am gratified and glad I stood up for my worth.

There was a good chance of rain, but the CSC decided to go for it outside in the road between buildings. They set up a small tent with a small PA, and I settled in for the two hours. Just my voice was amplified, but that was just enough for my part. As it turned out, it was an almost sunny day. Good weather for all of us.

I set out the musical chum of instruments and went fishing. Kids took part as they do, and for some, as the organizers said later, this was a unique moment for a lot of these kids (and parents). They had never participated in this musical workshop, so I enjoyed each interaction as it happened.

It was a good session all around, connecting with new folks and kids.

This is always a nice set, especially being part of the Godfrey’s Day at Musikfest, with Dina and Kris and Andy Killcoyne sitting in. We didn’t have a chance to practise for this one but Dina is comfortable with Andy, since they play together often, Kris and I are tight and all of us had passed around the tunes electronically (the new way to prepare) so we felt confident in tossing things up in the air on stage.

Don’t Call Me Early was the first song and it’s a good opener, but Andy is a little unfamiliar with the ‘celtic genre’ but began with fills early on. I asked him to stay away from the ending, but never had the chance to lay it out in a practice. I found myself telling him, “Don’t play, don’t play…’ while I was landing the tricky ending. I think he felt the burn. It was a rocky beginning, but things smoothed out nicely quickly. I planned a set where Dina and I swap fronting the band and it works well, giving the both of us to retreat into backup mode. Very comfortable.

Andy is used to running a premier local jam, and often finds himself leading the band behind less professional folks on stage. I am quite comfortable in leading my songs, and confident in establishing the tune’s structure and endings as well. Andy and I don’t get to work together that often in a formal situation like this, and his natural instincts turned on, to fill the spaces. I understand this, but I’ve been doing this for a long time, both with a band and as a solo. But that’s why we needed some face time for this gig, and develop the trust in each other.

Dina and I swapped tunes, I got to play mandolin in support of her tunes, Kris was solid on bass, and Andy settled in with some fine Strat leads. The mix of tunes, instruments and patter was good and we played well. It was only an hour set so the time flew by and I had to cut some songs out, but I got in Legends and Lessons from Pete and ended with Rosie is a Friend of Mine. Dina stepped up as well with her good stuff plus a new One Big Love that she dedicated to the turmoil in Charlottesville this weekend. Quite appropriate and a tip of the hat to her for connecting the song and the situation. A nice FB video showed up, with a scan of the song, kids playing up front, panning to an audience listening to good music and back to us on stage. It captured the beauty of the moment in these fractious times.

It was a good set and appreciated by those in the audience. I thought it wasn’t as tight as it could have been, and not as good as the Trio stuff we did last Saturday. Still, it was a good representation of the local folk playing on the big stage in support of our home town venue. Claudia Schmidt did a knock-out solo set, the Best of Open Mikers did strong sets, April Mae and the Junebugs did a killer opener, and Chaise Lounge finished the evening off in style. I was in charge of booking the day so I was glad that it fell together nicely. Godfrey’s did well, promoting our spot in the now crowded LV arts calendar. My friends Terry and Dave did a great job on sound. Mike Duck did a wonderful job handling the emcee work, as well. Ramona worked her tail off, as always. Good friends all around making for a nice day celebrating Godfrey’s at the major festival in our town. All hands on deck!

I’ve been maintaining a low profile these days, so I had a good time roaming the courtyard and running into familiar faces, both old and new. It reminded me why I enjoy this festival. It is as much about running into friends and acquaintances on the fly, sharing our connections across the years and situations.  One young dad came up and said he remembered me from a 1st grade assembly in the early 90’s. Several other young families came up with their kids who are now Dave Fry fans. Older folks that used to come out to Godfrey’s in the past reconnected. I had a good time being surprised by each and every situation. I’m learning to enjoy some gratification from these encounters. Some folks even said I look better these days. Hmmm. This is good news.

I even took the opportunity to mention that I’ve played all of the Musikfests, along with polka king Walt Groller. 34 years. I challenged him to dueling polkas next year. It was a good day on the planet. I love my town.

This is the big one, a nice afternoon set at Liederplatz at Musikfest. I only get this chance to do my adult material in an acoustic band situation quite rarely, especially in a concert setting like this, great sound and a listening audience in a festival courtyard. I put together my friends John Christie and Kris Kehr for this jaunt, and a set list of new, old and some kids’ stuff, too. A very nice mixture of folk music and commentary for a listening audience on a perfect day.

Kris, John and I had worked up some good material, and, in spite of a rocky gig the day before (perhaps because of…) we really did a fine job. I was tickled at the end of set. Kris was solid as ever and John provided some great (often nasty) guitar leads. We didn’t need a drummer – that’s how strong we played. I had a rough set list and took it on the fly and weaved through the blues, country, novelty, Canadian, rock and roll material and played strong and sure. I also committed to playing standing up, not an easy thing with my hip problems, but it felt great to move to the music, and add to the theatricality of the show. (Yes, it is a show….)

My good friend Bruce Gaston showed up for his yearly set during my show, and I am always glad to see him in the audience. He is a manualist – he plays music with his hands. Vaudeville at its finest (and I feel I’m part of that tradition…). I love to sit behind him and watch the audience react to the initial sound (a tortured balloon) and then recognize the Bruce’s ability, genius and practiced craft, all delivered in a compact 5 minute piece with great entertainment chops. He’s amazing, and he gives my set an incredible breather, and sets us up for the grand push. Really, I relish having Bruce Gaston in my audience.

I had folks up on stage for Giants and Thunder Tubes (great interaction, as always), I badgered the audience to sing along, we got some good jamming among the three of us going, some serious tunes, my Stan Rogers tune Giant that continues to be fun, Rosie is a Friend of Mine had some ladies dancing up front, and Lessons from Pete finished out the set on a strong note, with spotlights on John and Kris. I thanked everyone for coming out, big thanks to Terry and Dave for the superb sound, mentioned that I have played every Musikfest and landed to gracious applause from the hometown crowd. Very, very satisfying and one of the better gigs of the year.

It’s not a tight musical presentation, but I think folks recognize that the musical spontaneity, the song diversity and the friendly presentation make for a pleasing show. I am proud of what I do, and glad to have friends help be do it.

There are times when I question my drive to earn money in CT, my old home state for 10 years. Over the last week or so, I’ve driven a bunch of miles, made some righteous money but in two of the shows, have faced a very lethargic audience. Today was notable.

I was glad to be included in this series of family shows in a very nice park setting, with a splendid grass lawn, under the trees on a beautiful summer day. Folks pulled in with strollers, kids, blankets, food, for an hour in the park with children’s music.

As I plied my craft, the kids came up, played along, asked questions (why do you have bare feet?) and we all had a good time. But….

I noticed there was little response from the audience in places I expect response. Even with the kids. I remarked at times that this was a TV audience, not expected to respond. I found myself, time and time again, asking for a response. Part of it was the distance from the crowd, but a larger part is the cultural distance from live performance. These folks like to socialize, eat snacks, enjoy a day in the park, and I am only a vehicle for child care. It all shows up in the fact that I sell no CD’s after the show. I am a tool.

There are always great moments with the individual kids, but I scratch my head with the adults.