Another three assembly day in, this time in Allentown. The upper grades had just gone through 6 days of testing, so I was the antidote for the kids and teachers. I had a special session with the fifth grade, and, since it was a small group, I decided to bag the sound system/stage deal and play unplugged. The girls were quite mellow, and the boys rather raucous.

I always enjoy Muhlenberg’s kids because of their respect and their infectious laughter. Good job, Muhlenberg! Also, they get the Quietest Exit Award – unbelievable!

A fifth grade teacher came up afterwards and said that her 6 year old child had just written his first sentence, which was, “The cat came back the very next day.” Hmmm. I wonder where that came from? Powerful stuff, this folk music.

Tuesday had the lads in NJ for three show for 6th, 7th and 8th grades. It’s always interesting to see which group of kids is the loosest – seems 7th grade got it this time. a special needs kid, Will, came up for I Like Peanut Butter in the last session, and he knocked it out of the park; in, fact, he led the way in participating, singing and dancing. Will made my day.

I went back to my favorite elder care site, Strong House in Madison, CT to play for the group. John, as usual, got up a danced with the nurses; he’s in his 90’s, and has that hint of mischievousness in his eyes. Mary, a very quiet woman, short with big eyes, sang along for the first time – first time I’ve heard a peep out of her. Egg shakers, tambourines, dancing, singing. These folks wear me out! I’ll return in June.

So, I dropped in on Mrs. Asbath’s 3rd grade – seems it’s the day before tests, so we’re gonna loosen up. We made a whole lotta noise, apparently, cause the Principal dropped in (and he did the Happy Shark with us). Great group of kids.

Looks like I’ll be back for the whole school in May. Stay tuned. Thanks, Amy.

RR in the morning in NJ, on my way home for a span. Crocus’s are coming up.

Every fifth Sunday, I hold the Vintage Open Mike at Godfrey’s.Well, it was packed with 25 acts signed up, with a wide variety of storytelling, banjos, pop music, blues, singer-songwriters, simply amazing. Un-vintagely, we had to knock it down to two songs.

I asked the folks to come up with some stage names for themselves and here are some good ones:White Shoes Asbath, Cold Fingers Sweeney, Sweet Rose, Big Rib Reiber, Sorry Bill, Whitehall Jerry, No Show Radcliff (he left), Suz, The Juice and the Rev, and the Phantom. Good stuff.

Mrs. Whiteshoes came up and asked if I could visit Mosser School on the morrow. Sounds like fun. 9 am.

I revisited an open mike in East Haven – I did it four years ago, now run by Juli Neal with her band JJ Diamond Band. My friend Ron Anthony was the featured act and it was good to see him play for awhile. The event was filmed by local access TV, so maybe we’ll see ourselves on our own TV’s. All blurry… I played Giants and the Vegetable Song. Didn’t screw them up. Yay.

It was nice to play on a real stage, though it would be a spectacular venue with some stage lights and background.

I have just been asked to be listed on the CT Librarians web site as performer and resource. Check it out at www.ctlibrarians.org. On the left hand side of the page, click on the Quick Link for the Library Resource Online Catalog (http://www.ctlibrarians.org/services/pubprog.html).

Anyway, I listed last night, and got a call this morning from the Oliver Wolcott Library in Litchfield, CT (where my daughter goes to The Forman School, perfidiously) for a date in June. Things move fast in the library world.

Dave Fry’s Economic Employment Indicators (DFEEIs) are up in CT. Hurray!

Long day for the lads, with two sets at 9 and 10 am, then a three hour break, and the last set at 2 pm. We need our naps! We’re musicians!

Anyway, we played for 5th, 4th, then 6th grades, each interesting audiences and reactions. 6th grade got a little crazy, 5th was mellow and 4th rocked. We were there 5 years ago.

Nice tie awards to the principal and asst. principal.

Dear RockRoots:
I loved the presentation you put on. Before your show, I did not like “western” or jazz or “blues” music. Now, I listen to it everyday on my way to school. I thought Rock and Roll was just people with paint on their face. Now, I love all kinds of music, thanks to you.
Sincerely, da’Vion. 2/8/08

It was my pleasure to perform at Godfrey Daniels 32nd birthday bash on the Southside of Bethlehem, PA. I twisted the arm of my good buddy Ron Anthony in CT to make a Road Trip out of the evening, so we set off to PA about 1:30 pm. We had three hours to settle politics, the folk music scene, and the fate of the world – which we did.

Godfrey Daniels is the club I started long, long time ago, and has survived my leaving for CT seven years ago. So I can usually count on at least one gig in the spring every year. Ron and I swapped tunes to open. Lizanne Knott did a middle set, and my space/rock/folk hero Joey Mutis finished up the night in style, with Joey playing a Woody Guthrie song in F. Flag on the play!

Anyway it was fun to bring Ron back to my roots and play in the best little coffeehouse in PA once again. Home Easter morning…..

I got a great email from a lady and her family in Slovakia today, and it’s a touchstone for what I do.

Letter from Slovakia -– Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Hello Dave,

Today I received a delivery of your three CDs ordered some couple of days ago. Great – I
was amazed by the speed of the delivery (all the way from CT!) and also very happy to
have them here in Slovakia.
And as I received them, I thought I would thank you immediately. Looking up the website
again and being in a search for your e-mail, (just out of mere female curiosity), I
looked up your NEWS section. And
here I see, that “a woman from Slovakia bought my three CDs”. It must be me, I have
thought. This encouraged me even more to write….

You may wonder how that happened that “a Woman from Slovakia” ordered your CDs.
Well, I have a story for you.

Long time ago, I guess it must have been in a late spring of 1991, I lived with my then 5
year-old daughter Katarina in Coopersburg, PA. She was a first grader in Lower Milford ES
and one day you happened to be in that area performing for the kids. My daughter was
taken to your concert along with her other friends and she returned home with a cassette
with recordings of some of your songs. She was so thrilled that, ever since then, this
tape has a privileged place in our collection; no one of us ever got bored by listening
to it. A year later, we left US and returned back to Slovakia and your songs were keeping
us company through all the childhood of my daughter. The songs even became a nice
recollection of time spent in PA, and something like a family treasure.

In 2000, my little son Matthias was born, and my daughter passed this tape onto him. Now,
she, as a grown up, finds a lot of pleasure in singing all about spiders, watermelons and
peanut butter again along with her little brother. Although he has never had a chance to
see your performance (video recorded or so) he really likes the tunes and learns English
words by singing the songs with lots of pleasure. The only thing is that my little son
finds the tape “too short”. Another disadvantage of this tape was, that as we
travel a lot, he could not bring it along with him to play it on his Discman. So I tried
to Google up your name in hope that, somewhere I might find a possibility to buy your CD.
And, HURRAY, here comes the website with chances to buy, not one, but even three
different CDs. My son´s birthday is coming up on 28 March – and I have a great surprise
for him. Three CDs from DAVE FRY!!!! From now on he can enjoy traveling with your songs
along.

Fantastic! Thank you, Dave, and we wish you many creative years ahead, so generations of
children can grow into adults, having fun and joy with your music. Thanks for keeping our
spirits young and smiling!

Mariana (me – the mom), Jaro (the dad), Katarina (the once little girl who loved you
first of us all), Matthias
(your new admirer)

I revisited one of my favorite Bethlehem schools – Wm. Penn ES. It’s one of several open “pod” schools where classrooms are in ear shot of each other. Nice sense of community, and that’s what we did together on Wednesday – teachers dancing with kids, kids singing with each other, and I got to watch it all from the front. It was RIF day, Reading is Fundamental, and we had a hoot. Thanks for having me back.

Ron and I trekked up to the South Green Open mike on Monday, with lots of folks showing up – some pleasant surprises. Even some James Joyce from Finnegan’s Wake. I got to wind up my Celtic material, spanning several open mikes this month, with the Bonnie Black Hare. Ah, yes.

This Saturday was a Blue and Gold banquet in Jacobs Church, PA, in the rolling farmland north of Kutztown. Boy, I love this section of PA. Anyway, playing for rumblin’, tumblin’ stumblin’ cub scouts is no easy thing (why do they call them Packs? I think I know.) A very nice time and ran into some familiar faces from Weisenberg and Northwestern Lehigh.

One very tall scout leader came over and introduced himself, and then said he saw my at his B&G dinner when he was a scout. Oooo, I’m so old…. But then, I’m still playing. Thanks.

Home to CT on the morrow.

I’ve had the opportunity to open for some heavy acts – Steve Martin, Ted Nugent, the Phillie Phanatic, Doctor Shock, and several times for Santa, but I got to open for E. Bunny himself – there ever elusive bunny himself. Last Saturday, I played in a pouring thunderstorm in the palmer Park Mall. And, sure enough, I finish my set, and Mr. Floppy Ears makes his entrance, and the whole audience gets up and follows him. Thank goodness I have a small ego.

We returned to a nice Catholic school Mt. Holly, NJ, Sacred Heart. We presented BlueRoots, an interactive program presenting the world of blues. We talked about the history of the blues, the format and the joy of playing the blues. A big tip o’ the hat to the lads in the RockRoots band for participating in this new workshop. Lots of audience participation with kids up on stage playing rhythm instruments, teachers dancing and, I’m glad to say, some heavy educational interaction. Nice to come back to such a welcoming community. Cub scouts tomorrow.

Thursday’s gig was a trek to northern CT to the small town of Goshen and a pleasant, small school in rural CT. It was a festive time, lots of movement and and overall swell time. Thanks for having me back to this precious little town. Off to PA for a gig in NJ in the morning.

Tuesday and Wednesday, the Northford boys hit the road for another open mike tour in CT. Ron Anthony, Pete Prizzi and myself went to The Space in North Haven on Tuesday – an amazing venue run by Steve of The Mighty Purple – and played. Then off to Roaring Brook’s open mike on Wednesday. A really good night there. I’ve been playing all my Irish stuff though I have no St. Patty’s gigs this year. Nice to lean on the old mandolin and hear it sing.

I just got an order from a woman in Slovakia for my three CD’s. Cool!

We finally made to Colonia MS today with two lively shows. The 8th graders were particularly on today – they applauded when we came on the stage. that’s a first.

I went out to pick kids for Peanut Butter, and pick one kid, who turned out to be a special needs kid. He got to shine in front of the whole school; he was so excited, he nearly jumped out of his skin. A nice moment.