I almost dont want to write a wrap up post about this past weekend - TopicsExpress



          

I almost dont want to write a wrap up post about this past weekend because Im not quite ready to admit its over. The short version: Saturday I got to sing Chest Fever with one of my idols, Garth Hudson, playing the organ in his inimitable style. The crazy thing is, thats not even half the story. A moment like that should obliterate the whole evening surrounding it, but last Saturday night at The Trocadero, that moment just seemed like the perfect, almost inevitable cap of what was one of the best nights of music-making Ive ever had the honor to be involved with. I want to express my deeply-felt appreciation to Fergus Carey, Bryan Dilworth, Andrew Lipke and Kevin Hanson for conceiving of this evening and doing all of the insane amount of heavy lifting thats needed to put on a night of this scale. If there are heroes of the night to be singled out, they are the ones that deserve the kudos because it wouldnt have happened without them. It was such a pleasure for me to get to play onstage again with Matt Muir, Pete Donnelly, Kevin Hanson (that guy again) and Ben Arnold, all of whom Ive shared so much music-making with in the past. And then to get to play and listen to so many other great musicians living here in Philly, particularly the guys in The Arkansas Toothpicks ( Chris David, Mike Slo-mo Brenner Pete Rydberg, Jon Malcarney, Mark Tucker and Pete Donnelly (also again)) that I got to play ukulele with doing the Last Waltz Theme and Alison Wadsworth and Andrew Lipke (also also again) for letting me add uke to Evangeline. Im always looking for a reason/excuse/opportunity to play uke and Saturday night I was doubly lucky. The other incredible aspect of the evening: the feeling permeating every square inch of The Troc Saturday night. The spirit backstage was one of the warmest, most appreciative and mutually enthused Ive ever experienced and the 1,100 or so of you beautiful people who sold out the room and made those of us performing come offstage nearly levitating deserve a special mention as well. Im sure a lot of what created the magic in the room was the cause for which we all came together to help. The most important thing that happened Saturday night is that we raised a considerable amount of money to help some organizations involved with bringing music education, instruments and activities to the Philadelphia Public Schools. THANK YOU ALL. And to top it all off, we had Garth Hudson bringing his musical gifts both playing with the band AND in his amazing pre-show event playing with some young musicians from the Philly schools and sharing some of his knowledge and wisdom with them (and us). So ... next year, then?
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 20:19:44 +0000

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