I had quite a night (comfortable, not crazy) in this amazing town of ours yesterday. Have been getting back on the bike again for fifteen mile joyrides through Busse Woods Forest Preserve and I got one of those in yesterday despite the heat. Believe me, its anything but a joyride: its hard work that kicks my butt while perhaps keeping the reaper at bay for awhile longer. Never know. Those tights that bicyclists wear always seemed a little girlie to yours truly but Im pleased to report now that they dont feel bad at all! The focus of the rest of my afternoon was take care of some bills and then get out of the house at a reasonable hour on my to the world famed Old Town School Of Folk Music on Chicagos North side. With the assistance of my buddy Tim Wellington, I have been invited to sit in on this summers Byrds Ensemble class for the next few weeks. Due to trying to do too much around the house, monsoon like rain(really, again?) and other environmental factors, I was late arriving at the class but Tim and the rest of the class couldnt have been more gracious. Almost all of my classmates had guitars, most of them acoustic except for one guy with a candy apple red Rick(enbacker), the stringed weapon of choice for Roger McGuinn and later Tom Petty. I brought a pro looking tambourine along and then taking a page from someone elses playbook, I watched a woman with a tambourine perform and tried to follow along. I missed Mr. Tambourine Man but they were soon working on Ill Feel A Whole Lot Better and then a pair of nice deep tracks, Why and Have You Seen Her Face. We were encouraged to sing along which was so much fun, giving it go in the footsteps of Crosby, Hillman and Clark. Getting those songs out of your head at least after decades of more passive consumption is pretty good! Ill go back down on Lincoln Avenue again next week, Lord Willing...
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 07:41:58 +0000