What a day we had yesterday. The big news happened at the Chamber of Commerce banquet, but it started in the mid-morning with yours truly & resonator guitar & cup of joe (& Buffy the Buffalo, needless to say) showing up at the Saturday Market in Council—sorry I don’t have any pix of this—my hands were full of guitar pretty much the whole time.
The Council Saturday Market runs thru the spring & into the autumn (thru October, I believe), & is held on the last Saturday of each month. It’s sponsored by the owner of the local floral shop, which is one of the very best businesses in the little burg. She makes beautiful arrangements, & there’s always a happy & laid-back feel in the shop. Yesterday the shop’s gravel parking lot was host to around a half dozen craftspeople (it’s a bit too early for the “Farmer’s Market” aspect of the event) selling items ranging from homemade bread & fudge to framed photographs. I was “unplugged,” which is the most fun way to play, & ambled thru a marathon set of 51 songs—3-½ hours of playing & singing. Yes, I can still talk this morning, & there are no bandages on my fingers! I’m blessed with a very healthy set of guitar-playing calluses & they certainly proved useful. The music was pretty much all in the acoustic blues/old country camp (from “Hesitation Blues” to “Two Glasses, Jo
e”) but I made a few forays into more recent material (Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” which is a fantastic song, & a personal favorite, Kristofferson’s “Me & Bobby McGee”). You don’t get rich busking in Council, but I picked up a little mad money & had a great time. The weather was lovely for the last couple of hours after a bit of a chilly start. I’ll be back on Memorial Day weekend.In the early evening, we were off to the Chamber of Commerce banquet. This is an annual event, always held on the last weekend in April. We used to play this banquet—our old piano trio band, the Blue Notes, provided the background music at the event for a few years running, but since the Blue Notes went out of commission a few years back, Eberle & I hadn’t attended—& in all honesty, I guess Eberle really had no idea why I believed it was so important
for us to go last night, although I did tell her someone we knew would be getting an award. Fortunately, she was a good sport & agreed to go along.We had a fun time, visiting with some musician friends of ours, one of whom was there to emcee, the other to pick up some grant money related to the local fire & ambulance districts. & Eberle really had no idea when someone launched into the introduction for the “Teacher of the Year” award that she’d been chosen; I’d learned about it in a phone call earlier in the week.
I’m so proud of Eberle winning the award, which she richly deserves. She’s made a big impact in the community, teaching piano & other instruments to folks ranging from 5 to 70 plus; she’s played a large role in the musical education of several of the area’s most musically-gifted young people, folks who very well may themselves be active in music in some capacity thru their life. She worked on a sch
olarship program for Plum Alley Music so that she can teach kids whose families don’t have the resources to afford lessons, & she’s done workshops for home-schooled kids for little or no remuneration other than her sense that it’s the right thing to do; & she brings not only her considerable talents to all of this, but also a great sense of caring & enthusiasm. In a poor rural area, there have to be people who are willing to give freely of their talents, & Eberle certainly has done this.Congratulations, sweet pea!
Pix from top:
Eberle in our music room, with award
Decorations in the school multi-purpose room
Yours truly with party favor seed packet
Eberle's acceptance speech (note to self: don't use standard setting when taking a pic with dark red curtains as a backdrop)