Saturday was our best day in the park this month. For once, Stefan and I didn’t have to run off for other gigs so the whole afternoon kind of stretched along very pleasantly. We can’t start on saturday’s until noon now. A few weeks ago a very matronly lady who’s wardrobe and demeanor screamed, “My family donates millions to this park every year and you will do what I say.” told us that we could not play while they were having story-telling over at the Hans-Christian Anderson Sculpture about 200 yards away. Stefan was funny about it. He knows New York on a very deep level and he gave the lady in the sun hat and purple foulard much respect. “That is not the lady you want to mess with.”
I got there at noon and waited for the crew to arrive. The first to show was Stefan’s mom, Jan. She came porting a camera ready to shoot us with a few lenses. She was such a sweetie and introduced herself right away. The next to show was Rob Adkins. This is only his second time playing with us and hopefully it will not be his last. He’s a tall, lanky, quiet type with a big broad smile and an easy demeanor. Clifton and Stef arrived in tandem and we got down to business.
Rob’s sound complimented us very very well. His sense of groove and the volume of his bass was perfect for the environment. Saturday’s always treat us right but the freshness of having a new player along who was so clearly enjoying what was happening lifted everyone’s spirits.
Our third set was the magic set of the day. Again, Bill Bailey stole the show and netted us a lot of CD’s sales. That tune is certainly going to find its way on to our new disc come the fall. In the middle of this Sara Simms showed up. A violinist with perfect pitch who was alarmed to be playing fiddle tunes in horn keys. Oh well. A very cool woman with a lot of cleverness and attitude. We hope she comes back again soon.
Right at the end of this third set, exactly at the moment where we had sold all the CD’s and passed the hat, it started to really really rain. We tried to stay dry for a moment under our shade tree and did our best to protect the wooded instruments. Stefan, clearly, just had to keep playing rainy songs… These included (to my ear) Happy Birthday, Footprints, God Bless The Child, random screaming, and others. He did this while a) hoping up and down on the Alice sculpture. b) putting his weight on his right hip and pushing himself around in circles with his left leg. c) skipping and prancing like a satyr. d) all of the above.
D.