Gratitude for the 12-Hour Street Concert
29 Sep 2015
I AM SO FILLED WITH GRATITUDE.
Twenty-odd years ago I used to set up in the morning in Harvard Square in Cambridge and busk all day to make a hundred dollars for rent. This Sunday I set up in the morning and busked all day to make a few thousand dollars, and give a couple thousand away. And truly, for the most part, it felt eerily the same. To just stand there and look out at the passersby, to watch the light change on the buildings, to try to open up to the song in the moment…to disappear into something larger than oneself. To stop thinking, and just sing every song I know. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING A PART OF THIS. WHAT A LARK!
Now it’s on to Colorado, and Georgia, and North Carolina, and of course to the fifth annual Lamplighter Sessions all through late October at Club Passim. I feel completely recharged: that’s what your generosity, your creating the space for that day of music to flourish, did for me. Thanks. Please check my tour calendar, and spread the word about shows near you. Trust me, I’ll still be buzzing from this event.
There were many things that were vastly different, and they’re all down to the great people that I’ve met since my true busking days. SO: thank you Kate, my online right hand, who ran the Concert Window feed, and was the conduit to the entire online crowd. And of course, thanks to the online crowd- you didn’t exist in the old days! Your presence was a gas. Thanks Suzanne, Jen, Ellen, Karen, and Liz for staffing the merch table. Such a big part of the overall income and giveaway. Thanks to the crowd that came down, the die-hard fans and the passersby. Thanks to all the great musicians who sat in with me. Whatever I sound like, it’s from absorbing your artistry, from the moment I set foot in your scene way back when. Thanks to my pal Barry Rothman, of Radi0Swan, for the selfless help and the music. Thanks to the non-profits: ZUMIX, Raw Art Works (what a beautiful backdrop!), the National Youth Science Foundation & Club Passim. You came down and cheered it all on. ‘Swonderful. And lastly to Matt Smith (to heck with the place: YOU’RE an instiitution!) and the whole Passim staff, Michael in the kitchen, the wait staff, the crew- we had a great train chugging along all day.
Thank you all.