Are You Dave?

A very truncated version of the Gordys played at the United Synagogue of Hoboken’s Purim festival tonight. Instead of our usual sprawl of 8 or 9 players, we were pared down to just Adam on clarinet, Barbara on accordion, me on guitar and Justin on bass. Not even a drummer! But we did a pretty good version of our world-famous Klezmer set, as Adam and his wife led lots of circle dancing on the floor in front of us.

Highlights included:

• Seeing Pamela, a fellow Gordy who has been AWOL in Weehawken with her brand-new baby while the house in Hoboken is pretty much rebuilt from the roof down;
• Seeing several young kids in Star Wars costumes (Purim has been described as a kind of Jewish Halloween);
• Doing an encore for an enthusiastic crowd;
• For our encore, playing Barbara’s Freilach, a brand-new original tune written by our very own Babs!

I missed out on the upstairs festivities, which apparently featured Adam as Plaxico Burress. Really.

— Dave

World-class photographer (and close personal friend) Kenneth Chen e-mailed me after the holidays, about an event in Jersey City called J.C. Fridays, a city-wide arts event that takes place every three months. Restaurants, galleries and coffeehouses all over town display art by local artists and feature area musicians and entertainers. It’s a cool thing.

Anyway, Ken had some photos on display at a coffeehouse called Made With Love Organics and he put me in touch with the organizer, Jim Legge, who was looking for family-friendly entertainment. He’d already booked a face-painter and a balloon artist, so me and my guitar rounded out the day nicely.

I was scheduled to play from 1:00 to 2:00, but things were pretty loose and Jim invited me to play as long as I wanted. (Did I mention I wasn’t getting paid?) The place was pretty quiet at that hour; next time I’ll try for a later slot so I can catch the after-school crowd. A few families wandered in and I played a bunch of stuff from my kid-music songbook, with a little Music Together, some tunes from my childhood including “Rubber Duckie” and “The Billboard Song,” and some Fuzzy Lemons songs of course.

Jim is a sweet man and a talented photographer; he made me feel welcome and supported me enthusiastically even when I was just singing for him and the girl behind the counter. I hope he invites me back next time!

Well, a moderate success. About 25 people showed up, which isn’t a HUGE number, but when you consider who they were: representatives from CASA, the Boys & Girls Club, the Mankind Project and the local school board… well, I’m pretty pleased with the turnout. Several men indicated an interest in MKP, and I think the representative from CASA generated some interest in that organization as well. As I said at the conclusion of the evening, if even one teenager gets some much-needed support as a result of this gathering, I’ll consider it a roaring success.

I’ll be doing the whole thing again in about six weeks. I want to get a whole bunch of Hoboken guys interested in the Mankind Project!
Dave

http://hoboken411.com/archives/16774

I’m trying to figure out how to repost a blog entry from Hoboken411.com, but in the meantime click the link to see the announcement about Journeyman this Thursday.

Our first anniversary gig! Wow, a lot has changed from last year, but a lot felt oddly familiar…

Different: We had a drummer this year!
Same: We were still stuck in the basement.

Different: No Maiken.
Same: One of us rushed in at the last minute (Kipley, this time).

Different: We had to assemble and run our own sound gear this year. (Big ups to Trey Ordaz of Garden Street Music for all his work!)
Same: We totally rocked the house, yo.  

Everyone in the band agrees that we sounded good, our songs are really tight and well-developed and our performance is constantly improving. We all also agree that the crowd size was disappointing this year. I don’t know if that’s part of the overall trouble HFA is having with membership, or if it was naptime, or if we were just too loud. Oh well.  

Kipley’s wife was expecting baby #2 that week, and as the day wore on and Kipley hadn’t arrived, we all just assumed the time had come. We started preparing for a Kipley-less show; we’d even made an alternate set that was heavy on Dana and Dave’s tunes, just on case. The Big Kahuna rolled in with plenty of time, however. Turns out it was just really hard to find parking.  (And I’m happy to report that the baby arrived safe and sound just a few days later). 

Once again, Ken Chen was there taking pictures, check ‘em out! We’re sepia-toned!