Are You Dave?

We spent the weekend in CA at a family reunion, some 30-40 of our closest relatives, plus various spouses, step-relatives and hangers-on. (No, it wasn’t one of them who asked The Question; they all know me via the web if not face-to-face.)  Saturday night we had a huge gathering at our hotel pool and I took charge of collecting food orders. We phoned in a $120 food order, not outrageous by NYC/Hoboken standards but apparently quite a request for the local eatery. We gave my name as the pick-up person. I grabbed my eldest nephew to help carry food, and headed out to pick up our order. The waitress who spotted us lingering by the counter asked “Are you Dave?” My nephew wondered why I laughed.

Like Simon and Garfunkle before them, Erin Lee and Marci have finally split up (but they’re still doing concerts together). Now Erin Lee is touring with her new combo, the Up Past Bedtime Band, and in keeping with tradition she asked me to sit in with them for their Shipyard concert!

Fortunately, though the band has changed the songs remained the same, so rehearsing for the show was simply a matter of remembering what I did last year! (Erin Lee’s songs are really catchy and not too difficult to learn.) I like these sets because I get to break out the banjo and mandolin and challenge myself a little. Thanks, Erin Lee… all these years later she’s still pushing me musically!

I loved the Up Past Bedtime Band. They put on a great show, very entertaining, very silly, very musical. Learn more about Erin Lee’s new direction here.

The band has received lots of offers to play at birthdays during our time together, but we’ve had to say “no” due to lack of space, lack of funds, whatever. We decided to change that by creating Lemon Trios, three-person units that can play “unplugged” events anytime, anywhere. (The success of our recent acoustic set at Make Music NY was a big help in this regard.) Justin, Dana and I did a trial run at a birthday party today and it went really well! Being up-close-and-personal with the crowd really allowed us to get interactive and make jokes with the kids. We plan to do lots more of this sort of thing, at parties, in schools, and elsewhere.
~ Dave

Goodness, I’ve had NO gigs this month! I’ve only had one birthday party, and I’m only teaching 9 or 10 classes a week instead of my usual 13 or 14. This is gonna bring my numbers way down. But on the up-side, I’ve had a LOT of great time to spend with my family. We’ve been up to the pool on campus quite regularly, and we’re off to northern CA at the end of next week to visit a whole bucketful of relatives. Tonight we went over to the Shipyard to see our pal Big Jeff perform with his band, The Bouncy People. Which reminds me, next Tuesday I am sitting in with Erin Lee and her new band at the Shipyard. I’d better rehearse….

Two in one day!

At the organic store, I heard “Are you Dave?” from a woman near the check-out counter. Turns out it was Karyn Kuhl, another Hoboken-based musician who does classes for kids. Eight years working in the same field in the same town and we’ve never actually said “hi” to each other. But she could have been a Fuzzy Lemon: She was included in the original e-mail I sent out, inviting people to jam with Dana, Kipley, Maiken and myself at Cabin Fever 2008. Anyway, we hobnobbed for a bit. She’s friendly.

Then, after a pleasant afternoon noodling on my banjo (not a euphemism) at Church Square Park, I heard an “Are you Dave?” from the gazebo. A woman named Liz recognized me from the Gordys; she was hanging out with another fellow who introduced himself as Manny The Artist. Manny said he’d enjoyed my banjo picking and told me about his son, who is in a band called Blue Food, and I should check ‘em out on YouTube. Blue Food. You heard it here first, folks!