My other annual show at the Shipyard is always a treat. My fellow teachers are always energetic and animated, and they love to harmonize. Even the simplest songs become masterpieces when you add rich harmonies. This year, I joined my fellow teachers Leslie, Marina, Bill, and our old friend Catherine Moon to put on a fun-filled show for our hometown crowd.
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My summer calendar is really filling up, now the Lemons have some dates in PA as well!
April 9: The Fuzzy Lemons at the Autism fund-raiser at the Rue School, Hoboken
April 10: TFL at Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn
April 11: TFL at the Jersey City school event
April 16: TFL at Earth Day at Liberty State Park, Jersey City
April 17: TFL at Knitting Factory, Bklyn
April 30: TFL at the Tribeca Family Festical, NYC
May 1: TFL at Hoboken Arts & Music Festival
May 15: TFL at Knitting Factory, Bklyn
May 28: TFL at MayFair, Allentown, PA
June 4: TFL at Riverfest, Red Bank NJ (pending)
June 21: TFL at Make Music NY in Manhattan
July 9: TFL at Kids Kingdom in Rahway NJ
July 18: TFL at Family Fun Night in Manhassat, NY
July 26: TFL at Shipyard Park, Hoboken
August 2: Music Together at Shipyard Park
August 6: TFL at the Bickford Theater, Morristown, NJ
August 7: TFL at Victory Park, Rumson, NJ
August 8: TFL at MusikFest, Bethlehem, PA
August 11: The Gordys at Sinatra Park, Hoboken
August 13: TFL at Kids Kingdom in Elizabeth, NJ
August 17: TFL at Riverhead Library, Riverhead, Long Island
September 18: TFL at UC MusicFest, Clark, NJ
In addition, I’m doing a dozen Music Together classes per week, “Sonic Uke” ukulele classes at Guitar Bar Jr. on Mondays, and playing for the All Saints’ sunday school on weekend when I’m available. Whew!
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I had a very sweet “Are You Dave?” today at the grocery store. A young boy, maybe 9 or 10 years old, was there running errands for his mom. He looked very mature and self-assured, loading his grocery bags onto the handles of his Razor scooter. Then he looked up at me and grinned. “Are you Mr. David?” he asked. He introduced himself and said he’d been in my class when he was younger.
I feel awful that I couldn’t place him, but it must have been years ago! It was really cool that he recognized me.
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A typical week in the life of the Fuzzy Lemons can include anywhere from 75 to 200 e-mails. Buried in among the discussions of set lists, copyright issues, technology, marketing and general hoo-ha are actual announcements of gigs that we’ve booked.
In an effort to keep my schedule (and my head) straight, I’m trying to cull all of my events from the e-mail torrent and get them all listed in one location. And wow, turns out it’s quite a list:
Whew! That’s a BUNCH of road trips around NJ, a crop of outdoor shows right here in Hoboken (a favorite), a mind-blowing conference with the biggest names in the business, and jaunts to Brooklyn, the Bronx and NYC. And we haven’t even booked our Knit gigs for the 2nd half of the year yet. I’m exhausted just thinking about it, and eager and excited to rock so many places. The week of June 20-27 promises to be extra crazy… and extra fun! See you there!
~ Dave
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This morning I got a call from Geri Fallo at city hall, the nice lady who books all the gigs for the town. She said Telemundo was taping a show down at Sinatra Park and I should go down there and sing on hispanic TV. “Can’t be that simple,” I thought to myself, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to put on my Fuzzy Lemons t-shirt and check it out.
Well, in the end it happened pretty much like Geri said! None of the other leading Lemons were available, but I wasn’t going to miss a chance to be on TV. Around 3:00 I went down to Sinatra Park, site of those gorgeous waterfront Gordys shows. Sure enough, they had a bunch of cameras set up and a bunch of Telemundo TV personalities taking turns performing and interviewing local artists and musicians. I asked a production assistant if it was true I could sing some songs and she said “sure,” so I frantically texted Kipley and Dana to see if there was any chance they could come down. None at all, as it turned out.
But because the universe is a cool place and Hoboken is an awesome little town, Justin and his wife had wandered by, and I corralled them into being my moral and technical support. They sat with me for over an hour as I waited my turn and tried to figure out what to perform.
I figured I could give them a Fuzzy Lemons CD and lip-synch to it, as a lot of the other artists were doing. But the problem was, the songs on the CD are in English and this was clearly a Spanish-based program. So I shifted gears and remembered that Music Together has taught me several songs in Spanish. I asked Justin to use his blackberry to help me e-mail some folks and drum up some kids to help me sing, and ran through the words and chords to the two easiest, most fun Music Together spanish tunes I know.
The director (the person with the headset who snapped her fingers and pointed at people the most) called me over at one point and asked what I was going to perform. I’d been given to understand that lip-synching was preferred, because overall the sound of a CD was better than open microphones on a breezy riverside promenade. I said I could lip-synch in English, or sing live in Spanish.
“Ok, you sing in Spanish,” she said, and went off to snap her fingers and point at some other people.
So that settled it, I was going to do Music Together stuff, and for that I wanted some kids (I work better with a crowd). No families showed up that I knew, but there were some kids around, some of them the offspring of the Telemundo crew or of the performers. I gathered a couple of them and taught them “Don Alfredo Baila” and prepped them to come help me on stage. They were enthusiastic (read: hyper).
Finally, around 5:15, I the director snapped her fingers and sent me to the stage, in front of the camera. I brought my little flock of kids with me, we plugged my guitar in, and on cue I launched into “Don Alfredo.” It was a hoot. The production assistant and Justin were both standing beside the camera, pantomiming along with the song, giving the kids silent direction to dance and smile and follow the motions of the song.
Then the interviewer came up and did a little bit where she waved our CD in front of the camera and spoke rapid-fire spanish. She asked me some questions (in English, thank goodness) and I think I gave coherent answers. I did a second song, “Maria Isabel,” with the kids dancing around me and Justin and the PA pantomiming moves for them from offstage. Then I finished, and we were done.
Justin gave the director a Fuzzy Lemons CD and she said something to the effect of “You’ll come back with your band and be on the show again next Saturday in Prospect Park.” I have no idea if she meant it or what; she said she’d call the Fuzzy Lemon line on Monday. But I’m going to devote a little free time tomorrow to translating a Fuzzy Lemons song into Spanish. Who knows?
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For those of you keeping track, this was my 4th concert and 4th band in a 3-week span. I’m even getting paid for two or three of them! I love being a professional musician.
Anyway…
Erin Lee Kelly and Marci Applebaum made their triumphant return to Hoboken tonight as part of the family concert series at the Shipyard. Last year they got rained out (and their visit to the Art & Music Festival was pretty damp as well) so everyone was thrilled when the rain decided to give ‘em a break.
I honestly don’t remember when, exactly, Erin Lee invited me to sit in with them again. It just sort of happened organically—it’s been on my calendar since April. But as the date got closer, Erin Lee and Marci were on tour and I was too busy preparing for recording and other gigs. I started to feel bad that I was neglecting the two of three songs they’d invited me to play. But the beauty of their material is: It’s deceptively simple. Wonderful melodies, rich harmonies, clever lyrics… and underneath it all, a comfy musical pocket for me to sit in with my banjo and mandolin.
Tom Sweeney and Chris The Sound Guy showed up at 5:00 and got set up, while I sat on the stage steps with the band and ran through our three numbers. The two songs I’d done with them last fall came back in a flash, and the third was an easy addition. We ran a sound-check, and with only three voices and three instruments to check we were done before 6:00! So we puttered around, I grabbed dinner, and we watched the lawn slowly fill up with Hoboken’s wee music lovers.
By the time Erin Lee and Marci started at 7:00 there was a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd, throwing around fee beach balls courtesy of NY Waterway Ferry.
Erin Lee and Marci have really honed their act; they keep up a steady stream of banter with the crowd and with each other, between and even during their songs. The Fuzzy Lemons would do well to borrow a page from their book, and indeed we’ve been working on that whole between-song thing at rehearsals. They cracked me up several times (when I wasn’t too busy helping with crowd control. Oh the beach balls!)
It was a treat to jump on stage and play banjo and mandolin with them; my confidence (if not actual skill) with both instruments has skyrocketed since the last time I tried. I even took solos with both instruments!
As always, it was over too quickly. I had to pack up my stuff and jump in a cab to head for Fuzzy Lemons rehearsal! I look forward to the next time I can hang, and jam, with these two awesome performers.
Tomorrow night, The Fuzzy Lemons at Church Square Park!
~Dave
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This show marks the beginning of my crazy summer, 5 gigs with 4 bands in 3 weeks, plus 20 hours in the recording studio. And I love it!
The annual Music Together show (read about last year’s here) is a bit of a departure from the other stuff I find myself doing these days. Whereas the Gordys are a band with lots of regular members who have to learn new material every year, the Music Together gang is an ever-rotating group who all happen to know the same music. And in fact this year we were blessed to not only have Anne and Catherine returning, we were joined by newcomer Kristin Springer as well. Her energy (and love of broadway show tunes) fit right in.
I’m grateful that we got the show together with only two big rehearsals (plus a couple of smaller get-togethers to pick songs and work out harmonies). My colleagues are al fantastic musicians and singers, and man-oh-man can they harmonize. Indeed, try to stop them! So once again we were able to put on a huge show with the simple lineup of four singer and a couple of guitars. We had a wonderfully supportive Shipyard crowd, as always, and the city’s sound crew, Tom and Aaron, did a bang-up job supporting us on the tech side.
Best moment: When I sang the opening notes of “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and the whole crowd answered back with the next line. That was fun.
From the show I packed up my gear and headed straight to Garden Street Music for a session with the Fuzzy Lemons. I’ll be back on the Shipyard stage with them next week!
~Dave
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The Fuzzy Lemons have booked a BUNCHA gigs in the last few days, which is nice. I hope it keeps up! Here’s my music schedule (not counting all the private birthdays and Music Together classes I’ll be doing):
~Dave
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For those of you keeping track:
April 24: The Fuzzy Lemons at All Saints’ spring bash
May 1: TFL at HOPES Father’s Group Dance (tickets available now!)
May 9: TFL play a private party
May 30: TFL at the Waterfront Museum
June 4: Pete Seeger 90th Birthday tribute, featuring some of Hoboken’s top musicians!
June 6: June-A-Palooza in Jersey City (tentative)
June 7: TFL at the OLG Fun Fest at Church Square Park
June 14: TFL at Kiddiepalooza on Pier A
July 28: Music Together at the Shipyard
August 4 : TFL at the Shipyard
August 6: The Gordys at Sinatra Park
August 11: Sitting in with Erin Lee and Marci at the Shipyard
December 6: Annual holiday show with Howie at the Hoboken Historical Museum.
Yes, that’s three Shipyard Tuesdays in a row. Awesome. Meanwhile the Lemons are putting together our mailing to try to book festival gigs all summer long, watch this space for details!
~Dave
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Here’s my latest schedule:
I’m especially excited about the Pete Seeger thing; I’ll be sharing the stage with some of Hoboken’s top musicians, including the amazing Boo Reiners and Elena Skye (the Demolition String Band), The Cucumbers, Abbe Rivers, and Jim Mastro of the Guitar Bar. Jim has agreed to do “Turn, Turn, Turn” with me! I’m utterly psyched.
Notice also the end-of-summer crunch: Music Together, Fuzzy Lemons and Gordys shows, all within a two-week span. I LOVE it when that happens! LOVE IT!!!!!
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