Are You Dave?

Last year, you’ll recall, the Lemons cancelled this gig due to the threat of rain (which never fell, naturally). This year, we DID get rained on… but the show must go on!

I suggested to the other Lemons that we try something different this year. The gazebo is cool and all, but it’s very high, and very sheltered, and it kind of distances us from our crowd. Rather than playing way up high in the gazebo, I asked, what if we played down on the sidewalk among our fans? I thought it would make a big difference, taking away the separation from the audience. (Plus, we had a special guest drummer joining us, and I wanted the audience to have a clear view! More on that in a moment.)

We had another change tonight, as well. A young man named Mark Glindmeyer did our sound for us, and he did a great job. He’s MUCH younger than the band but doesn’t mind hanging out with us old-timers. Justin, Dana and Vanessa know him from their church, so it’s like he’s already a part of the gang.

As we were setting up, we chatted with our neighbors, friends, and fans. About 15 minutes before the show, photographer-to-the-stars Joe Epstein sauntered over and showed me the weather app on his phone. An ominous green blob was moving towards us on the map. We hadn’t anticipated anything of the sort! It had been a clear day all day long. Fortunately, Gene the Plumber was there and quickly provided some plastic sheeting in case it rained.

And rain it did. We were just a few songs into our set… as a matter of fact we had just started playing “Jump in a Puddle” when the first few drops fell. I felt it on my back first - we were facing east and the storm was coming in from the west. I hoped it would pass but it just kept getting wetter. We all grimaced at each other, whipped through the song (I skipped the guitar solo) and started throwing plastic over our gear.

Chris writes “…we started Jump in a Puddle and it started drizzling and we didn’t stop, by the end of the song it was a downpour and when I tried to get into the gazebo, I couldn’t because all of our fans were in it, so I ran under a playground tube for shelter, that didn’t work, so I accepted the rain…”

With the gear safely covered, more or less, we turned to take shelter in the gazebo (I thought maybe I’d grab my acoustic and we’d do some unplugged stuff up in there) but with all the families hiding there, there wasn’t an inch of space left for the band! As Chris wrote, we just sort of accepted it and started dancing around in it (not the first time this has happened!) At one point I hollered “it’ll take more than a little rain to stop the Fuzzy Lemons!”

The shower lasted no more than fifteen minutes. Once we were sure it had ended, we uncovered the gear, plugged stuff back in, and went on with the show! Vanessa’s keyboard, unfortunately, had gotten wet and wasn’t working properly (it was back to normal the next day) so she danced and sang and played percussion. I’m proud of all of the Lemons for displaying flexibility and optimism. And I’m simply overjoyed that so many people decided to stay in the park along with us! I don’t think our crowd was noticeably smaller when we resumed playing. Everyone was soggy and grinning and having a ball.

Oh, and did I mention we had a guest star? An eight-year-old named Jake, who got his musical start in my Music Together class (I’m quite proud to say), has been studying drums with Chris at Garden Street Music. I saw a video of his recent recital and was blown away. I asked Chris, discreetly, if he thought Jake might want to do a song with us at Church Square Park, and Chris agreed that Jake would be amazing. So at their next drum lesson, the two of them rehearsed “Rough and Tumble” and we invited Jake up to bash it out with us on stage.

The kid was awesome. Never missed a beat, and in fact when I shouted out “Drum Solo!” halfway through the song, he pounded out some killer fills. The crowd went wild. He’s gonna go far if he doesn’t let success go to his curly, freckled head.

Overall, it was an incredible night, I think one of our best performances to date in terms of fun and overall looseness. We were really relaxed and just enjoyed whatever came, and I think the audience really got into that spirit as well.

That que sera sera spirit continued all night. After the set we’d hoped for our usual dinner at O’Nieal’s but sadly it was not to be. We went to Three A’s instead and ate a great meal of burgers, tortellini, wings, and I got a big steak. Cheers!
~ Dave

Just about a year ago we played a fantastic show in the gazebo at Church Square Park, sponsored by our friends at O’Nieals. I guess it went well because they asked us back to do it again this year!

This year, I’m pleased to say, we own most of our own P.A. gear so there was no last-minute scrambling to throw something together (although Dana did have to drive up to the heights to borrow a couple of items from our friend Stefanie again). In fact, we had pretty much everything set up and ready to go long before the park handyman arrived to turn on the power for us!

Gene The Plumber swung by to make sure we had everything we needed; he coordinates the Weds shows in Curch Square. I told him he’d been immortalized in song by Geri Fallo at the Gordys show last week; he got a kick out of that. More importantly, he loaned us a couple of carpets to cover all the cabling that ran from the stage to the sound board. What a guy. Dave Entwistle gave us a crackerjack sound-check, and we were off!

I love outdoor gigs and I’m pleased that we have a couple more on our calendar; playing in the gazebo is fun because we’re way up high and can see all the people bobbing all over Church Square Park. And we had ‘em dancing this year! It was a gorgeous evening, again with a slight chance of rain that never appeared, and we had a really good crowd out enjoying the music. More and more people are learning our songs and singing along at shows, which to me is a hugely gratifying thing.

This is the first anniversary of our last show with Kimberly, so I wanted to take a moment and throw her a shout-out: Hi Kimberly! You rock!

It was a great night, all around. As per usual there were some minor boo-boos (I put the capo in the wrong place again for “To The Moon”; Brandon shocked us all by launching into “Girls Rock” when the rest of us were geared up to play “Fairytale Blues,” which was the next tune on the setlist) but overall it was a euphoric and lovely event. I hope to have some photos to post soon. There’s nothing like a sunset concert, and nothing like a Hoboken crowd!

Afterwards, we hauled all of our gear home and most of us adjourned to O’Nieals for a free dinner! Bonus!

~ Dave

As I mentioned recently, I was invited to be part of an all-star concert in celebration of the great Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday. Geri Fallo got some of Hoboken’s top musicians (and me) together to put on the tribute show, which kicks off the town’s Thursday-night summer concert series.

Everyone picked out one or two of their favorite Pete songs, and most of us rehearsed with the Demolition String Band backing us up. Rehearsals sounded great… the night of the show, however, was something else entirely. For starters, it was drizzling, and when I got to Pier A I found Elena and Boo huddled in their car, with no one else around. Concern was expressed.

But lo, Tom Sweeney rolled up shortly in a red “short bus,” which apparently has replaced his familiar white van. He and his sound guy (I didn’t catch his name, but he knew what he was doing) set up the gear in a tearing hurry, only to rip it down again and move it into the gazebo at the end of the pier when Geri showed up, frowning the weather.

Meanwhile, I jawed a bit with Ray Korona, who told a couple of Pete Seeger stories and did a dead-on impression (”Y’know, if we all held hands in a circle around the globe… three-fourths of us would drown”) and with Clarence Ferrari, fiddle player, dad, and all-around nice guy. We sat at the end of the pier and watched the Clearwater, Pete’s famous sloop, motor in and tie up next to the Waterfront Museum.

Before long, the gear was set up in a dry place, and most if not all of the musicians were in place.

The lineup went something like this:
The All-Hoboken Youth Chorus - This Little Light of Mine
The All-Hoboken Youth Chorus - We Shall Overcome
Kate Jacobs and the chorus’ conductors did a fantastic job, leading a group of over 100 kids from every school in Hoboken in two great sing-alongs.
Ray Korona - Toys for Peace (a song he wrote with Pete!)
Jon & Deena (of The Cucumbers) - Kisses Sweeter than Wine
I have been a fan of the Cucumbers for years, and we’ve gotten to the point where we say “hey” at these functions. They have been doing “Kisses Sweeter than Wine” as a gorgeous duet for just about ever.
Dave Lambert - Inch By Inch (The Garden Song)
I pretty much ripped off Arlo Guthrie for this version (I’ve been aping Arlo since I first heard - and memorized - “Alice’s Restaurant” in high school). I can’t come close to his performance, so click here for the real thing. It was fun to see folks in the audience singing along, even the rare anti-garden verse. There were some true folk fans in the crowd!
Dave Lambert - Turn! Turn! Turn!
I got to welcome the Demolition String Band back to the stage - Elena Skye and Boo Reiners on guitars and vocals, Dave Post on stand-up bass, and Clarence Ferrari on fiddle. What a treat to be able to share the stage with this gang; they are, as I introduced them, true keepers of the musical faith in the strongest tradition of Pete Seeger and his ilk. We launched into the Byrds arrangement of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” with me on my Danelectro 12-string and Elena and Boo backing me up with rich, rich harmonies. Thank goodness they’d brought music stands - Pete Seeger songs tend to have lots of verses. When we got to the solo, I liked what I heard coming from Clarence and his fiddle so much that I gave him a nod and he launched right in; I picked up the solo in the 12-string for the 2nd half. Every now and then I am privy to those moments of musical telepathy, when two players can wordlessly go somewhere together. Playing with folks like the Demolition String Band, who have music rolling through their veins, makes moments like that much more likely!
Kate Jacobs - Goodnight Irene
Kate has such a sweet, simple voice, it’s actually hard to describe. She’s not a belter or a warbler, she just sings clearly and cleanly, with an incredible emotional impact. The entire audience joined in on harmonies, to glorious effect.
Abbe Rivers - Mary Don’t you Weep
Abbe Rivers - Jacob’s Ladder
Abbe is a wonderful counterpoint to Kate Jacobs: bold, brassy, and no-holds-barred. We all rocked along to her two songs, swaying to the full drunken-gospel feel.

Unfortunately, I had to take off at this point. But here’s what I missed (sadly):
Gene D. Plumber - Joe Hill
Gene D. Plumber (with his daughter and special guest Perry Robinson) - Guantanamera
Boo Rieners - Talking Union
Boo Reiners - Michael Row Your Boat Ashore
Elena Skye - Little Boxes
Elena Skye - Which Side Are You On?
Eddie Fogarty - John Henry
Annalee Van Kleeck - Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (She couldn’t make it, see her comment to this blog)
Dave Calamoneri - Bring ‘em Home
group finale - If I had a Hammer & This Land is Your Land

I can only imagine that the rest of the night was as magical! I sent some thank-you notes afterwards, and got nice replies from Boo and Elena. Next up, I have a Woody Guthrie project in mind that they’d be perfect for; watch this space for details!

Here’s a photo of the night from my cell phone:

Dave Post, Clarence Ferrari, Elena Skye, Boo Reiners (seated), and Abbe Rivers