I promised a full report and here it is:

I am sad to say that I received a phone call from Catspaw on Friday through which I learned that he and virtually his whole family was being afflicted by the flu. In short, he was unable to attend the gig. I can barely express my disappointment. David C. and I had been quite excited about our meeting 'Spaw at last. However, these things happen in real life. 'Spaw said that he would try to catch up with us at some point during our travels in June. That will be so very cool!

Kelida and a good friend of hers arrived at the show just as the first group was cranking up. Both Kelida and friend were as charming and friendly as Kelida appears to be here in the forum. At my request the two of them made good use of my tiny tape recorder and my camera.

At the appointed time, the first group - a contra band - vacated the stage and it was our turn.

I should mention that P.J., the sound man for this event, was the son of my friend, Jim, who is pastor of the church where the show was being held. P.J. did a remarkable job of miking David C. and me. He adjusted the sound mix beautifully and then cranked up the volume as loud as he dared. Despite his efforts, he was unable to conquer the din of the crowd of some fifty people who seemed intent upon raising the volume of their talking to counteract P.J.'s efforts to make us heard.

David C. and I thought that perhaps after our first song the crowd would realize that we were something more than background music. By and large, this was not the case. There were perhaps ten people among them who appeared to be attempting to quietly listen to us. The rest continued their chatter.

We continued playing our set. We cut it short by a couple of songs because we were not enjoying ourselves at all. I feel certain that there are other performers who might have just packed up and left. - Believe me, the thought crossed both of our minds. However, we had driven more than 450 miles to be there as a favor to my friend, Jim. So we did our best to put on a show for the few who were listening - among whom were Kelida and her friend.

Although I blew a chord change or two, I felt that we made a good showing. Perhaps Kelida will give a more impartial evaluation. Except for a couple of songs I sang for a group of my co-workers at a Christmas show, this was the first time I had been on stage in about fifteen years or so. This was yet another reason why it was important (for me) to finish the set.

David C. did an outstanding job on the dobro and the mouth harp and made it all sound far better than I could have imagined. I say this after having heard the tape recording that Kelida made of our set. And, what I could hear through all of the talking sounded even better than I had hoped for.

All things considered, including that David C. and I have only been able to get together about seven times to practice for this event, we did okay (in my humble estimation).

And now to express my gratitude:
I am grateful to my friend, Jim for giving David C. and me an opportunity to be on stage and to P.J. for all he did. I am grateful to Kelida and her friend for having come to see us. I am grateful and a bit relieved that 'Spaw was unable to attend. I would have been embarrassed to have invited him to a show where he would have to try to play for such a crowd. My thanks to all of you for your encouraging remarks. And I am grateful to David C. for having stuck by me throughout the set and through the twenty-some hours of driving time to get there and back.