Joe, I'm looking forward to song circle on Friday. That's a good group of people.

As for yesterday evening, the sing-along on the beach went well, but not in directions that I expected it to go.

I was a little panicked when I wrote that original post, because it wasn't until I tried singing for the first time after the WTC attack that I realized how much emotion I had bottled up inside. I was a lot more upset than I'd known.

At the beach, I was expecting 30-50 people nearby, with some other people hanging around, drinking in the concession area. I was planning to lead about a dozen tunes, all picked beforehand, and to support my co-leader on her tunes. Most of my preparation time went towards familiarizing myself with five of her tunes.

The best advice I got here: bring your songbooks. I did. I got a nifty little light that clips onto a music stand and I brought about 1000 songs, though I only used a couple of my companion's song sheets and one song book. It was a good idea. Originally, I thought the songbooks would just be for moral support, but now I don't think my original choice of songs would have worked very well with the audience, and though I used to have about 400 songs memorized, I don't have that many handy anymore. The songbooks were good.

Things were chaotic. Kids were roasting marshmallows and being noisy. We called for quiet several times, and weren't completely ignored, but still, it wasn't easy. Part way through, happily, everyone got quiet for Amazing Grace, which my companion led wonderfully, but apart from that, we always had stiff competition. I used my really big voice on a couple of songs, and my ordinary big voice on most songs, but my voice just wasn't in good enough shape for two hours of singing, and I'd already used it too much earlier in the day.

The crowd was much bigger than I'd expected -- maybe 125 people? We got the best responses from really well known tunes and kid's tunes. I couldn't tell if anyone was singing along on the less well-known, but still really, really easy sing-along tunes, though I found out later that some people were. I think the crowd had a good time. The event's organizers were really enthusiastic; said that our performance had worked out much better than the professional band last year which had brought an amplification system and had sung Irish tunes. We were asked back, though I wonder if my companion will return next year -- she's really talented, and can project her voice well, but trying to be loud is not her idea of music at all (if she came back next year, I think a small amplifier would be in order).

After about an hour and a half? we took a break and the real singers in the crowd came over to talk. One thing led to another (what a great phrase) and within five minutes I was singing with them. My companion felt that I was really doing a bad thing, 'cause I was facing sideways to the main audience, but I think the main audience only wanted background music -- the people who wanted to sing-along quickly came over and joined us. I went on for about two hours more that way and had a GREAT time.

The songs we sang? Not too much to do with the WTC attack. Amazing Grace. O Freedom. My companion also sang (Gonna lay down my sword and shield) Down By the Riverside and another song of similar sentiment which I can't remember right now. Ouch. I don't' feel that way. I was ready to sing the Star Spangled Banner or the Battle Hymn of the Republic if anyone asked. We somehow missed We Shall Overcome, and I'm simply disappointed by that omission. In general though, the singing was thoroughly non-political. For the past week, when I wake up in the morning, I've checked the WTC news. But what I sang last night was that when you wake up in the morning...you brush your teeth... tsshhh...tssshhh...tssshhh. :-)