Surfacing again briefly!

Tuesday evening I did manage to make it over to deepest darkest Cambridge and emerged at Harvard Square, half circled the block till I came to Church St. and then left down an annonymous alley which I hoped was Parker St. and there was a small sign identifying Club Passim! I then went off to a neighboring courtyard and exercised my banjo, frightening the local wildlife and small children.

I returned just before 6:30 pm and was welcomed by John who added my name to the list, issued me a discount card, and explained the general rules. One's name is picked randomly for order and one gets two songs of indeterminate length. I settled in at a back table, and then prowled around looking at the photographs and other exhibits of past events and folk heroes. Judy arrived from her meeting and also settled in. Shortly after 7 pm Matt, the MC, announced the first performer and then read off the list in order. I was about two-thirds of the way down.

There was quite a range of performers in terms of age, children to senior citizens; race and ethnicity; sex. Almost everyone played guitar, one played keyboard, I played banjo, and a couple of folks sang unaccompanied. There were a whole lot of original songs about love and loneliness and other angst but there were also some nice ballads and blues. I was particularly struck by Chris Elliot who presented a surreal song mixing Christ with Star Trek and Star Wars.

My great moment finally came and I made my way up the narrow aisle to the stage. I adjusted the mics, brought up my banjo for positioning and the strap fell off..."The strap's fallen off!" I said to myself as I soon determined that the button that secured it to the rim bracket had come unscrewed. I remember muttering in the mic that I had had a dream like this the night before, which got a laugh, while I looked down at the black stage to see if I could find the two tiny black plastic pieces. I did find them! And they had come unscrewed rather than broken and I was soon back in action. Sang "West Indies Blues" to great applause and then "Mid-Watch" by Burt Franklin Jenness.

Then we relaxed and watched the rest of the show. The food is actually quite good, unless you want red meat.

John was delighted to hear that Barry Finn's long awaited CD was now available, and is looking forward to hearing it.

I'll be meeting Barry and his wife at the No Name Restaurant at 5:30 pm at the Fish Pier to give him a more personal report.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble