music music music!

The ol’ sandbox has been humming the past few days - the house is full of musicians (Raina Rose and Co.) who came for the backyard concert and are having a hard time leaving. ‘Sokay with me - the next guests aren’t scheduled to arrive until Wed. and I love hearing someone who knows what he is doing tickling that old piano up there. But how the heck am I supposed to get any work done with that sweet banjo stuff wafting down into my office from the back deck?

I think by every standard the first-ever house concert at the Sandbox Inn was a raging success. The musicians were (and still are) happy; the attendees sure seemed to enjoy what they were hearing and papa Raybo, the mastermind who put this thing together, was grinning ear to ear all night. The Saturn Street Strummers played a few tunes to warm up the house - we’re an easy act to follow! - and it was one of our best performances to date, I do believe. It was kind of a bummer when the police showed up to tell us someone had complained about the noise. (Raina has a voice that sounds a lot like what is commonly described as “angelic,” accompanying herself with an acoustic guitar mildly amplified. It was 9:30 PM on a Friday night but still too much for one of my neighbors to handle. What on earth does this person do during spring break, bikefest and pretty much every weekend during the high season, I wonder?)

It was truly a magical evening - “magical” is a word lots of folks who came were using - and if you are the neighbor who complained, I’m sorry but that is not the last house concert at the Sandbox.

And then we have a real honest to goodness music festival coming to SPI in just a matter of weeks! I am really looking forward to it. Tonight I spent some time downloading iTunes tracks from some of the artists that are scheduled to make an appearance and I have to tell you we have some excellent stuff coming this way. Robert Earl Keen is no stranger to SPI and he has many fans here -- my favorite song of his is “Out Here in the Middle.” The rest of the names are new to me, but after surfing around iTunes a bit the artists I am most looking forward to catching are Patrice Pike, Mike Doughty and Ginger Leigh -- but I also downloaded a track each from Grupo Fantasma and Los Amigos Invisibles just for grins -- I think they will be added to my “go fast” iTunes playlist (excellent music to shovel to). The festival pass is a real deal so grab one quick and please encourage everyone you know to come out and support this event, all the local venues participating in it and the local businesses sponsoring it. (Including the Sandbox Inn, which just happens to still have a vacancy that weekend!)