Wow.
That was a hell of a night, in the very best way possible.
It’s going to take numerous posts to say everything about this night, so bear with me. Here is part one.
In the same way we never really planned to begin this house concert series, we hadn’t really planned to end it with this show. We’d talked about it of course, particularly with the pandemic bringing things to a halt and Ernie’s health issues taking a turn about the same time (my theory continues to be that when David Olney died the world went to hell–just think about it for a moment and I swear you’ll agree). Throw in my mobility issues and well, life was definitely changing. We hadn’t made a decision yet. In the meantime we knew we needed some live music in the house. It FEEDS us like nothing else. We’d also been wanting to have our beloved Jon Byrd back. The last live music we saw before the pandemic was Jon and Paul Niehaus at Dee’s and it had stayed with us. Fortunately he agreed. We set a date and were very excited.
Sometime after we booked the show, Ernie had a bit of a setback and had to go on heavy duty painkillers. I had a fall and my mobility got worse. We looked at each other and agreed. This was the last show. It was hard. We cried. A lot. These house concerts have sustained us and created a whole new family of friends for us, both the artists, the attendees, other house concert and music folks. They created a community for us in the very best way. Music is a hell of a bond and we have been truly blessed with our Sandwich Life family.
Here’s a peak at some of the prep for the night. It takes a village as they say and our village this time was Barb, Carrie and Bill East, Owen, Leo, Trinity and Delsie. There was a point before the show that I just turned it all over to Delsie and Trinity and it was such a relief. Carrie came over the day before and cleaned and they came over that morning and removed the dead Christmas tree from our front yard. AND weeded. Owen did sound and Leo helped with chairs and odds and ends that day and they both were on chair duty. Barb was kind enough to put up the guys. I love them all.
More to come.
I hope Ernie won and not the aluminum foil!!!
My heart is with you guys! I understand your decision and support you in it. I will always feel a little sad that I was never able to play there! You guys created such a wonderful atmosphere for all my friends who did play there. Now I guess we will see what new blessings life holds in store!
We haven’t been able to say never again, still can’t face that thought. But I have to admit we’ve learned to live without it. For now. So much has changed. Maybe too much. Thoughts and empathy are sent your way.
Enjoyed my one adventure trip there to see Malcom. Wish I’d have lived closer, I would have attended many more shows if invited. God’s comfort and blessings to you both.