WEEKLY UPDATE FOR OUR MUSIC FANS!

A couple of great flashbacks this week! One occurred at The Timber Creek this past Thursday, and the other resulted from a post I made on FB on Friday.
Back in 1976, I had a weekly gig in Shortsville at The Whipple Tree Inn (now The Side Track Bar and Grill). My show started at 9 PM, which is usually the ending time for most of our shows these days. At 1 AM, when the gig ended, the party usually continued at some after-hour location. In the summer the gathering spot was along East Lake road at Ontario Beach Park on Canandaigua Lake. Al Brown, one of the Whipple Tree patrons, would load my equipment into his car and off we went. All the memories of those beautiful summer evenings along the lake shore came back to me as I stood reminiscing with Al in The Timber Creek this past Thursday. Al, after all these years, is back in my life, and shows up at our Timber Creek happy hour on a regular basis. We laughed about many of those good times, and we also chuckled over the fact that each of us can’t wait to hit the couch after the Timber Creek happy hour is over. We’re both older and slower, but we still enjoy getting out there and enjoying the moment with others. I love it! Thanks to all who came out to enjoy the moment with Al and me. Although it was a cold night, your laughter, chatter, and applause made it a real warm night for Siobhan and me. Big thanks to Susie for her continuous support of our music, and big thanks to Jill and Hillbilly for always being so friendly and helpful! Hope to see you all next month!
On Friday, Siobhan and I were scheduled to play at Irish Mafia Brewing Company in Bloomfield. Unfortunately, the owners, really nice people, were threatened with severe fines if they did not pay licensing fees to ASCAP and BMI for having music at their restaurant. As a result, we had to be canceled because they could not pay the money at that time. When I posted this on FB, I did not expect the post to get all the attention it did. It was merely an FYI for any fans who were planning to come to the restaurant. My FB post, however, stimulated a rather fiery discussion about the pros and cons of ASCAP and BMI. The discussion got a little heated at times, but that’s all right. Thinking and displaying passion is good for us. It makes us grow. I loved it! It brought me back to my days as a teacher. I loved it when my students got fired up over an issue and let their thoughts and feelings fly. I wish I could say most of the time the issues that turned them on were ones concerning some deep moral issue such as why we should not use the phrase “That’s so gay,” but most often they focused on classroom issues such as whether they should be able to wear hats, play games on their calculators, or send text messages. Regardless of the issue, it was the thinking and passion of my students that I really enjoyed watching and monitoring, and those moments returned to me during the Friday night discussion on FB. Big thanks to all who contributed to that discussion! Regardless of the reason, it is always disappointing to be canceled, and your discussion really mitigated the disappointment.
Still reading? If so, thanks for being in our lives and have a great week!