Sirens and Spirits

Just now recovering from a REALLY great weekend…

First it was Westerly, RI and Perks and Corks…a standalone excellent venue full of music-lovers, marines and girls on a much-deserved night out. (Many thanks to Mark Aleo, who backed me up on mandolin with no less than 4 hours notice! Good dude, happy noodler, mellow musical companion.)

After which I reached the life milestone of booking a hotel room for no one but myself. Adulthood is an amazing thing. Though the novelty wears off quickly, I hear…

The next day, Friday, dawned full of potential, and I went wandering in the wilderness between Mystic and Stoningham, CT. I got not lost, but stuck, and was rescued by a siren-like singer-songwriter named Fraea Olivia, the solo and band numbers of whom you can find on Soundcloud (three part harmonies in my opinion always deserve accolades, especially these, check out their originals!):

Violets

I busked in Mystic for the rest of the afternoon until my gig at Captain Daniel Packer Inne. I played a 1000-year-old French song for a kind family from Montreal, and the mother spontaneously joined in with me on the treble part, surprising and delighting me. Their children made me leaf cut-outs with the scissors on my leatherman. Another couple celebrating their anniversary offered me a slice of pizza after I begged one of them to try out my new old guitar – we sang “Angel from Montgomery” together. I heard ghost stories of the little girl Aida who 200 years ago died in the restaurant where I was to play. I didn’t see her that night…but she might have been avoiding all the young adults pretending to be grown-ups. 😉

And of course, as annually has proved, the last Saturday of August blessed me with LEMIfest. It is now clear that no matter where I am in the world, on the last Saturday of August I will be in Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, jamming it up with some of Boston-and-beyond’s most heartfelt lovers, poets, musicians and listeners. It’s not that I expect to automatically have a good soulful time – it’s just that I always do. Mama Sue and Papa Ricci are just tapped into good things, and their daughters seem to take care of all of us. Even those of us who never met them in the flesh.

And all day Sunday? I slept.