Saturday Market #12: A Very Merry Solstice Indeed

Officially, celestially, Summer started on Saturday and got off to its usual Willamette Valley sluggish start... I love walking onto the Park Blocks in the morning and finding somebody like Ken Silverman on stage, playing Joplin rags and Cole Porter and Gershwin tunes effortlessly. The crowd is trickling in, sitting appreciatively with coffee and morning food, zoning out before the day really kicks in. It was kind of gray and muggy and warmish, everybody was sleepy and not quite caffeinated enough. A good start to the whole season.

The day rolled mellowly along, to the excellent soundtrack provided by Sharon Rogers, David Bowers and Kay Rose. And then the energetic arc of the stage took a giant leap upwards with Ishianna and the Foundation. Ishi and Ianna, backed up by members of Eleven Eyes and Disco Organica - how could that be anything but fabulous? They were so much fun to watch, their stage chemistry is great!


Vega wrapped up the stage day with a great set as well. I got a new little FlipVideo camera for the Market, and took several videos of songs- from David Bowers, Kay Rose and Vega. It's going to take me a while to find the best spot for the audio to sound good, and using the tripod should help with fuzzyness, but it's a leap forward - it's so simple to use and upload! I hope to start getting out and about wandering and chatting with folks and increasing my video library on the web for all to see. You can find the latest here at the Market's YouTube channel.

This weekend, the Olympic Trials start, and everyone is anxious to see what will happen at Market. Will they find us? Will they like us? Will they buy our stuff? We sure do hope so. Signs of the hoopla are starting to crop up everywhere. Yesterday afternoon I noticed a guy with a big, fancy video camera on a tripod out on Broadway, filming a couple of Goth kids crossing the street. They looked pretty much like movie characters, all in black and the girl had a big bright red umbrella. "Oh, some local somebody making a movie!" I thought. Then the guy stood up and I saw the huge NBC Sports logo on his back and realized, no, he's just out here to get some Eugene footage, and fortunately Eugeneans in downtown are appropriately picturesque! I sure hope they have fun here, there's so much to see and do, and we are all quite photogenic!!

Saturday Market #11: There's Nothing Like a Wilde Hour

There were lots of good things about Saturday, like all the folks visiting due to the U of O graduation, like having a new camera to play with and start to learn about, like perfect amazing blue sky weather with a cool breeze blowing, and especially like an hour long Peter Wilde set.


I love Pete's wry song stories, lovely singable melodies and personable funny stage presence. He always brings along great musicians - this time Sean Shanahan from Honeybucket on banjo and guitar, and Tonya Voxman the amazing fiddler who used to play with the Sugarbeets back in the day. They sounded great together. He had his kids minding the merchandise. That's a well appreciated part of a Market gig, you can bring your kids along!


I also love Pete because he was the first musician to save my precious behind way back on my second or third Market ever in 1992. Somebody called and bailed out about half an hour before their set. Of course I had zero clue about what to do about that. I didn't come into the job knowing anything about booking or running a stage. Movie theater, yes, I had that down. Crowds ready to see a performance, yes, completely familiar. Hence my panicky vision an hour of silence from the stage and the ensuing riot. Freaking out just slightly (!!), I asked Frank Cardoza who was my co-worker and who did know about these things, for a suggestion about what to do. "See that guy over there with the guitar? That's Peter Wilde. He's really good. Go ask him if he can fill in." And so, seeing no choice but to trust, I did go ask. And he gladly obliged. And I loved his wry song stories, singable melodies and personable stage presence. And now, still grateful, still happy to have him on the stage, still finding that a Wilde hour improves my day.

Three other of my favorite guys with guitars played on Saturday too, making even more of my happy stage day, Olem Alves, Eagle Park Slim and Jerry Zybach, and then the nice surprise of a new band at the end of the day, The Huckleberries, from Cottage Grove, playing a fun country/retro/Americana kind of set. All in all, a very sweet day!

Saturday Market #10: In Which My Camera Dies

Oh, I am establishing a bad pattern! Late blogging! Better than not, though...

I remember two things from last Saturday, The No Fault Liability String Band - they were really fun and just hit the spot for me -

and my camera flipping out and beeping and zooming in and out and being generally non-responsive, despite all my geekly fix-em-up attempts.

After checking into getting it repaired, it seemed more cost effective to step up and get a new one. I'd been thinking it was time to move into the world of DSLRs and so I did. A brand new Olympus e-510 is now in my possession and about to take its first spin around the Park Blocks. Guess I'd better get to work... whee!

Saturday Market #9: This is a Talented Town

Yikes! Friday afternoon and no blog yet... Here goes.

As it turned out, last week I had lots and lots of kids on the stage, three sets full. I've said it before, but I'll say it all over again, I love that Market is such a kid-friendly performance venue. I also love giving the next generation of musicians a place to start. I'll be needing them when I'm a little old lady and all the musicians I know and love now are little old folks too. We'll likely be happy to sit back and watch the youngers play. Maybe the youngers will do the booking and run the sound board too.

We started out with the Harris School Marimba bands - the Mangos and the Bananas - directed by the delightful and amazing David Adee. They sounded great, and I got to see Noah, a kid I first met when he was just barely born, have his first Market gig. Pretty exciting!


Then the latest edition of the Youth Music Showcase, organized so deftly by Beth Rose. This is Jade and Shanti Stewart and a friend playing classical music.

Then Quinn Souther and Hannah Washington singing a couple of contemporary hits.

Then Quinn played with his band One-Eyed Doris, switching for a song with the drummer. These kids go to Roosevelt Middle School. I don't remember anybody having a functioning rock band when I was in Junior High...

Later on, The Employees of the Month, under the expert guidance of Tim McLaughlin, played their own set. They played a couple of times last year as well. I've got them on video playing Purple Haze, hopefully it came out well enough to post on YouTube. They are a real crowd favorite.

All in all, a satisfying musical experience for everyone. Whenever one of these kid-full days roll around I know this will always be a Talented Town.