A rare Kristen post! For the past few years, I’ve been doing an end-of-year photo retrospective on Facebook of the gigs I’ve played that year. It’s a fun way to look back and remind myself that I love my job! This year I thought I’d do this on the Journal to create some off-Facebook content and go into a little more depth.
So 2021: year 2 of the pandemic. We started the year with a terrible case/death surge, as we waited for vaccines to become available. Our calendar stayed pretty empty in January, February & March, except for our Wednesday Live From the Lair streams and a couple other virtual shows. In April/May, we got vaccinated and started to breathe a bit. The weather warmed up; we could play outside and finally get together with the full band, after over a year. Wedding gigs were rolling back in too (some were reschedules from 2020).
I kind of divide 2021 into pre- and post-vaccination. I got vaccinated at the MD State Fairground in April and I felt a lot more relieved after that!
Outdoor gigs were pretty much a no-brainer that we felt good about (we’ll always bring our own mics if it’s someone else’s system). Of course, weather cancellations always loomed. We had a few things affected but mostly good luck there. We played a lot of hot, sweaty & exhausting gigs this summer. And some that were cicada-infested! Sometimes not our favorite, but better than the alternative of not playing – and despite the heat, we knew it was safer for everyone than playing indoors. We thought about trying to plan tours again, but things still seemed pretty uncertain.
I timed getting a new iPhone with a fancy camera for right when our Brood X cicada emergence happened! Therefore, I took a CRAPTON of cicada photos (and even did a daily series on my Instagram. These are a couple of my favorites. I really fell in love with these creatures, though when they are swarming on you or screaming at 90 decibels when you’re trying to play a show, it’s not as fun.
In late July, after finally starting to book some indoor shows when things were looking pretty promising, we started hearing about the Delta variant and cases were going up again. We cautiously went ahead with a full-band weekend trip up to CT (our only long-distance trip this year) for 2 outdoor shows and 1 indoor, but decided to cancel some of the indoor shows we had scheduled back at home. Later in the fall we did do a few indoor shows – but even when there were masking and/or vaccination requirements, I still felt a little iffy about whether these were smart to do. There was a lot of thinking about individual risk tolerance, and coming to terms with “relative risk” – like, realizing that you have more risk of death/serious injury from the car trip to the gig than getting seriously ill or dying from a covid infection at said gig. Though for me, it’s also worrying about putting others at risk who choose to come to a show, or unknowingly infecting people if I’m asymptomatic. In November, we got our booster shots and were optimistic about being well-protected again.
Gettin’ dat booster at my local CVS. I originally got the J&J but opted for a Moderna booster.
And then, as I write this in late December, the Omicron variant is surging around the country and around the world. Things are starting to shut down again. I’ve actually lost count now of how many friends (mostly in our music community) have posted on Facebook that they’ve tested positive in the last couple of weeks. Luckily, everyone seems to have mild symptoms so far – but people are having to remain isolated over the holidays, have had to cancel gigs, and are worrying about infecting family members. We purposely did not book much of anything in Jan-Feb, and it’s looking like that was a smart idea.
So no, it hasn’t been “back to normal” in 2021. But that being said, it’s good to look back and see that actually, I worked a lot. Including our weekly livestreams, I played around 109 gigs. For comparison, in 2019 (which was sort of a light year), I had 91 – between ilyAIMY, Lulu’s Fate, Anthem & other weddings, and other freelance recording/gigging. Some more breakdown on 2021:
47 Live From the Lair Livestreams (I’m pretty sure we did one every Wednesday this year, but some were Heather solo or rob/Heather)
7 other livestreams (5 filmed elsewhere, 2 from home. There were some other stream-from-home ones we did as fundraisers or short things for friends but I didn’t keep track of everything.)
24 outdoor shows
19 weddings (and 1 funeral). Most of these were outdoor, but a few were indoors or mixed (outdoor ceremony/indoor cocktail hour).
7 indoor shows
4 recording/video sessions
I personally drove around 3,500 miles for gigs. Heather does most of the driving for ilyAIMY gigs, so there were definitely more miles traveled. For comparison, 2020 was 1,900 miles; 2019 was 5,900.
It’s always fun to see where people are watching our livestreams from. Here’s Bella (Heather’s parents’ dog) entranced.We did a shout-out to her on the stream and she responded!
…and I’m grateful for it all. Between gigs and the part-time work I do for House of Musical Traditions (which is now almost fully remote from home), I’m doing fine. Many folks I know working in the arts can’t say the same. It does still feel like a “placeholder” year – we’re not doing much that’s high-profile or seeking out new opportunities. I feel like I had time to do more creative stuff this year, but didn’t have the motivation. But “maintaining” is not a bad thing either, when you have the ability to do it. People really relished going out to live shows this year, and I was glad to bring that joy to them where we could. And I’m still so grateful to our regular crew of Live From the Lair watchers who keep us going.
OK, here’s the big photo dump from gigs! Click on each photo for a larger view.
Late last year, I finally achieved a goal I’d been courting for awhile – becoming an official NS Design artist! They don’t shower me with free stuff or sponsorships, but I’m featured on their website and they’ll help promote things I’m doing. On 1/13/21, they hosted a Zoom panel of NS electric cellists chatting with the company’s founder, Ned Steinberger. Very cool to be a part of!2/5 – We played a program for Community College of Baltimore County (Essex campus). It was livestream only, just a few staff members in the theater with us.2/21: filming a video collaboration for the fabulous Lea Morris!2/24: A livestream concert with Institute of Musical Traditions, at Tonal Park studios in Takoma Park. Our first date got snowed out (a snowed out livestream? Yeah, well, we’ve actually got to DRIVE to the studio). Rowan was able to set up in an adjacent room for social distancing purposes. 4/3 – a small wedding with Anthem String Quartet at the gorgeous Carnegie Library in DC. 3rd reschedule from 2020! We were able to be up on a balcony, separated but still nicely audible.4/13 – Our friend Juels Bland invited us to do a video series he and his dad produce; filmed at the AFI theater in Silver Spring. No audience – that’s still weird!4/18 – another College Park Porch Play event at our friend Mark H Rooney’s home. We get to share the show and play with taiko, which is always a blast!We livestream these as well. 4/23 – playing outside Little Market Cafe in Ellicott City. We love what Jeni has done with this space and it’s a lovely place to play, close to home.4/24 – our first experience at The Refuge in Woodstock, MD – a semi-private house (outdoor) venue. It was absolutely amazing and the first chance to play with the full band since Feb 2020!Not a gig, but a memorable thing – at the end of April we managed to take an ACTUAL VACATION and spent a couple of days at Shore Retreats On Broad Creekin Royal Oak, MD. I had my electric cello with me and snapped some shots at sunset.May 1st – we snagged a Sidewalk Serenades gig through Creative Alliance. They let folks in Baltimore City book acts to come play a short set on your sidewalk/yard. We zipped around to 5 sites around the city – it was fun but exhausting!5/14 – Harford Winery in Forest Hill, MD5/22 – Farewell to the farm. A bittersweet show – the last gathering our friend Debby had at her longtime farm in Woodbine, MD (before having to move). We also filmed our Tiny Desk Contest entry at this show. 5/23 – Solo cello wedding at Chase Court in Baltimore. I played a bunch of weddings here this year!6/5 – Music By Anthem duo wedding with Janet Greene across the Bay Bridge in Oxford, MD6/7 – one of many hybrid Live + Livestream shows, this one on the new Stage of Musical Traditions outside HMT in Takoma Park. Sharif’s son Finn watches the livestream while his other son Lex was with us in person!6/17 – the Ladybug Music Festival hosted a day of music at the lovely Mount Cuba Center in Delaware. We got to wander the grounds beforehand and it was an excellent day!6/24 – Music By Anthem trio played a memorial service in Leesburg, VA.July 4th – David Eisner snagged ilyAIMY to be part of the lineup at the Takoma Park Gazebo. Here’s The Nighthawks going on after us.7/20 – recording backing vocals at home for singer-songwriter Russ Arlotta’s new album. I recorded cello & vocals at his engineer’s studio in early 2020, but we’re finally adding some finishing touches.7/24 – Our friend Jimmy Stewart built a stage and strung up lights in his backyard. We broke it in with an in-person Rob’s Open Mics gathering; it was quite lovely!7/25: Mark H Rooney invited rob & I to play a song with him as part of his taiko recital. rob handled the livestream (it was livestream only with no in-person audience). 7/28 – We snagged Chuck the MADD OX for a Live From the Lair stream. It was super fun, and we ended up using a recording of one of the songs for inclusion on this year’s Charm City Sampler album!7/31 – Anthem quartet wedding at Salamander Resort in Middleburg, VA.8/3 – at Lena’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Beer in Alexandria. This ended up becoming a great regular venue for us. We lucked out with weather each time for outdoor performances (+/- that time it was 103 degrees).8/6 – our almost-full-band trip to CT. The first gig was a bittersweet one – the last show at our beloved Victoria Station Cafe in Putnam, before they closed. This was also our first indoor show and there was definitely a lil anxiety about that…8/7 – Rocking at the Particle Accelerator Festival (an annual benefit for suicide prevention we’ve played several times)8/8 – a lovely outdoor house concert in CT for the “Sow a Seed” series8/13 – we were supposed to have played a full band show at an indoor venue in DC, but we decided to cancel and played outside at Jimmy Stewart’s place instead. Sadly, the weather did not cooperate so we shoved ourselves inside with a handful of audience members, plus livestream.8/20 – American Ice Co. Cafe in Westminster, MD. It was cute, until the wasps came out…9/3 – A small solo wedding at Zigbone Farm Retreat9/5 – Another College Park Porch Play at Mark H Rooney’s place. It was a drizzly day but we managed to make it work with tent protection!9/7 – this summer, rob started running an open mic at Sandy Spring Museum – outdoors when possible. One of his first featured artists was Tom Prasada-Rao, who invited Rowan and I to join him for his set – always an honor to play with TPR!9/18 – a private party for fans of ours – delayed birthday party that I think was the 4th reschedule from 2020??9/26 – SkyStage in Frederick. Love this venue and it’s made for pandemic times. Here’s Jeff Miller opening for us.9/30 – warming up at the UPitt Greensburg coffeehouse. We’ve been playing here every fall for about 15 years but missed last year. Was also a little nervous about this indoor show, but the students were good about masking when not eating; we propped a door open and crossed our fingers…10/2 – we were the headlining act at the Delmarva Folk Festival in DE. A cool thing to be a part of. At the last minute, the person who was supposed to run sound tested positive for covid so there was some chaos there (but at least he found out before the festival!)10/10 – playing for Sunday service at the Unitarian church in Rockville. They have a limited in-person attendance and also livestream on Zoom.10/15 – we miss seeing our touring friends when they pass through town! We were able to snag Greg Klyma for a special livestream from the Lair as he was passing through. Lots of fun to play on each other’s songs.10/16 – wedding with harp, flute & cello!10/22 – solo wedding in Bluemont, VA. This venue is lovely but also has the worst gnats, even in late October!10/30 – definitely my favorite wedding of the year because the bride is a former cello student of mine! I brought a string trio, but she also requested a Bach solo cello suite that we’d worked on together for her walk down the aisle.10/30 – a double-header. Our triumphant return to New Deal Cafe for Heather’s birthday show. Capacity was limited to less than half of our normal attendance, we sold tickets to manage that, and everyone had to show proof of vax at the door. We also livestreamed for the folks who couldn’t make it.11/5 – a slightly chilly wedding with Elise Kress’ Celtic ensemble11/13 – Anthem quartet wedding at the elegant Willard hotel, next door to the White House! In case you’re wondering: wearing a mask while playing & trying to read music with glasses SUCKS…but I’ll continue to do it as long as necessary!11/21 – bundling up for another quartet wedding at Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase. For this one, we accompanied the groom’s 11-year-old son on a flute piece! The groom was also a student of Tom Espinola from Lulu’s Fate, who recommended me.11/27 – the gigs are getting colder. We reached our limit playing for Shop Small Saturday in Alexandria. Fingers do not function below 40 degrees!12/8 – we snagged our friend and former housemate Mosno Al-Moseeki for Live From the Lair! So good to have him in the house again. Prince participated as well.12/11 – show with Focus Music in Rockville. Really wonderful to play in front of an appreciative in-person audience, and this was also live-streamed.12/19 – wedding reception with Anthem Electric String Quartet! Music on the stand is an arrangement of the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple.”12/22 – last wedding of the year at Chase Court. Just the couple, their parents and their 6-week-old! Booked only about a week prior. 12/24 – Christmas Eve service at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville. The decision was made a few days prior to make it virtual-only, so it was just a handful of people in the sanctuary with folks watching on Zoom. They did a nice candle-lighting in place of where the congregation would sit. 12/31: our first-ever covid tests (rapid tests we got at the local library after standing in a long line at opening). We found out we had a possible exposure this week and wanted to be safe before today’s gig. Totally no big deal, we’d happily do these tests frequently if they were freakin’ available! 12/31 – we were planning on holing up at home NYE, but Jeni from Little Market Cafe in Ellicott City contacted us about playing outside in the afternoon when the forecast looked good ‘n mild. Awesome way to wrap up the year. Mark guested on taiko & we even had guest tuba!
