September 10th, 2024. The SPARK w Quiet the Mountain.

A slow forming list. We did eventually fill those last couple of slots, but t’was a relatively quiet night!

To use Sea Griffin’s (Boy Meets Pearl) verbiage : last night was a gift.

It’s the first notes that get you sometimes.

Years ago, when the Takoma Park Folk Festival stuttered and stopped. We raised money and Hell and we worked hard and the next year we had a “real” festival again and I remember standing in front of the Grove Stage with tears threatening to fall (or maybe they did, I’ll ne’r tell) as the first song rang out against the hill there at Takoma Park Middle.

Last weekend, a similar assault of emotion as Annette Wasilik struck her first chords at the newly inaugurated Tom Prasada-Rao stage at THIS year’s Takoma Park Folk Festival.

And another overwhelming moment last night as I soundchecked Quiet the Mountain : Jimmy and Christian performing together for the first time in months, it felt beautiful and special and like coming home. There is something wonderfully DECOMPRESSING about Jimmy Stewart’s playing that lets the air fully circulate. Once out of the body. Once more in. Allowed to feel again. Christian interlocks with him perfectly in a way that I don’t entirely understand. I try to film one set of hands thinking THAT’S where the lead line is coming from, realize it’s from the other guitar, film the other set of hands, realize neither is a “lead” – it’s merely a perfectly-balanced lacework of chords and melody lines… and then the voices come in.

Patrick kicking off the list in the Bev position.

I used to be able to critique the voices. Warbles and uncertainties – but last night was perfection – the first song ringing out and reminding me that we’re back where we belong, playing to one another.

As expected, many people stayed home to watch the debate in real time. Political television and it’s unavoidable allure makes debates an impossible night for Takoma Park audiences. I knew it could happen without me. Trains will wreck. I don’t need to witness them. If Quiet the Mountain had been playing to an empty room, certainly they’d still have made a noise. It would simply have been a CRIME.

Thanks to you that come out and see and listen and watch the noise.

Yeah, last night was a gift.

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