Sunday, May 10, 2020

Covid-19: Live music

We spent the afternoon "attending" concerts via Facebook and YouTube—wonderful music, and such a gift by our musician friends.

The first was one of my oldest and best friends, Kathi Taylor, and her husband, Bob Dunlap: their first such concert, via the FB group Solidarity Sessions, based in Boston, which is sponsoring some sort of musical event virtually every day during Covid-19 (complete with tip jar, to help the musicians out). Bob is a songwriter, and the two of them perform his songs, lots of Irish music (Bob is from Southie—nuff said), and covers. Bob on guitar, Kathi on drums and percussion. Fun stuff.

Here are Kathi and Bob from a few years ago performing "I'm Looking Through You" by the Beatles and "City of Chicago" by Luka Bloom:


Next up was the duo Fire & Grace, with violinist/fiddler Edwin Huizinga and guitarist William Coulter. We know Edwin from the Carmel Bach Festival (in a more classical vein), and not too long ago we headed down to the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur to hear Fire & Grace, the two of them. They were terrific: they have named their duo aptly. Today, it was a treat to get a whole hour of Fire & Grace, playing everything from Bach to Irish tunes to Bulgarian songs. Here they are doing the latter:


And here they are performing one movement (of eight) from their "Liquid Gold Suite," which combines Bach and Irish dance tunes; this one is Allemande from Partita No. 2 and "Marga's Moment" by Brian Finnegan (starting at 2:50, in which Edwin takes such pleasure, it's a pure delight to watch—maybe because it's in 7/8, who knows?):


Every so often on Facebook or YouTube, I stumble on wonderful music being performed from all over, now, during Covid-19. I am certainly looking forward to being able to attend an actual live concert again—though who knows when that will be. In the meantime, it's a treat to hear music remotely, so to speak.

(Both Kathi and Edwin are findable on Facebook, if you'd like to experience their next concerts.)

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Today's Monterey County numbers: 279, up 2, for documented infections; deaths still, thankfully, stalled at 6.

Stay engaged! Dance a little! Be healthy.


1 comment:

Kim said...

Music: I need more music in my life. Thank you.