Here's something you don't see every day....

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Just Friends in the Summertime

Summer shows at picnics can be a risky proposition for bands. You have to keep tarpaulins handy in case the weather kicks up, as it has been doing recently. It's great when the venue has a pavilion that can accommodate the band and the audience, which is why we're glad we played for the Progress Home Association at Serb Park on Eisenhower Blvd. yesterday. The grounds are spacious, so all 200 guests had room to sit and listen, or hang out at the bar area, or just roam around and enjoy the day.

The band had plenty of room to move around, and we did a lot of that, as did the dancers. We were well received and we all had a lot of fun, and that's about all you can ask for. Well, you can ask for good monitor levels, and we had those, too, once we got John Wilson's drive-thru microphone on a leash. Thanks to Brian Juran, our sound man and his problem solving skills, John's debut on harmony vocals was a success. Solos are good, but harmony is the best. Pictures of the band and some of the audience can be seen here.

This week the Kellys are on vacation in Vermont. Saturday, August 8th, we are playing for the New Singles at the Valencia Ballroom in York. For our local fans, plan to join us at the Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraiser in the Boscov's Colonial Park parking lot on Sunday, August 9, at 1:00 p.m. This is an annual event for us, and besides helping raise funds for a worthy cause we get to gawk at the classic cars on display. Odds are, if you're of the same vintage as me, the first car you ever owned will be there, although it will make you grind your teeth that you didn't keep it and fix it up. This is a family friendly event, with no charge for admission, but free will donations to the MDA are accepted and appreciated. See you then.

In Other Music News....

In addition to Just Friends, Joreen and I have been known to go hang with our fellow wizards, other local musicians. We have a side project called The Durable Goods, and that band played on July 19th at Camp Reily for the Historical Society of Dauphin County. It's a slightly different approach musically than Just Friends, but it's a lot of fun.

Special thanks to the Historical Society, especially Kathryn McCorkle and Tom Gacki and all the committee members, for the opportunity to play for this worthy cause. The theme of the event was the 4oth anniversary of Woodstock, and we learned a whole lot of songs from that era for the occasion, which explains why some of them got a little shaky in spots. From the beautiful tie dyes to the vintage VW microbuses to the twirling dancers, the atmosphere was great, smoke-free and not muddy at all, but great. The setting, the food and the audience were all wonderful. These folks put on a great event, and whatever they do next year, we hope we can be involved in some way.

Thanks also to Brian Juran and his assistant, Digital Dave, of PaProSound for good sound under difficult circumstances. As good as the soundboard recording is, the sound through the air that day was even clearer and sweeter.

My heartfelt thanks to my good friends Tom Vogelsong, Charlie Ruhl and Alex Harden for their hard work in preparing for this, our first actual gig together. Tom literally faced an uphill battle, leaning into his kit to keep from sliding off the back of the flatbed, and still played like the pro that he is. Charlie, not that long out of the hospital, gets the Rock and Roll Trooper Award for this month hands down. One tough hombre, that Charlie is. Alex gets double thanks, not only for his fine job on the bass, but for salvaging a listenable recording of the day when our video camera decided to put a nasty 60 cycle hum in the audio, rendering it useless. Of course, thanks to my lovely enabler wife, Joreen, who really makes everything such a joy, and just tore up on Somebody to Love.

Last but not least, thanks to Ed and Grace for attending and sitting in and making the harmonies shine, Terry Keating for grace under pressure during Lovelight, and for taking my guitar and stepping up when I handed it to him at the end of Deal. Thanks also to Karen Gray and all our other friends, new and old, who shared the day with us. Peace, love and frisbees indeed.

Music is the best. Music played with and for friends who share a passion for the songs is the best of the best.

Welcome, Friends of Just Friends!

To all the long-time readers of this blog, looks like we're going to be having company. Joreen has just assumed the duties of webmistress (anybody else get an image of Nancy Sinatra boots and a riding crop?) for the newly spiffed-up Just Friends band website and has placed a link there to this page. In the past I've posted stories and pictures from Just Friends shows, but I've gotten out of the habit. I'll try to start that up again now. There's lots going on in the band. As our soundman Brian says, "Once in a while you've got to stir the soup." I'll go into details later, but for now, I've got to go get ready to play the Progress Home Association picnic at Serb Park. The PHA has had us do their Christmas party and picnic for several years now, and I'm looking forward to seeing them up and dancing. They're a pretty lively crowd.

Getting Good Reception

Wedding reception, that is. Just Friends played at the Lebanon Country Club yesterday, with yet another variation in the line-up. Our drummer, John Wilson, was out of town attending his own son's wedding in Long Island, so his predecessor, Craig Rankin, graciously stepped up and did a great job. He drove up from the Lancaster area the night before and we had a quick rehearsal on the obligatos; for the rest, we just wung it. Again, Gio was unavailable, so I took the center mic again and my little brother Davey stepped up, and we rocked the Haverstick and Frederick families like crazy. To be fair, the band has a history with the Haverstick family. We played the bride's sister's wedding five years ago -- this is the family whose traditional family song is Ring of Fire, gotta love that -- and they were very receptive and enthusiastic, to say the least. By the time we got to "Shout," they were tuned up and as wired as can be. Yes, they did the "gator dance." Nothing like the sight of guys in tuxes laying on the floor on their back and flailing around to renew your faith in the power of live music. Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Frederick, and best wishes for a long and happy marriage. May there be many Ring of Fire dances in your lives for years to come.

Thanks to the hard work of everyone in the band, we left everyone very satisfied and happy. That's good, because we'll see many of the same folks in November when we do another wedding at the same location for one of the bridesmaids from yesterday. Special thanks to Dave for playing the cocktail hour with me on guitar. I went through my old charts and we just smoothed our way through it. I was as nervous about doing that as I was about anything, but turns out the hardest part was setting up outside, then inside, then outside again. "They Can't Take That Away From Me" is now firmly stuck in my head, and that's a good thing. Another highlight: the bride and groom from five years ago were in attendance, and they requested their first dance song, "My Baby Just Cares For Me." That was muy cool. If we keep playing for this family, we can do a whole set just of their past first dances.

Also, I have to give credit to the staff of the Lebanon Country Club, under the capable leadership of Boris Gradina. He organized and executed an amazingly smooth wedding reception, placing a lot of people in a rather small space, dealing with the weather and many people's expectations, and he did it with such style and poise that he even had time to be a bit of a wise guy. "You want to know where to set up? I'm just a guy who golfs here." Thanks to Boris for all his help, for putting us at ease, and for keeping me guessing whether he was serious or not.

Next week, Saturday at the Minnequa with Just Friends, and then Sunday is the Durable Goods extravaganza at Camp Reily. If any of you gentle readers are interested in attending, please contact me by cell phone or e-mail. This is going to be a blast. After all these years of doing gigs the same way with the same lineup to the point of falling into a routine, all this variety is really keeping me on my toes musically, and that's another good thing.

For Better, For Worse, For A Really Long Time

Thirty-three years ago today at about this time, Joreen and I were beginning a really nasty argument. No, of course I don't remember what about. Maybe she does. Go ask her. Her parents weren't entirely sure we were going to go through with it, I'm told. But since all the arrangements were in place, we decided what the heck, let's go ahead and get married.

Thinking back on it, the cost/benefit ratio has turned out to be pretty favorable. I've seen weddings over the years, especially as a member of Just Friends, where I'm sure the cost of the bridal party's shoes was higher than the whole tab for our reception. We were the last marriage held in the old Sacred Heart church, which had been severely damaged in the '72 flood. The parish had graciously put up some decorations for us, not just to make it more festive but to cover the cracks in the wall behind the altar. We don't have a fancy wedding album to look at, but we're still looking at each other, and we're still wearing the rings, and that's a good thing.

Rita Howell, my mother-in-law, was very active in church business and had made many priest friends. That's how a really nervous, long-haired, extremely skinny kid in a $50 suit (I refused to go through with this in somebody else's clothes) came to be face to face with Fathers Sawdy, Gross, Brubaker, Fee and Rigoli, who laid a mighty smackdown of a blessing on us, apparently. It's still holding.

Most of my friends and family have heard this story, but it's appropriate to tell today. My mother-in-law was not exactly thrilled about my wife's choice in a partner for life. Her wedding dress was half-black and half-white, not because she had mixed emotions about the marriage, as I always claimed, but because she waited till the last minute to go buy one, just to make sure I was going to go through with it, and the choices at Peck's were slim.

Fast forward to July 9, 1977. Joreen and I were celebrating our first anniversary, and in the course of conversation she said, "Well, Mom was wrong about you." I asked her, "What do you mean?" She said, "When we were planning to get married, Mom said it wouldn't last six months.'" That was all I needed to hear. I picked up the phone, called my mother-in-law and said, "Mom, what's wrong?" She was confused. I said, "It looks like you were actually wrong about something!" She was still confused. I said, "I hear you gave this marriage six months, and I'm still here." We had a great laugh about it, I ribbed her a little more, and I thought that was it.

July 9, 1978, about nine at night, Joreen's Mom called. "Is John mad at me?" Now it was Joreen's turn to be puzzled. Rita said, "Oh, I just thought maybe I'd be hearing from him today, that's all. Nothing important." So of course I called her back and laid into her again for being wrong about me. This began a tradition that lasted until July of 1992. Every year I would call her and come up with a variation like, in 1981, "Well, Mom, maybe it was six years, not six months, and I might still leave her, you never know." One of the last anniversary calls I made, I said to her, "Mom, I'll let you in on a secret. I really was ready to leave her after six months, but I stuck around just to tick you off."

My mother-in-law passed away suddenly in 1993, four years after her husband, Andy. She was far from perfect, but I loved her dearly. She and my father-in-law were supportive of us in many, many ways. It got to the point where I wasn't too crazy about mother-in-law jokes, because she was exactly the opposite of every nasty stereotype. We would sit sometimes and have a beer and she'd tell me stories. She was fiercely proud of Joreen's singing and playing, and she was always disappointed that Joreen never got into a working band. I like to think she might have had a hand in the Just Friends Band coming together.

Right now, I'm sitting at the same kitchen table where she sat. Joreen is in the seat her father always occupied. We're older, and yes, turning into our parents. Trust me, I'm still getting a great deal.

The Music Never Stopped

Get comfortable. This is a long entry. There's been a lot going on.

This past weekend has been a guitar extravaganza. Friday afternoon, I played with the Jury of Five at the American Music Festival in Harrisburg, filling in for their guitar player, Al. We rehearsed about four times and put on a great set. Mike, Mark, Scott and my brother Steve were very supportive and good to work with. We had some laughs, played some tunes and rocked the crowd, so you can't ask for more. Joreen filmed the show and it's in "post-production" I guess. For a little taste of what it was like, go here. Thanks to all our friends and familly who showed up, and to Judge David Weyl who stayed for the whole show. He and I have worked together for a long time and we've talked about my musical sideline, but this is the first time he saw me play, and he enjoyed the performance.

Friday evening, the Durable Goods took over our living room for a "rehearsal" that turned into a bona fide party. Company showed up bringing food and drinks and it was kind of strange. We were a bit loud -- well, okay, we were bone splintering, face melting loud -- so nobody came into the living room, but I'm told we sounded great outside. Folks congregated in the kitchen and downstairs, and occasionally we would hear disembodied applause. We had a ball.

Thanks to Alex for coming over to help set up inside instead of out due to a threatened storm that never arrived, and for the tasty southwest salad; to the aforementioned Mike Miller and his lovely wife Dottie, for coming and bringing mac and cheese and cake (no, not in the same dish, smart-aleck); to the Rollers and their wings, Alex's friends Mark and Robin; Bill Nork and his pizza, I believe; Stevie and Patty and whatever they brought; Mark Knarr and the best tasting pork barbecue I've had in a long time; Terry Keating and whatever he brought, and for spreading the word about the get-together; the lovely and talented Karen Gray; our manager Sean Sanderson; and a special shout-out to our long-time friends Rick and Irene Woodard who went out of their way to contact me and get over here. I was so pumped to play that after we turned off the amps, I broke out the acoustics. Terry and I accompanied Irene in a Peter, Paul and Mary singalong (featuring "the V-8 vocal stylings of Irene Woodard"). We had a ball, and thanks to anybody else who was here not mentioned above for attending and filling the pot luck table with goodies. It's been too long since we've had a Fourth of July party, and it was worth the wait.

One dark cloud on the evening was that our rhythm guitar player, Charlie Ruhl, is on the DL, having burst his appendix for no good reason last week. He's had a rough time of it, but is recuperating and I hope is out of the hospital by now. He intends to be back in action by the main event, the fundraiser on the 19th.

Then Saturday, Just Friends did our annual performance at Hotel Hershey for the fireworks party on the patio. There was a huge crowd on the newly renovated patio, and again our friends and family turned out. Special thanks to my brother David who performed with us. Gio was unavailable for the show, so I moved into the middle slot and we pulled it off in style, hitting the end of God Bless the USA just as the finale ended. I love when that happens.

The big surprise was when Ron and Maria Reedy showed up. They were late, unfortunately, due to bad information in the Go section of the paper which said we started at nine in the Iberian lounge. The Reedys had moved to Florida and have since returned to the 'burg, so we caught up on kids, grandkids and the like. Another surprise: another workers' comp judge, Judge Frances Williamson, came up and complimented us, while ribbing me by saying, "I thought you were in a nice, conservative band." I didn't know he was there, but it was great to see him. One of the best things about Just Friends is that I'm proud when judges and lawyers I work for see us perform. We are a top notch professional outfit, just like Commonwealth Reporting, and that consistency is something I'm grateful for.

Then Sunday, Just Friends with special guest Dave Kelly played the Singles Dance at the Holiday Inn New Cumberland. Joreen missed the first set due to playing Mass, so again we had to think on our feet, and once again we pulled it off. The dancers hit the floor and pretty much packed it all night long. Thanks to Sid for booking us and all the dancers, even the ones who requested songs we didn't know.

Now, today, I think I'll just go do my day job. Transcribing, sitting down, with nothing around my neck and no gear to move: sounds sweet.

Summer skies

Last night we were playing at the Rainbow Hills Swim Club as a storm was approaching. The sky before us was blue, bright and mottled with clouds. Behind us were clouds black enough to scare small children and those who have seen storms before. Fortunately, we finished the gig and loaded up before the gear got wet, although we got soaked pretty much to the bone finishing up. That's your summer weather for you: storms and sunshine.