Yes, the weekend of July 17-19 marked Mary Lou's return to the band. She had missed several performances since recovering from her surgery in late June, and has been doing vocal exercises and singing along [gently] to KONO 101! We were taking it very easy with her, since the first week of August is going to be pretty much non-stop singing for all four of us.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
On Friday, July 17, we returned to Orderup at The Colonnade for our usual 3rd Friday performance. We drove over in a cooling rain storm. How cooling? Well, it was 103 in my garage, but by the time we had driven about a mile in the rain, the outside temperature had dropped to 74! Boy was it nice to have rain, even if I just had my car washed for the first time in months.
As usual, Orderup was a party. "The Other Don" was there, along with Casey, Karen [and her new car, woo hoo!] and Martha and Dave. Our very good friends Louie and Cathy were there as part of a group of 11! I've lost count of the number of people they've introduced to us over the months, but we're always glad to see them. Louie's daughter Angelina helped us start the second set. Our new friend Gavin helped us end the first set, encouraged by the Orderup crowd. You can see our latest "band members" here. Other new friends included Kyle, Ron and Carolyn, and newlyweds John and Lacey. As always, it was serious fun for us. Mary Lou joined us for two songs, but only for percussion. Singing was still two days away.
On Sunday, we returned to Patty Lou's for a Sunday brunch gig. We hadn't played there since New Years Day, although we've eaten there several times in the interim.
Tim and Bob Nationals Casey, Katy, and Matt were there, along with Angela and Ryan, and our friend Wendy and her brother. We also made new friends in Gilbert and Maria and their two sons.
On either side of eating very tasty Patty Lou specials, we played a lot of our "indoor" music to an appreciative audience. A very treasured member of that audience was our good friend Mrs. Miller, a lovely lady who always chats with us when we stop by to visit Patty Lou. While I was taking a brief break from the bandstand, Mrs. Miller asked me if we knew anything from the 1940s. I told her that we had some songs in our repertoire written as far back as 1921! I said I'd see what we could do for her.
Shortly thereafter, I returned to the bandstand and played Johnny Mercer's 1941 hit "I Remember You" just for her. At intermission, she told me that the song had special meaning for her since it was one she and her then fiancée had danced to. They had to wait for him to return from Europe at the end of World War II to marry. They did and had a brilliant life together. She thanked me for helping her have a good memory of their time together. None of us in the band plays music because we're after fame or money; we do it to help people enjoy themselves. Sunday was a very successful day for us, thanks to Mrs. Miller.
And yes, Mary Lou did get up and sing with us, taking part in four of our four-part songs. Always her own toughest critic, she was only a bit pleased with her performance, but there were no ill effects, and she [and all of us] are looking forward to her taking an even larger part in our next gig. When will that be? Well check out our website for details of our upcoming gigs and, if you're so inclined, check out our guest book and
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