I should say a few words about this past weekend’s CD release concert. Although there were the predictable mistakes (I screwed up the lyrics to the one song I’ve never sung live before and – because it has some many easily confused lyrics I didn’t even record it in one pass either), it was a wonderful event. And, when thinking about how and why it was, I am reminded – as I write this post on Thanksgiving – about how grateful I am for the communities – most of them music-related – I spend time in that came together to help me with this event. The first part was the music. I had amazing musicians backing me at this show. Mike Delaney and Ken Porter played with me on the first three songs (two from the first CD; one from the second). I know Ken and Mike originally from the Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW), run through WUMB. I’m not even sure how we started playing together, and I am amazed and honored that they’re interested in lending their talents to back me on my music. My other “band” was three of the folks who play on the CD: Dave Chalfant, Jim Henry, and Jenny Goodspeed. Dave, of course, produced the CD, but that didn’t mean he had to play at the show. He did that for the first one – without me even initially asking (he just RSVP’d to an invitation to the show), and it was such a blast having him play with me that I invited him again this time. Jim Henry has been nothing but gracious throughout this process – there’s a lot more money and a lot more prestige in backing Mary Chapin Carpenter at shows, but he has always conveyed a respect for my music that I particularly appreciate. For all of these three my love of music, and my connection to other music communities, led me to them. I considered working with Dave initially because Adam Sweeney (who I got to know initially through the Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer listserv) had recorded with him and had such great things to say about him (and I knew who he was at least in part from having been an early Nields adopter and long-time fan). Jim I also got to know because I was already pals with Tracy Grammer, from being a long-time fan, and then have seen him play in concert with her too many times to count. And Jenny I met at NERFA, literally just by striking up a conversation my first year there. Jenny contacted me to ask about working with Dave in exactly the same way I’d talked to Adam, and since she did decide to work with him and Dave knew I knew her, he suggested we ask her to sing some harmony on the CD. It all somehow feels like it can be traced back to my having followed the music I love to listen to, even before I thought about making it myself in a semi-professional capacity. The second part was the technical details. Because we were doing the show in a space without a dedicated sound system (and the sound system available there would never have met our needs) I had to borrow everything. Mike and Ken brought their sound systems, mixers, microphones, mike stands, and cables. And Steve Friedman, who I know indirectly through Mike and through the open mike network around the Boston area, agreed to do a recording of the whole thing; he also brought equipment to use. What was particularly amazing was that they each carried everything in, set it up, checked the sound, and – at the end of the evening when there were a million details to keep track of – packed everything up and took it away. Likewise, Bruce Jones, who first caught the sound reinforcement bug at SAMW a few years ago, has taken it to the next step (my CD release show for the first CD was one of his first endeavors in this direction) to do video of concerts and events. So he, with his able assistant Bo Veaner – who I also know from SAMW – shot video of the whole event, with the goal of making youtube videos from it. Another fantastic aspect of the show was that Dan Tappan was there. I first encountered Dan (and his son Carl) at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival where, for a few years running, we always sat near each other at the workshop stage – but didn’t actually converse. We obviously had similar tastes in music, because I would see him at shows around the area, and he came to see the first show I did at the Federated Underground Coffeehouse a few years ago, which was one of my first big shows. At some point he began taking, and posting, amazing photographs of the shows he would go to, and he has quickly become one of my favorite folk photographers. Dan already had tickets to a different show – one I would have gone to if I hadn’t been playing my own show that night – but gave them up to come see my show and take photos, and the photos are stunning: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dan_tappan/sets/72157625319955385/ Other documentation came from Bruce Palmatier, who I think of as the epitome of a music fan. I first met him at the first Dave Carter memorial concert I was involved in, when he was an audience member. Bruce is a major fan of the Nields, the Kennedys, and the Thompsons, and my connection to all of them in some form helped get me on his radar. Bruce sees more concerts than anyone I know, traveling long distances to see the musicians most important to him, keeps meticulous records, and writes wonderful notes about the shows he sees. I was honored that he made the time to make it to my show, and I’m thrilled with his report on it (especially hearing the new song called “breathtakingly beautiful”): http://tinyurl.com/27qzthw (I think you have to be on facebook to read the note). Other friends helped. Two people who have been my friends for more than half my life right now, Lynda and Jen (who I met originally because of the folk music club at Oberlin), came early and took over the preparations for coffee, tea, and other serving necessities, for dealing with the amazing cake brought by my friends Elizabeth and Bram (who I met because of Dave Carter’s music). The final step was audience. I was concerned about whether I’d have one. Sunday night has some downsides as a concert time, and more people are away, or otherwise committed, the weekend before Thanksgiving than I’d realized. There’s also a bit of CD release fatigue in the Boston music community (especially the community centered around SAMW). When I did my first CD release show in 2007 it was still pretty rare for musicians who weren’t doing music as their primary job to have a CD. Now it’s much more common; a pretty high percentage of SAMW folks have recorded, or are recording, CDs. And most – understandably – have celebrations when they release them. But it means that having a CD release show is a bit less unusual, and also that many of my music pals are going to a lot of them. So I didn’t know who would show up, and the space would have looked really empty without a big audience. But people did show up. The place was packed. And the demographics were amazingly diverse. Some of my students (including the ones with class the next morning at 8:30) were there. And Wellesley colleagues, both faculty and staff. Lots of SAMW folks. Other musicians. People I serve with on a town committee. Friends far and wide. It was an amazing event, and I can’t wait for the next CD release party. Mark your calendars for 2013, and I’ll get moving on writing the rest of the songs.