Yesterday evening I provided the music for the first WINK service of the 2018-19 series.
Printer Not Liable for Errors
A bit of tongue-in-cheek humor from the mind of Sam Graff, former editor for the NY Daily News. Sam created this back in the 1980s for a Trent House fundraiser at which Carl Daugherty and I performed.
Note the disclaimer at the bottom of the bill: Printer Not Liable for Errors.
Spare Me, Bro!
Yep. I’m working on it. I’m certain to sell at least three copies, one each to the FBI, the SAS, and the Special Branch. The book is in its draft stage and is third in priority at the moment. Of immediate importance is my work on a novella, Ride The Crusader, followed in attention by a local history book on the Green family of Old Hunterdon County. However, I sporadically work on this tribute to my late friend, William Briggs.
Bristol AOH
Egad time for a haircut!
Tir na nOg with Joe Kramer
Terhune Orchards
Dubliner on the Delaware
Tonight we played over in New Hope at Dubliner on the Delaware. We are booked to return in September, November, and monthly through the end of May.
Evergreen Forum Course
Greetings,
This fall I will teach an eight-session course entitled “Themes in Irish Folk Music”. Class will meet in “downtown” Lawrenceville at the Presbyterian church on Main Street.
Cheers,
Bill
Weeden Park with Joe Kramer
Art All Night Appearance Cancelled
Andrew and I were slated to be the last act on the indoor stage for Art All Night 2018. Sadly, a shooting incident cut short the festival, and the door to the stage area was marked off as a crime scene. This would have been our third annual appearance at the event, a community festival badly needed in an often troubled, fiscally depressed city. How troubled? Six of my former students (Benjamin Davilla, Sheree Davis, Jeri Lynn Dodson, Jermaine Johnson, Shamere Melvin, and Shakir Williams ) have been shot dead in the past few years. I would mention, as a Trenton-area native, that Trenton is no longer the city it was when I was a child. The decline began in earnest when James Earl Ray’s actions incited a riot in our city. Trenton has long been in need of federal intervention and has suffered from many years of poor leadership, underfunding, poor tax base, and suburban flight.
A former student from and (very) short-time fellow teacher at the high school in Trenton where I taught for many years, Jerrell Blakely, who was quite recently elected councilman-at-large, stated in this morning’s Trenton Times:
“There is a tendency when a tragic event occurs to pull back and retreat, but I think Trenton has to show the world that we won’t be frightened,” he said. “We can’t allow folks that mean us harm to change such a beautiful event.”
I disagree with Blakely’s naive remarks. The perpetrators are gangbanging criminals, not terrorists. In my opinion, this tragedy WILL have a frightening effect on would-be festival attendees. Art All Night’s reputation as a family-centered affair has been seriously and possibly irrevocably tarnished. The people of Trenton have a serious crime element embedded in their midst; this city of primarily respectable citizens needs to remove this surly element from their midst.