First House Concert - 2025 09 12

 

2025 09 12 - morning view  - you can't hear them, but the leaves of the Lombardi Poplar are gently rustling in a light, cool breeze. The hollyhocks are going through a second blooming. The sunflowers reach for the sunlight, growing strong and tall. As usual, I am moving furniture and re-arranging the living/dining room for music.

It is happening. I am going to host my first house concert on Monday, September 22, 2025. I need to get moving on the invite! I am going to be the feature artist, sharing a selection of songs written by me, my family, friends, and kindred spirits.

The concept for this house concert is based on the 'tiny desk concert' format. We will perform for a small audience here in the house. No amplification for our voices and instruments. Floor mics will record the sound in the room. Two video cameras (one stationary, one steadycam) will capture audio and video of the event. A Zoom live feed will broadcast the event to the Interwebs for sharing across geographic distance and time zone differentials. 

This will be a live performance, happening in real time. The idea is not to showcase a perfected, polished performance of well-worn songs. The idea is to capture a moment of artistic and musical convergence, a sharing of works across lifetimes, in all our glory and vulnerability. It is about music and gathering true to our deepest and earliest expressions of rhythm, lyric, melody, harmony, and dynamics. It is about the moment, a moment as happenstance, that can never be replicated, a unique moment in time, place, and connectivity.

I played my first 'concert' in 1969 at my high school talent show. My sister and I sang three folk songs, I played the guitar my dad got me from the Salvation Army thrift store. I am now 69 years old. I have a collection of songs I have written and continue to write. I have a collection of songs that I have sung over a lifetime, and new songs that I am falling in love with with each passing day. Part of the fulfilment of any artistic practice is to share the work, to connect with others through our artistic creations. This first house concert brings a life work full circle. The work will exist as my musical legacy. Not as perfect musicianship and highly polished performance, but as a testament to all our creative spirits that will not be dissuaded, that will not be silenced, that will not be written out of the historical record of humanity.

Sharing our creative works does not have to be about seeking fame or fortune. That is simply a relic of consumerism and the commodification of artistry to feed a capitalist economy. Our creative works do not need to be co-opted to valourize values or beliefs that promulgate systems of dominance and subjugation. These are anachronistic concepts that bolster patriarchy and religion, social systems that are proving to be destructive to human health and well-being across the ages.

Human societies and cultures have always assigned resources to make art - visual, musical, dance, fabric arts, pottery, basketry, carving, etc. We did this because through our sharing of our creative works we created moments for us to feel connected, to feel unified in our purpose of sustaining life, of sustaining our communities, our families. In our appreciation of our creative works we experienced moments of collective elevation, of making meaning of the day-to-day difficulties of sustaining human life in nature. We inspired each other to strive beyond the mundane, we imagined future possibilities that solved the current baffling conditions that cause us pain and suffering. 

In the last year we have hosted a Neighbourhood Folk gathering here at the house on the first Sunday of every month. We just completed our 12th gathering last Sunday. It was spectacular. 

I have developed a program for a Neighbourhood Folk - House Concert Series to mark the changes of the seasons - Fall Equinox, Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. 

I hope, by example, I inspire all of us to share our creative works. They don't have to be perfect, polished or performative. The fact they exist is good enough reason to make time and space to share them. We are learning every day. The moment we share our work, we learn more about our work, ourselves, and our creative impulse. It is through our creative works that we will build new social systems based on principles of caring and equality. 

I hope you will join us one day with your appreciation of our efforts, and give us a chance to reciprocate by sharing your creative work with us.