The Community Music Hangout reached an important milestone on Sunday, March 31st when we gathered for the 50th edition of the hang. Fifty! This time last year, we were just resuming the Hangout as Carly, the then-new piano, was placed on the Golden Mile. It’s incredible to look back over the Hangouts and think of all the magical moments and memories we all worked together to create in this last year. Huge thanks to everyone who came by the Hangout and shared a smile or a song. Special thanks go out to the folks who made themselves regulars by coming to the Hang week in and week out! Its your efforts that made this into a community. Thank you. We gathered under a lovely mix of sun and clouds, with just a bit of breeze. A fabulous day to run the 50th CMH. When Rikki and I wheeled up to the piano, we found Dylan and Edward already in attendance. Dylan played some great Philip Glass-esque noodling, and Edward played some Chopin. A great start to the day! We had guitarists and Hangout regulars Phil and Nick in early attendance at CMH #50. I really enjoyed the way that Phil offered a strap to a guitar player who needed one, and offered to share his instrument so a fella could play an original composition. I also enjoyed how Nick was helping Phil out with some of the more complicated chords. You guys are definitely demonstrating the spirit of the Hangout! Thank you. Next up, I managed to convince a young man by the name of Soren to hop on the piano. Great job, dude! I could tell he was nervous about the whole thing and I was very impressed that he pushed through the nerves to play some music for the Hangout. Keep it up! Soon, we saw one of our newest and dearest regulars in Eugene! Eugene is a fabulous jazz pianist; I adore his contributions to the scene. He hung around most of the day and played beautifully.
A little while later, we saw another regular in Lilah. She hopped on the piano and helps us through a number of tunes. Great job! Next up, we had Michael with Natalie and Jacqueline all gathered around the mic to sing “For the Longest time” with Brian adding in his vocal accents that always take that song over the top. It was great, I loved the group effort! Earlier I mentioned a fella who borrowed a guitar to play a tune for us. That fella was Gil and he played a nice song about the city of Tuscon, Arizona while his lady held his phone and scrolled his chart for him. Great stuff! Last, but certainly not least, we had Steve who, when the next song was being discussed (can’t remember which song…) he threw his hand up and said he could sing it. And he sang the hell out of it. He did some great Joe Cocker after that. Awesome stuff!
It was after 4 pm by the time we wound down the 50th Community Music Hangout. The day had turned overcast and the wind picked up, so it was time to get on out of there. We logged 4.5 more hours of musical joy at the Community Music Hangout. Thank you to everyone who stopped by! We’ll see you again for CMH #51 on Sunday April 7th from 11:30 until at least 2:30. See you there!