On Saturday, June 15th, the Community Music Hangout gathered for the 61st edition of the Hang. We gathered at Sunset Mercantile’s Secondhand Saturdays – a vintage market at the same location as the Outer Sunset Farmer’s Market. We were very glad to be there and would like to thank Kevin at Sunset Mercantile for booking us there. The day was beautifully sunny, with a steady, at times blustering, cool breeze coming in from the sea. Because we were at the market instead of in the park, we had a hard start and stop time. That’s rare for us! Usually, it’s a freewheeling event that ends only when we’re too tired to go on. But the regulars got the message and we had some folks there ready to set up 15 minutes before our start time. I love that! When we got started, we had Paul on bass. Alex was in attendance and ready to rock. Joe had his hand truck with guitar amp and cajon. Rikki was there to help with setup as she so often is. And, so, we were off and running! Soon, Daniel came strolling up with his guitar and his great little battery-powered amp. That thing sounds awesome and puts out a lot of punch for how small it is. It sounds even better because Daniel is a fantastic player. I had a great time throwing it to him for solos throughout the day. Next, Brian biked up. It would be a strange CMH if Brian wasn’t in attendance! Joe offered him his cajon and so Brian was playing percussion and singing at the same time. Nice. A bit later, Nina showed up with her cello. And she offered it to Rikki to play a bit. Rikki played cello in the 6th grade, when the instrument was basically bigger than she was! And she had to schlep it from the middle school to the high school for rehearsal! Intense. I loved seeing the instrument sharing that happened at CMH #61. The Hangout is a place for sharing! Then, we met two new friends at the hangout in Jeremiah and Tim. Jeremiah played a lovely trumped and I loved sending it to him for solos. Tim played a fine guitar as well. Welcome to the Hang, fellas! I hope to see you back again soon. Finally, Trish from the next band to play was contributing auxiliary percussion. Excellent! We had to abide the hard stop at 2 and, my goodness, it’s incredible how quickly that time flew by! CMH #61 may have been shorter than usual, but it was so fun to be at the market and catch a different crowd than in the park. And we still hit all the usual notes: we saw old friends and we met new ones, we put some smiles on some faces, and we had folks singing along. It was a lovely way to spend a few hours. Thank you to everyone who took part! We’ll see you on Saturday for CMH #62, back at the usual place and time.