The weekend of June 29-30 was a special weekend for Community Music! On Saturday, I had the pleasure of being part of a team put together by my friend Alissa. She had this fabulous vision that she wanted to realize. The vision: haul a piano out into Dolores Park on Pride Saturday and have a big queer singalong all day long. It was an audacious and wonderful plan!
She pulled together a group of a few dozen people, found a piano looking for a new home, and organized transportation to the park. Very impressive work! I met the piano at Dolores at around 9:30 on Saturday morning. Together with 5 other folks, we hauled that piano across the grass to the spot we had staked. It was quite an experience carrying a piano across the field! We set her down, gave high fives all around, and posed for a celebratory picture.
And then…the Park rangers walked over and started asking about a permit. You can actually see them walking up in the background of our celebratory picture above. Our mistake, it turns out, was getting there as early as we did. We were sticking out like a sore thumb with just a few groups setting up as early as we were. Huge bummer. And it’s disappointing that the park’s perspective is to be more restrictive on Pride weekend instead of more permissive. Nevertheless, we made lemonade out of the situation.


We carried the piano down to the median strip in the middle of Dolores St, next to some food vendors. And we set up under the shade of a palm tree and got to jamming. And it was a FABULOUS day. There were so many people around, we had so many different players and singers join. There were some truly remarkable musical highs! It was a magical scene. I want to heap praise and thanks on Alissa for having the idea, making the plan, and inviting me to join the fun. It was an unforgettable day. I stayed until I absolutely had to tap out around 5pm.

And then, before I knew it, it was Sunday morning and time to run Community Music Hangout #63! Whew. We gathered for the 63rd edition of the Hang under absolutely spectacular conditions. Really, I don’t think the day could possibly have been nicer. After I got set up, I met Tom. Tom sings in a choir and joined me for the traditional opening number of “I Shall Be Released” Nice to meet you, Tom! Next up, we had a youngster named Liam play a little bit for us. Keep it up, kid! And then we were off and rolling, reeling off songs and enjoying the sunshine. Ted showed up with his guitar and dog, Rufus. And Kyle showed up with his bass and we had a nice little house band between the three of us. Then, Olivia stepped up to the piano to play and sing for us. Great job! Hope to see you back again soon. And then we managed to coax Ben into playing and singing for us too. Ben had said that he doesn’t really perform but, with a bit of encouragement, we found out that he does! I feel like sometimes folk impose mental limits on themselves – I know I struggle with that sometimes – and it is so rewarding to help people break through those barriers. That’s what the Music Hangout is all about! Up next, we met two newcomers Ayla and Andrew. Alya sang beautifully on a number of tunes and Andrew held down the low end on Kyle’s bass. Great to meet you two and I hope to see you back again soon at the Hangout. Check out the video below of Ayla crushing “I Will Survive”. Around that time, longtime regular Lilah showed up. So nice to see you again! Lilah played great, as always; I especially liked when Lilah played keys and Ayla sang. Excellent.
A little while later, we met another fella named Andrew and he played an original tune on Ted’s guitar. Awesome tune! Check out the video below captured by one of the very first Hangout regulars: Sage. Then, we saw more Hangout regulars in Karl, David and Alex. They all played and sang superbly. Thanks, fellas!

Later on, we saw Lilianna again. Welcome back! With a bit of coaxing and some shit talk from yours truly, she was convinced to take the mic for Tiny Dancer, while Lilah played keys. Check out the video above. Thanks for joining the party, Lilianna! We were rounding out the day by this point and we saw Eugene, a fabulous jazz pianist, and he joined us for a few numbers. Nice. Finally, we saw Reddy again and she sang an excellent rendition of “The Letter”. It was a little after 3:30 by the time we packed it in for CMH #63 and called an end to one incredible weekend of Community Music. I’ll tell you, it was quite a good feeling to lounge around on the couch after that whirlwind! Fantastic. There’s just nothing like pulling people together through the power of music. It’s my favorite thing. We’ll see you for another edition of exactly that at CMH #64 on Saturday 7/6 from 11:30 – 2:30 or later!