The Community Music Hangout gathered for the 64th edition of the Hang on Saturday, July 6th, 2024. Freddie, the piano, was just east of the fog meridian on Saturday. So, we were treated to a bunch of glorious sunshine mixed with a nice cool breeze. By the time we finished, the marine layer was winning the battle and the day had turned cool and overcast. As I was getting set up, we had a youngster named Noah step up and play a little ditty on the piano. Nice job, young fella. Keep on playing! (That’s the secret to greatness, you see: Just refuse to stop playing). Then we had some of our super regulars show up in the form of Alex, Joe and Brian. Great to see you gents. And so, we were off and running!
Soon we saw Alya again for the second time – hopefully she’s on her way to becoming a super regular too! She sang beautifully all day. Thanks for joining the party. Check out her rendition of Valerie above. I’ve played that song so many times, and that one was one of my favorites. It’s fun to find new ways to get through songs. We also had a little lady singer join the party in Luna. Look at her work the microphone (she also makes a cameo in the beginning of Alya’s video. Adorable. I love seeing kids getting exposure to musical magic!) In the next part of the Hangout – and I wonder if we’ll ever achieve this again – we met three people in a row each named Justin! I couldn’t believe it when Justin #3 told me his name. We had a Justin who sang a fantastic rendition of “Tennessee Whiskey” with his Ray LaMontagne-esque voice. Then we had Justin play and sing an excellent “Just the Way You Are” by Billy Joel. Finally, we had another Justin play a beautiful piece on the piano. This concludes our Justin-centric paragraph. Great playing / singing, guys! It was around this time that Caesar made his way to the piano. That’s always, always, always, always, great news for the Music Hangout. The word I would use to describe Caesar’s voice is “profound”. Sometimes, I go to offer the man the microphone and he just says, “I don’t need that”. He’s not joking. The man can flat out SING. And the way he works the crowds is very inspiring. And then we met Charles. Charles was down from Sacramento, avoiding the 105+ degree heat. We’re so lucky he found the Music Hangout because this dude can play and sing. Check out his awesome rendition of Bill Wither’s “Who is He (And What is He To You?)” below. Be sure to stick around for Caesar’s cameo verse. Credit to Alex for capturing this. Thanks, man!
Next, we had Zack come up and sing a couple numbers with us. Damned if I can’t remember what the songs were (I gotta write this stuff down more often…) but I do remember that his singing made us all feel realllll good. It’s like they say, “people won’t remember what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel.” Great job, Zack! We were approaching the wind down at this point but we had some more excellent players and singers still to go! We had Paul, who is a great player on the standup bass sing a tune for us! Although we’ve played together a bunch, I had never heard him sing before, so that was a treat. Then we had Grisha do a super fun rendition of “Puttin’ on the Ritz”. Finally, we had Keith join the fun for one last number. My goodness, it was nearly 5pm by the time I finally left the piano. It was a 5+ hour music hangout, and yet, the time actually just flew by. It’s incredible how that works. Once we lock into the flow state, before you know it, 5 hours have gone by. It’s my favorite thing! It was another magical day of musical camaraderie. We’ll see you next time for CMH #65 on Sunday, July 21st at the usual spot starting at 11:30. Please note, there is no hangout next weekend!