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My grandfather, an optician owned a shop down on Canal St in NYC. He was the kind of guy that saved the old glass frames and didn’t always have the latest styles. One might say he was kind of cheap in that way. Today you might say that the frames he kept in his shop were “retro”. To young 70’s Brooklynites Jay Unger and Lyn Hardy I think they were what they opted to wear. My father was working for my grandfather when Jay and Lynn would cross the East River, get their wire rimmed frames and chat. I have visions of them playing tunes right in the middle of the shop. When established in friendly relationship with my father they gave him one of their LP’s and invited them to one of their gigs in the suburbs. That album would get played by me and my sister almost daily. We’d stomp around the house to “Rocky Road Cindy” and various rowdy fiddle tunes making the record skip. Over the years we would encounter Jay and Lyn in other settings.

I grew up in a musical family. My grandfather a classical violinist, my mother taught piano. My mother connected with Pete Seeger when she called him to sing at my sister’s nursery school. Instead of a “yes” she got an earful about a budding organization called Clearwater. Pete talked about the boat that he planted the seeds for a few years back to get people rallied around cleaning up the river. He solicited her help in starting a local Yonkers chapter of the group. I was 2 or 3; the beginning of a life devoted to folk music and environmentalism thanks to Pete. But I digress. Fast forward a bit. At the Clearwater annual meetings held at a rustic camp in Beacon, NY I would always look forward to a square dance. led by Jay and Lyn. The people I knew and loved from the the community danced. It was a meeting of the generations and a celebration of something larger. Much the way I imagine old barn dances in small towns throughout the country happening; folks getting together after a harvest or a weeks work and celebrating with a dance. Perhaps I idealize the event as I was young and it was perhaps the happiest of childhood memories, but I distinctly remember the jovial, beginner quality to the event. I was hooked.

To be continued….

Housetop’s cd is on the way in the coming weeks. Check out www.myspace.com/onthehoustop for the 4 part harmony old time swingin sound of Peter, Anna Patton, Erica Morse, and Naomi Morse.

If you listen carefully you can hear the distant mandolin tracks of Peter on Pete Seeger’s new CD “Tomorrow’s Children”, recorded with Peter and a bunch of 4th graders in Beacon, NY

Also….gearing up for some great showcases at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance in the Catskills the 2nd week of November.

As always, check by the calendar. Lots of local dancing and singing– Greenfield MA, Concord MA, Brattleboro VT, New York NY, Saratoga, NY. See you on the dance floor and in the streets.

The Fall has been beautiful in Green River, VT. Come out and visit me in real life sometime. Just came back from a fun show in Manhatten, a Sloop Singer reunion concert in Beacon, NY, and I’m back to the Catskills this weekend for The Northeast Regional Folk Alliance!

As the world is turned upside down by those incredulous corporate cats capitalizing on the core of American ignorance and hatred, I choose to stay home, not ignoring what ails us but dealing with it by loving my kids, composting my poop, and singing. Please join me in celebrating what does not ail us at a dance or a concert sometime.

By golly, I heard peepers last night! Yey!

Lots of fun stuff ahead in the Spring, mostly locally…..The Rendezvous in Turners Falls on 4/2, dances, workshops festivals and concerts in the summer. Check out my dates.