Search This Blog

Saturday, September 24, 2011

At the lakeshore in north Chicago

I LOVE Chicago.

I discovered that when I lived and worked in the Lakeview neighborhood during graduate school in 1982-1983.

Black-eyed susans in Wilmette
So whenever I'm invited to return, I am delighted to agree.

This was my second time to prepare and present workshops for DSNI (The Dulcimer Society of Northern Illinois), which was preceded by a walk along a new lakeshore nature preserve at Fort Sheridan, then private lessons, and followed by a gig at Uncommon Ground in Lakeview.

Lake Michigan Shoreline, Fort Sheridan nature preserve
Walter and Janet

Sniffing tall wildflowers

Great Horned Owl

The whole weekend was a satisfying delight.  Walter and Janet Swartz are welcoming hosts and together we enjoyed a good hike on Saturday morning.

Sunday, I gave a mini-concert and 2 (very condensed!) workshops to mountain and hammered dulcimer players on playing blues and jazz on these instruments.

Then I followed my friends, Sandy Andina and Stephen Lee Rich, and played my set for the closing crowd at the Uncommon Ground on Clark Street in LakeView (the neighborhood I used to work in!)

What a fun vibe in the middle of the audience, in front of that old exposed brick wall, playing music that the listeners kept wanting to hear more of!

I will treasure these memories for a long time.

No comments:

Post a Comment