Reunion: A stop in Bethlehem

MUSIC: I decided that since I was driving to the reunion in Georgia I might as well try to hit some open mics on the way. I figured, “It’s my vacation, too.”

I have never “gone on tour” as a musician. Since there were so many church coffee houses in New England Kathy and I could commute to most of them. And there was never enough money from passing the hat for a motel. I had a few gigs where someone would let Kathy and I stay overnight. Typically I drove until I couldn’t. We would sleep for a few hours in the car. Kathy was a trooper until she had enough.

Looking at my route I checked into all the big music towns on the way. I even checked into ones that were not on the way. Nashville is way-way-way off the way. Asheville was even too much of a side trip. Open mics are usually only one night a week so timing and location were important. I was fortunate that one of the best open mics in the country is on Sunday at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem PA.  It meant leaving for the reunion a day late but Bethlehem is less than four hours away from Hampden.

I arrived there early and arranged to meet up with my old friend Randy and his family. He lives in a suburb of Philadelphia and they were going to be coming home from a road trip of their own that Sunday. Lately, I have been reconnecting with some of my very old friends. I think it has less to do with Kathy passing away and more to do with coincidence, luck, and serendipity. I’ve also reconnected with some missing friends on Facebook as well. I finally got to meet Randy’s wife, Louise, in person and their daughter, Cecile. She acknowledged my presence while hoping to find Pokémon characters. Randy grew up in Springfield and he has always made an effort to come by when he was in the area.

Bethlehem. After they got back on their journey I was still a few hours early for the open mic. The last time I was in Bethlehem was back in the mid-70s for my friend Anthony’s wedding. I drove around by the old steel mills and was truly amazed at how they had taken the old Stacks and made them into an art, culture and tourist attraction. There have created walking and biking trails that take you through the different parts of steel-making history. Many are shells of buildings but the displays make lemonade out of lemons. A concert venue, an art museum, and retail shopping are there as well as a casino. I need to read up about how it was all done, financially.Godfrey Daniels is a very small (about 100 seats) club in Bethlehem. It is a non-profit, all-volunteer venue that was started in 1976 in a closed down donut shop.

I was still really early but every venue on my open mic therapy tour has a different system. It pays to be a little early. Their website says they have air conditioning but that particular Sunday evening it was smothercating in there. They ended up with a good turnout and a lot of people wanted to perform. They use a lottery to determine the order.

Before they get going all the performers go out to the café/kitchen area of the club. Everyone picks one face-down Scrabble tile. There was one of each letter, so it went in alphabetical order. I drew the fifth slot. As it turned out there were several first-timers there. One performer from New Hampshire did a fabulous blues tune about ice cream on an ancient steel-bodied resonator guitar. There were other folks from New York City and others like me just passing through. The sound was great and the performers were an amazing group. One young kid was about 11 or 12, I think. His voice was just changing. He did “My Back Pages” by Dylan on finger style guitar. Then he did a Beatles song from Sgt. Pepper’s he picked out the trumpet solo on guitar.

I had thought about singing The Huntington’s Waltz. It was definitely an attentive audience. But the first few performers did fairly sad songs so when I got up there I decided to fall back to being funny. The audience sang along to my songs which made my day. 

  I kept on thinking, “I really should hit the road to the reunion.” but every time I started to get up there was a great act on. When I did leave I think it might have been the next to the last performer. I hit the road and took a roadside nap at the welcome station in West Virginia.