Christmas in August

Last night was probably one of the more unusual gigs we've been asked to do in awhile. The First Baptist Church on Madison Street had a thank-you dinner for members of their choir and (I believe) orchestra and we were the last minute (they called us to set this up only a week ago) surprise program for a 30 minute concert after the dinner. The kicker was that we were asked to play Christmas music to get them in the spirit to start working on their Christmas music! Those near and dear to me know that Christmas music is not a favorite of mine - at least not on the hammered dulcimer. Because playing hammered dulcimer means I have to memorize everything (the rest of the band can use sheet music...), along with the fact that the Christmas season to play this music is relatively short AND Christmas music just begs for more than just a melody on the hammered dulcimer, I struggle every year to get enthusiastic about re-learning and re-arranging our repetoire of approximately 50 Christmas pieces. So being asked - on really short notice in August - to do 30 minutes of Christmas music (which actually translates to 17 Christmas tunes in nine sets) - made things a bit challenging, to say the least. Five of the eight of us (Byron, Dixie, Steve, David M, and me) where able to participate - and we accomplished this without a single group rehearsal. All in all - it went very well (and I hope my brain-dead moments weren't too obvious). We even got a standing ovation - and this from fellow musicians - and sold every one of the stack of CDs I had brought! The folks at the First Baptist Church were very warm and loving and I would like to says thanks for making us feel so welcome and for enjoying our music! Hmmm.... since we've started this... maybe we should consider recording this for a CD. I do keep threatening to do a Christmas CD!