As I say so often “the beat goes on.” August is winding down, the summer has shown its hand and reluctantly thoughts now bend toward September and what is coming in the near future.  Here’s a brief look at the summer from the BR&F point of view.  I’ll write about the exciting things coming up in the next blog.

Great Weather, Great Shows

            We had great weather! We had great shows! Okay, for a while it felt like a reality show entitled BR&F vs. The Weather.  The “outside temp” on my car seemed absolutely fixed on 91°. The sun was always out, we were always in it and it was HOT. Truth be told, when the band was playing, the heat nor the sun bothered me at all. Not one bit. I still find that amazing.

A couple of shows just stood out as highlights. If you were there, thank you for your good energy directed at us. We may be the engine, but you, dear audience, are certainly what fuels us. The highlight shows for me were:

•  Winchester, MA – Fire Station - Friday, June 4^th – We showed up for a Friday evening show and set up in front of the main fire station in town to celebrate Winchester’s Town Day. What we got was a large, energetic audience literally dancing in the street. The audience seemed to get more out of us, we got more out of them and we kept on going together. Great fun!

•  Medford, MA – City Hall – Thursday, July 8^th – Just back from Colorado, we got to play in front of the grand City Hall in Medford. We’d been scheduled to play this spot for the two years previous and were convincingly rained out both times. With the sun arching down off to our left, the stately building embracing us, and the flag, high on its pole gently waving, we were ensconced in a beautiful spot in a vintage Massachusetts town. The promoter requested “America The Beautiful” as the last song so the kids could parade waving their flags. Instead John sang “This Land is Your Land” and it was perfect!
  
  
  Medford, MA

• Lexington, MA – Visitor’s Center – Friday, July 16^th – Probably the first summer show we ever played, back in 2001, was the Friday night summer series in Lexington. We had an impressive crowd that first night and it’s only gotten bigger. The good energy generated by all the people filling the green is just unbelievable. We always feel loved there and are more than happy to give it back in music. With the addition of Rob Lee on saxophones and wayward BR&F accordion player Mark Yacovone on accordion, this was a rollicking evening of music despite the second set shortened by a storm.
  
  
  Lexington, MA

• Portsmouth, NH – Prescott Park – Saturday, July 17^th – Prescott Park is another beautiful location we get to play at regularly. This year was extra sweet as Mark Yacovone was visiting the area and was there to play accordion with us. Here is a FLIP video Mark took of the band playing the old Dire Straits song “Walk of Life” from the Portsmouth show.
  
  

• Lowell, MA – Boarding House Park – Wednesday, August 4^th – It’s a pleasure to play Boarding House Park. The surrounding mills and metal work of the stage are something to see. The audience seemed to be bursting with excitement. This was the first, and to date, only show we’ve ever opened with our song “A Frog Named Sam.” Usually we get to it later in the set, but we’d been playing so much at this stretch of summer we were still warmed up from the night before. And once you start with SAM, taking the energy higher is the only option!

• Natick, MA – Town Common – Wednesday, August 11^th – This is another “rained-out-for years” show. Really… something like four years we’ve been trying to play on the Natick Town Common. We’ve always had the wonderful fall back of playing at TCAN down the street but finally this year we set up on a beautiful evening, outside in front of the gazebo. We think of Natick as our metro-west home and this was only reinforced by the warm reception we received.

• Arlington, MA – Robbins Library – Thursday, August 12^th – The hometown summer show. It could be this was the quintessential show of the year. The surrounding buildings and trees give the feeling of being in a private garden. We’ve played this lovely spot many times now and the familiarity of Arlington, the old friends who have supported us for awhile and the new friends who bring their excitement just make this a fabulous experience.
  
  
  Arlington, MA

Under the Radar Highlight Show

            So we pull into Camp Miracles and Magic with no real clue as to what we’re getting ourselves into. It turns out “Eliot” of Jordan’s Furniture fame, and his family, have run this camp for the past fourteen years. The campers are children 8-13 years of age who are born with HIV. For one week these kids are bombarded with the coolest activities you can imagine. Trapeze instruction, dance crews, Frisbee demonstrations, concerts, movie making – I can’t even list them convincingly. We were hired to entertain the kids while the ice cream truck dispensed free ice cream to everyone.

The camp takes place at the Ron Burton Training Village whose facilities resemble classic Greek structures. We played on the Parthenon! Retired New England Patriot, Ron Burton, Sr., is an interesting story in his own right. The coolest thing though, for me, is that Eliot, his wife June and their family literally run the camp with volunteers. Let’s face it, Eliot could write a check and have the whole thing be a great tax write-off. Not the case at all. Eliot is in residence, running the show and has been doing this among other philanthropic work. I’ll tell you – Eliot is an inspiration to me. I’m proud to be a part of the same species.

Colorado Redux

            I wrote all about this in a previous blog. Now a solid 6-7 weeks since we’ve been back the trip sort of has a dream like quality to it. We did go and it was amazing! It’s hard to fathom that this summer we’ve played all the local New England shows, have recorded a holiday CD and went to Colorado. We’re definitely the hardest working band on my street although Mike Duke might argue that point.

Wrap It Up

            That’s the summer to date. I’ll write more about the holiday CD we’ve been working on in an upcoming blog. I’ll also let you know about the excitement building for the Tenth Anniversary Show at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA on October 24^th. Good stuff ahead!

            Lastly, a disclaimer… the shows I listed up above are really just some of the highlights. Other shows stand out for various reasons like the Holliston, MA show, finally getting to play in Burlington, MA and all the great people we met there and the Plymouth, NH show. Hot tunes on a hot night in NH and a very kind state trooper who let me “just get home.”