2006 Christmas concerts

Our Christmas concerts are over. I am always a little bit “glum” when they are over as I enjoy them so much. The people who come are always genuinely nice people. Many friends come. It is always good to see friends. I almost hate charging for our concerts as they are so much fun for me. But if we didn’t charge a ticket price, I’d have to get a REAL job!!!
A highlight of our concerts is when we play Jingle Bells. It has become somewhat of a tradition to play that song. One year I didn’t play Jingle Bells and I got an ear-full of “How come you didn’t play Jingle Bells?” When we perform Jingle Bells, we ask members of the audience who bring bells to come up on the stage and join us and shake their bells. It is tough to get the first 2 or 3 to come forward but once the first few come up on the stage we are joined by a lot of people. I ask the ones who brought bells if there is anyone with a special story about their bells. In the Everett concert on 12/15 Ron Love brought silver bells dating to the 1880’s from his grandfather’s sleigh. Ron’s grandfather was the first principal of Snohomish High School.
We had sold-out concerts in Kirkland on 12/11, Everett on 12/15 and Issaquah on 12/18. Issaquah was almost canceled as there was no power until 12:45 in the afternoon on 12/18. I received the phone call while eating lunch. I was kind of depressed about the power and what a change of disposition I had with a short sentence from the house manager saying, “The power is on!”
Auburn on 12/16 was almost full. It is a larger hall than the rest seating over 1000 people. I had special guests with me called the “South Sounds Strings,” a 25-member harp ensemble organized by Pat Wooster. Also with us is a renaissance-folk group called Erwillian, consisting of interesting instruments that blend well with the harp. They have guitars, whistles, recorders and dulcimers. They have become good friends over the last couple of years. In the group are Jordan, Scott, Robert Bethel and Jeff. With Erwillian, my harp and the 25 other harps, there were over 1200 individual strings on the stage at one time!
12/17 in Mt Vernon went very well. I was a bit concerned about the attendance since the date was changed due to the bad roads on 11/29 when it was first scheduled. Along with us in Mt Vernon was a choir from Wenatchee called the Wenatchee Men's Apollo Chorus. They are a bunch of normal guys who like to sing normal songs. Some are apple farmers, some are truck drivers and some are retired. I think of myself as a normal guy who happens to play the harp that likes to play normal songs.
The other performers with Katherine and myself for our concerts was Robert Puff who plays woodwinds, Ben Rud on percussions and Peter Wilson on the keyboard. Jon Pardue shared the keyboard with Peter on the dates Peter could not be there. Peter is getting married on 12/30 and had to be in Idaho while we had a few concerts to help make wedding plans. In Everett Peter’s fiancé Molly was able to join us in one concert with her fiddle/violin playing.
On 12/11 in Kirkland and 12/18 in Issaquah a friend of ours, Ken Gayle joined us with his gorgeous tenor voice. He sings with the Houston opera now. He comes home to Seattle to visit his family and we like to have him sing with us when he is available. He has hit the “big time” now. It is an honor to have him with us.
For all of our concerts, we serve Bronn-ies and coffee during intermission. It is used as a fundraiser for the Sultan High School band parents group with the donations that are received. Kris Pardue, the wife of Jon Pardue who played the piano with us made 2000
Bronn-ies this year! They were excellent, the best ever!
A song highlight was the song from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. I always like to play a song the one wouldn’t usually here on the harp to give a bit of a surprise to those that don’t know what a harp can sound like. It went over very well. When the piano starts in with the familiar bass pattern, there are giggles of surprise from the crowd.
We hope that you can attend a concert sometime, whether when we are near to you or if ever you are in Seattle at Christmas time. We had a great 25th year of performing our Christmas concerts. We look forward to many more years. We can’t thank you enough for your support.

My song in honor of the Northwest Power Outages

We have a had a challenging November and December weatherwise. I wrote a song in honor of the recent power outages in the Northwest due to the fierce windstorm that blew with hurricane force winds the night of December 14th. Over 1,000,000 customers on the power gride were out of power.

Sung to the tune of "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."

All I want for Christmas is the power back on

Man it’s cold!

And my feeling’s gone.

Gee if I could have the heat turned on

My skin wouldn’t be blue for Christmas.


It seems so long since I could see

My favorite show on my cable TV

Gosh oh gee how happy I’d be

To see a truck from the utility


All I want for Christmas is for PSE

To rescue me

From my misery

Can someone please remove the tree

That keeps me from my electricity.


The window’s developed a frame of mold

My freezers warm and my shower’s cold

Gee O Gee how bad I smell

I am smelling as bad as…….


All I want for Christmas is the power back on

Man it’s cold!

And my cable’s gone.

Gee if I could have the heat turned on

My skin wouldn’t be blue for Christmas.

Portland and Hillsboro-December 8 and 9

We love giving concerts for our neighbors in the south in Portland and Hillsboro. I like Oregon because they have gas station attendants who pump gas for you. And there is no sales tax. What more could you ask from a state?
The concert in Portland was on Friday December 9 at the Old Church in downtown Portland. A prominent architect in the Portland area who had built many buildings in the Boston area built the Old Church in the 1880’s. The church has a very large gothic styled steeple. The Presbyterian congregation that built the church outgrew the building. Many different congregations occupied the building during its history and now it is a venue for concerts and weddings. The acoustics are wonderful.
We all (Katherine’s parents, my brother and my mom) went to Portland for the weekend. Our friend Jon Pardue also joined us as a musician onstage. He is a great jazz piano player who filled the holes nicely and created some additional great sound. A favorite of the audience is when I play something for people who don’t want to be at a harp concert. This year I am playing the theme from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, which seems to be a hit for those that don’t want to be at the concert. I always ask to see the hands of those that don’t want to be there. Laughter erupted from the front row from a wife who must have had the exact conversation that I can picture when I think of people coming to a harp concert. Her husband did not want to be there. The coincidental aspect is that this nice man’s name was Charlie. It couldn’t have been scripted any better!
I enjoy living a musician life. Part of that life is going out to eat after the concerts. I felt bad for my mother-in-law Nell and my mom Betty as we sat in the booth waiting for our food. Betty and Nell needed each other to prop themselves up as they are used to much more reasonable bedtimes. We found a tremendous place to go for dinner, serving breakfast all night and open until 3:00AM. It was very reasonably priced called “The Stepping Stone” on 23rd Ave in West Portland. We will find ourselves there again when we visit Portland.
In the morning Jon, my brother Park and I packed up at the Old Church. We had time to return to the hotel to go for a walk and sit in the hot tub before we gave our concert. We headed to Orenco Presbyterian Church in Hillsboro. An extremely friendly group greeted us at Orenco. The concert went well. There were many friends in the audience and quite a few “newbie’s.” I like having the new audience members. I like to think that our concerts aren’t the typical harp and voice concerts. We play for those that don’t want to be there!
We ate another late night supper at a McMeneman’s Brewery, a local popular establishment in Portland open late. We don’t have a lot of choice where to go when we want dinner at 11:00.
We woke on Sunday and attended First Presbyterian Church in downtown Portland and headed back north on I-5 and Sultan.

Leavenworth, WA concerts

One of our annual musical highlights are the concerts we give in Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth was voted as the top Christmas town in the USA by a major travel magazine. Leavenworth reinvented itself as a Bavarian themes town with quaint gift shops and plenty of saurkraut!
Our concerts in Leavenworth are small and intimate. Santa Claus or more properly “Father Christmas” makes an appearance each night. It is really awesome to be introduced by St. Nick! The concerts are a bit shorter in length as they are geared towards tour groups. But all are welcomed. The concert attendance ranges from 70-100 each night. We were in Leavenworth this year for 10 concerts. Tonight will be our last.
Leavenworth is 75 miles east over Stevens Pass from our home in Sultan. I think I will be putting chains on the van tonight.

Olympia and Mt Vernon (rescheduled)

It’s easy for me to get into the “Christmas Spirit” when the snow begins to fall. Seattle had a breath of the Arctic on Monday after Thanksgiving. What a great amount of “drama” happens when Seattle gets a touch of snow. It caught Seattle and it’s residents off guard as snow always seems to do. No one expects snow in Seattle and no one expects the mercury to go as low as it did. In Sultan on Tuesday night on 12/28 we went down to 15 degrees. Plenty chilly for us.
As far as concerts go, the cold weather is not conducive for harp concert patrons. We had no options for our concert in Olympia on 12/28 so we had to perform with the “show must go on” attitude. Attendance was greatly reduced because of the icy roads. What the audience lacked in numbers was made up for by their enthusiasm. It was a great show made very intimate by the smaller crowd. The theater manager said that our show had more presale show tickets than any other show in the theaters short history of being open only a year. The Kenneth Minnaert Center for the Arts is a gorgeous place to give a concert. We will be back next year.
On 12/29 we were scheduled to give a concert in Mt Vernon. The box office manager from McIntyre Hall strongly urged us to reschedule our concert. Fortunately, the theater and Katherine and my schedule had one date that was open for both of us. It would be odd to reschedule a Christmas concert after Christmas! We will be in Mt Vernon on December 17th. In all of my 25 years of giving concerts, I have never rescheduled or cancelled a concert. The box office was willing to phone all of the patrons who purchased tickets so that none would venture on to the icy streets. We are looking forward to Mt Vernon and all of the friends we have coming to hear us.