Art in the Park

 As a matter of sanity, it's my habit to pick up the mandolin a few times a week and play through some old familiar tunes.  This week I've been reviewing music by one of my early inspirations, Peter Ostroushko. I was fortunate to hear him play live a few times with his Duo partner, Dean Macgraw, when I was at Macalester College in the late 1980s.  Both of them were local Twin Cities musicians who were frequently featured on A Prairie Home Companion.  My friends and I loved to emulate the humor and music that we heard on that show, so seeing them live and laughing at their antics remains planted deep in my grey matter.

I'm also lucky to be part of a duo here in Taiwan.  Not my lifelong duet singer, Jenny Huang, but a local misfit who keeps his guitar handy too.  Van grew up in Tennessee having played many genres of rock music, but could never escape his bluegrass and country roots.  So Van and I occasionally text each other "Up for some tunes in the park?" and "How about we meet to play at the Duck Park before it gets dark?"  It's a weather dependent habit, but the spontaneity of it makes it all the more enticing.  Late in the afternoon after a day of teaching, it's a great way for me to switch gears and get out of my rut.  A grey day that turned sunny and warm in the afternoon is one of the best times.

We have a small but expanding repertoire of favorites we run through each evening.  Certainly not all bluegrass, but the mando-guitar combo along with simple vocal harmonies lend themselves to bluesy folksy songs and old-timey fiddle tunes.  The park is not particularly known for buskers, so passers-by sometimes glance our way but rarely stop to listen.  That is, adults.  They are cautiously polite about giving us too much attention when we're clearly just enjoying our own company albeit loudly, and in a public space.  Forgivable for foreigners.  But kids can't help but look and listen and move.

Just the other day as we ran through our version of  Lady Madonna a kid no older than 2 with his grandpa in tow started bouncing at the knees and waving his arms to the beat.  In spite of his grandpa's coaxing he could not be redirected.  The music had caught hold and like a preacher at a Pentecostal church he was wild with joy.  When we finished he climbed up on the stone stool in front of me and reached out to start my mandolin again.  I leaned back and started chunking on Freight Train, the old Elizabeth Cotton favorite, then segued into CCR's Down on the Corner.  Other kids came to listen and I sang out loudly with smiling parents in the background, "You don't need a penny, just to hang around..."

Just another walk in the park, ya never know what you might see or hear.