Keith at Senior Center -- Wednesday, 21Jan2015

My wife takes her therapy dog down to the local Senior Day Care once a month, and suggested to the coordinator that I could come and do a Christmas Concert. I did that, and the lady was so impressed that she asked me to come back on a monthly, paid, basis. So this was the first one of those.

I went through my song book to create a list of the oldest songs that hopefully the seniors would recognize. I put in some of my best Beatles, James Taylor, and John Denver songs, but mostly the songs that I'd learned to make my "Tribute to My Dad" CD of the folksinger era songs he'd done when I was a kid. Stuff like "Jamaica Farewell", "Try to Remember", and "Moon River".

So it was a lot of fun. The place has great acoustics and the old folks are very polite and appreciative -- the ones who stay awake, anyway. At the Christmas concert there was a guy who couldn't stop talking. He wasn't there this time, but was replaced by another guy who insists on drumming on his thighs for nearly every song. At least he stays in time, but it's distracting -- especially, I imagine, for the lady sitting next to him. But at the end of every song, he's loudly appreciative, calling out "Wonderful!" or "Terrific!" or "Magnificent!", so it's a mixed bag.

The biggest problem is trying to discern what "works" and doesn't. I get the exact same response -- a polite round of applause and Sherm's hyperbolic shout -- regardless of fast or slow, new or old. I'm used to being able to tell what is and isn't working so I can "do more of that", but this crowd is so polite that they're unreadable.

Oh well, I guess I can take it as "Anything is great!" so I can play whatever I want.