Category: Music

Music in the Park-Sequim

Every Tuesday at 6pm in the summer we have Music in the Park at the amphitheater in Carrie Blake Park. This night featured Black Diamond Junction which is a local favorite. Here everyone is dancing to the song SHOUT. I love the joy this little girl had dancing to it.

All the concerts are free. Everyone brings blankets and picnics.

The really fun time about living in a small town is that there is always room at an event for your family (even if you show up late!) AND you will always know lots of people. I went to the event by myself, but worked my way from group of friends to group of friends–it was a smorgasbord! A great time as usual.

Amanda Bacon always give a great show!

And now for something completely different

Need to get away from home for a beat? Let’s do a quick hop to the Museum of African American History in Washington D.C. Here’s Chuck Berry’s Cadillac Eldorado.

And here’s Chuck Berry’s Gibson guitar, also known as Maybellene, named after his first big hit.

There! You’ve had a quick interlude of American culture.

Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

We’re spending the weekend immersed in live music and performance at the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts in Port Angeles. It’s a four day lineup of talent from near and far, and an opportunity to be saturated with awesomeness.

Chris Swenson was a highlight of our first day. He calls his work “human jazz,” a description that barely scratches the surface of voice/song, movement/dance, and performance that defies easy characterization. Check out his website to get a better idea and see him in action.

The program reads, in part, “His work is unique in its cross-cultural synthesis of theater, dance and music and its willingness to unbridle the imagination.”

The festival is a family event with a street fair and free outside entertainment. As the day progressed, kids joined the fun and danced joyfully around the periphery of the main stage.

Live music

Summer means lots of good, free outdoor music concerts.  The best acoustics yet seem to be at the Sequim Band Shell, aka, James Center for the Performing Arts. Shown here is Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys, a local group we have seen at many venues, indoors and out. Their music is described as a “young band mixing Appalachian folk with a little bit of Beatles and Led Zeppelin” and they are very good musicians.  This was a performance at the Sequim Lavender Farm Faire. In addition to music offered at the Lavender Farm Faire and Lavender Festival, the Friends of Sequim Library offer free concerts and other concerts are also held at the Band Shell through the summer months.

Click here for a fuller view of the Band Shell. And click here if you’d like to see Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys on YouTube.

Sequim City Band

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This was a musical weekend. The grandkids, my daughter, and I went to see the last concert of the Sequim City Band Sequim City Band until next April. A previous post shows where they perform during the summer months every Sunday afternoon.
As I took the picture, I was reminded of the local joke that Sequim is a town of retirees and their parents…all the white hair in the picture…but honestly, there are some pretty young ones in the back rows.

Jazz in Blume

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I had the pleasure of listening to Tracy Blume perform with her band, “Jazz in Blume” this past Monday. Tracy and her band provide a wonderful evening of listening pleasure to the tunes of the Big Band Era. Local viewers should check out the website for their schedule of performances. This coming weekend, Tracy will perform with the local highschool choir and jazz group.