Three

Yesterday, Mom was sick. We also had a gig playing the Bean Hole Supper at the Camden Rockport Historical Society. As the afternoon progressed and Dad and I realized that there was no way Mom was going to be able to do the gig we started to panic.

How were we supposed to play a show without our lead singer and rhythm guitar player? There’d be too many gaps in the sound, I said. We don’t know enough songs we can play without her, I said. I wasn’t even afraid that we’d make fools of ourselves; I just didn’t see how we could possibly pull it off. A big part of what we do is two and three part vocal harmony. How are we supposed to do those harmonies when our primary singer is out sick?

But we couldn’t just cancel last minute. That wouldn’t be professional, so I sat down and wrote out a list of songs that didn’t absolutely require Mom. Turns out I was able to work out a set list.

It wasn’t our best set list. It wasn’t our best show. I’m not nearly the singer my mom is. I’m still figuring out how to use my voice, still figuring out my style. Maybe our sound was a little less full than it normally is and I was completely alone in maintaining the rhythm. Usually I’ve got some support from Mom. Maybe we were a bit awkward, a bit unsure, but people didn’t seem to mind. They were more intrigued by the double banjos than they normally are. And Dad got a chance to show off the many, many hours of practicing he’s been doing on mandolin and guitar.

Some songs we pulled off. Some songs were a little…wobbly, I’ll say. But we didn’t have any complete train wrecks. In fact, I think I’d go so far as to say that this was our most successful bean hole supper that we’ve played. It was certainly the best-attended. People smiled and clapped. The audience asked if we were going to play more after we were done. It’s the first time I actually felt like our presence at one of these suppers was truly appreciated. And we proved that Peter, Dad, and I can scramble together a half-way decent set and perform without Mom. Not that I want to be doing too much of that in the future, but at least now we know we can.

Thank you for reading.