Fragments From Floyd

We had joined a hundred strangers gathered for music at the Oak Grove Pavillion behind the Lutheran Church. One hundred strangers to us, but friends and neighbors to each other. We wondered then if the time would ever come that we wouldn't feel on the outside of such gatherings. Would we come someday to a public gathering like this and know and be known? That was in the summer of 1997.

Ann and I both had remembered this loneliness by contrast to the feeling of belonging Saturday night. We knew about half of the folks at the house concert and were part of the larger conversation that is community. Great thing is, we didn't know half of them. There are so many more friends and neighbors we've yet to meet.

A house concert is a unique experience for most performers used to playing in restaurants or pubs where their music is mere background. The home setting by contrast is a small, private concert where every ear is on every note. I think it quite took the New Roanoke Jug Band by surprise to have the full attention of their audience. They rose to the occasion.

My only regret: that I didn't climb the hill behind the house while the band played on. But I can see it there below me. The white farm house under the Milky Way, golden light streaming from the windows. Shadows move to the tempo of the music of fiddle and bow--in all the empty cosmos, the music of the spheres among friends.