George Thomson, retired principal of the elementary school in neighboring Cavendish, invited us to perform at the United Church of Ludlow. The unusual Shingle Style building is warm yet quietly sublime. The interior photos below give some idea of the style’s conception of “the building as an envelope of space, rather than a great mass”, as the Wikipedia article puts it; the open layout and the exposed hanging arches give a sense of substance to the space itself.

Ludlow’s Black River Academy, which opened in 1835 and served as the town’s public high school until 1938, boasts several alumni of note, including President Calvin Coolidge. Also attending during Coolidge’s time was Ida May Fuller, recipient of the first Social Security check in 1940. She paid in for three years, a total of $24.75; her initial monthly check was for $22.54, almost equal to her total contribution. It stands to reason that the first-ever beneficiary would have paid her tax over only a short period. What is surprising is that she lived past her hundredth birthday and collected almost $23,000 in benefits over 35 years. Concert attendee Bob Kottkamp told us where to find Fuller’s house, just across the street and a few doors down from the church.

George and his wife Linda arranged a lovely event with an engaged audience and a lavish reception. George, a fine baritone, and soprano Lisha Klaiber, another congregant, joined me separately for a few numbers from the Great American Songbook. George’s choice of “I, Don Quixote” was, as he pointed out, well suited to this project. I do often feel crazy tilting at the seemingly indomitable forces of fossil-fuel capitalism on my 88-toothed steed, but—like Quixote perhaps—not fighting only makes me crazier. It is a well-documented tenet of climate activism that active engagement is the best antidote to depression and despair.

The concert took place on the 94th anniversary the birth of non-fictional social crusader Martin Luther King, so of course I played my homage “Happy Birthday Martin”. I say “my” but—besides the fact that the whole thing is a potpourri of musical quotations from “Give Peace A Chance” to the Woody Woodpecker theme—the entire middle section is nicked from a Cliff Jackson rendition titled ”Happy Birthday to Pat”.

We’ve had lots of advance coverage in the Vermont media, but the Ludlow concert garnered our first proper review, in the Vermont Journal. For more press coverage of the project, see the Press page.