Play Every Town
Then: Westford Baptist Church (1822)
Now: Red Brick Meeting House
Westford’s place in Vermont’s musical atlas is secured by The Barn, where Phish recorded most of their studio albums. At first I thought to make some sort of Phish connection for one of my “local” numbers, maybe even see if any of the band members who had lived in Westford might want to collaborate.
Then Wikipedia told me that Jonathan Mann grew up in Westford, and in exchange for one more click it also told me who he is: a songwriter who has written a song every day since January 1, 2009 (that’s 5,638 daily songs as I write this). He lives in Connecticut now, so a live collaboration was not in the cards. But I knew my program had to acknowledge this native son, whose project is a sort of distant superstar cousin to Play Every Town. So, in the spirit of his Song A Day project, I wrote a song about him in…well, more than a day, but less than 24 hours cumulatively, and sang it at the concert.
A friend of his sent him a video of my song right after the concert, and to my delight and amazement, his very next song, “My Heart Is Still In Westford” (below) —which I had literally referenced, before it even existed, in my lyrics—was composed in response to my song and this concert, which had triggered Jonathan’s Vermont homesickness.
“Jonathan Mann” (Feurzeig)
“My Heart Is Still In Westford” (Mann)
Charleston Rag (Eubie Blake)
In addition to this connection, I had the great pleasure of playing a few traditional tunes with guitarist Charlie Cavanaugh and his nephew, violinist Michael Farmer, while their mother/grandmother Mary who will be 100 in February sat appreciatively in the front row.
The concert had its origin in Marjorie Hamrell’s invitation to perform at the Westford Common Hall, a deconsecrated church at one end of the town green, now Westford’s main venue for public performances. While it is a lovely space, it has no piano, only an electronic keyboard…which I will consent to play on in this project only as a true last resort, as I did for example in Brunswick (pop. 88) and will again this fall in Lewis (pop. 0).
So we went instead to the other end of the green where the Red Brick Meeting House, the oldest church building in Westford, built as a Baptist church in 1822, had an old and disused piano (more on that below). The concert ended up being a joint venture of the WCH and RBMH societies, who together were very generous in getting the piano in shape, and in attracting an appreciative capacity audience. And generous: donations benefitted the Westford Conservation Commission and amounted to a 20% bump in the group’s annual budget, which will be used to improve public trails and access.
Where? Here!
The program
Marge fills in Westford
Kimball upright serial no. 30543 was manufactured in 1894. It had not been taken care of for many years prior to my concert—no one could remember the last time it had been tuned. It began a half-step flat, so the first tuning did not hold as the strings and soundboard adjusted to the sudden increase in tension. But the tuning pins and pinblock themselves were sound, so it held somewhat better on a second tuning by Peter O’Riley, which the organizers generously agreed to pay for. Special thanks to co-organizers Michael Kirick and John Doane for their assistance and indulgence.
The piano was especially happy playing ragtime and marches. So I took advantage of the fact that the great Harlem Stride pianist James P. Johnson was born in 1894, the same year as the piano, to play several of his virtuoso showpieces.
After the concert, many people expressed wonderment at how good it sounded. While it still has limitations, I also was surprised at the tonal quality on the recording. John Doane told me proudly and enthusiastically that they would now make the piano available for their Red Brick Meeting House monthly coffeehouse performances.
One of the goals of Play Every Town is to contribute to the vitality of village spaces and (secondarily) to the revival and maintenance of village pianos, so hearing this made me very happy.
oak frame–common location for serial no.
also embossed in the steel plate–unusual!