H.O.P.E.

DUKES FANS: “HOPE is How One Perceives Everything”- Susan Allenbacak “Hope attracts chances.” —Toba Beta “Music is the Healing Force of The Universe” Saxophonist Albert Ayler “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King, Jr. Thinking about Hope I think about “hope” and what it can mean a great deal. To me, it is one of the greatest and most powerful forces in human lives: it allows us to dream, to experience tough times and survive, to leave important legacies, to inspire others, and so much more. I got word recently that one of my favorite musicians, whose whole career is a true embodiment of hope, will be playing Philadelphia in a little over a month, and that reminded me of a piece I wrote about her, the notion of hope, and an exhibit at the Museum of American Visionary Arts in Baltimore way back in 2016. I decided to re-run some of it in an edited form. I hope you do not mind: Wednesday, July 13 my wife and I went to a concert at World Café Live featuring Sharon Katz and the Peace Train. Katz is an amazing guitarist, singer and organizer who is a white South African woman who, in the early 1990’s in apartheid South Africa, put together a 500 member interracial and inter-cultural performance group and did performances of a show called, When Voices Meet. She then became an ambassador for Nelson Mandela, chartering a train and performing When Voices Meet at dozens of places around South Africa, risking jail and possibly death. It was a movement that tied in with the anti-apartheid movement and played an active role in getting people to vote, spread news about health and child welfare, and more. After Mandela’s election Sharon became even more involved in what we would call humanitarian and social justice work, starting music therapy groups, raising money for children displaced by warfare, HIV/AIDS, and bringing stories and songs of peoples’ struggles to places around the world. Over the years this work that has taken her on tours to just about every continent. Her concert last Wednesday featured Peace Train 2016-a multi-cultural group of children from schools across the country singing and dancing to South African tunes and Sharon’s own rhythm-heavy and inspirational compositions. The concert attracted people of all ages, all nationalities and colors. It was a veritable United Nations of joy, happiness, commitment and unity as Sharon and the kids moved together, hand clapped, sang, shouted, and danced their commitment to a world of inclusion and peace. It was also a moving reminder of the central and powerful role music has played throughout history as a unifier and inspiration in movements for social change. We stood, cheered, clapped, cried and left the World Café with a heart full of energy, love, and most importantly, hope. Friday July 15 saw us at one of our favorite spaces, The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. A museum dedicated to the work of outside artists, this museum is one of the most joyous spaces we have ever visited, filled with color, unique sculptures, vivid drawings and paintings, and thought provoking exhibits organized around wide ranging themes. The current major exhibition is ‘The Big HOPE Show,” a multi-media examination and presentation of thoughts, experiences, and ideas about what hope is, does, can be and enables us to do. From one man’s cartoons and colorful post card illustrations of his years- long medical issues, to paintings and drawings re-examining the myth of Pandora’s Box, this exhibit challenges and involves one directly, calling for honest, emotional responses. There is a video speech by Kevin Briggs, a San Francisco Bay Bridge officer who has talked down some 200 potential suicides from the bridge. He talks about how he tries to listen to the would-be suicides, trying to find places where some little bit of hope still lies within. He then tries to speak to that bit of hope, and for the most part, that has prevented them from taking their own lives. There is also a wonderful video examination of Philadelphia artist Lily Yeh and the work she did in transforming a neighborhood in North Philadelphia with her Village of Arts and Humanities, and how she has since carried that work to places around the world. There is a scrapbook table and exhibit that calls for us to look at our positive memories as a scrapbook of a trip through our lives. And there are paintings that look at the near universal human tendency to look at birds and butterflies as images of hope and prayer. The exhibit was inspiring, and it reminded me of who I am and how much hope is a part of that. As a child of the 1960’s, a son of African-American Southerners who came north and established a household in a Jim Crow world, and as a musician, teacher, and birdwatcher, I am constantly and deeply involved with hope. All of those activities point to a person who engages the world, believes in looking for the positive, imagines what can be, is working in some small way to make what can be possible possible, and who delights in being a human being in this world; the world that is here right now with all of its challenges. And over these past few years, I have needed to take actions that reassert that hope lives deeply within me and that it is one of the things that motivates me; that it is an essential part of who I am. Last week the concert and the museum did that for me in real ways, and I am so grateful. While it may appear to be "hip" and "cool" to be cynical, hope is what provides the fuel for important change. Just look at the Civil Rights Movement, the Gay Rights Movement, and more. We live in a world where hope, joined with persistent and consistent action, has provided important change in the face of incredible odds. We need to remember that and continue to take those actions For many of us these past few weeks have been a hard time. Our screens, TV’s, papers and more have regularly been filled with images, words, and actions reflecting fear, hatred, and anger. Our new technology brought us face to face with some unpleasant things. I have heard many friends and acquaintances mention how scared they are and how unsure they are of where we as a nation are headed. For those of us who are committed to a world of peace, tolerance and diversity, it may seem as if we are farther away from that vision than ever before. Those powerful positive motivators, vision and hope, may seem very, very distant. But experiences such as Sharon’s concert and the Visionary Art Museum’s exhibit are strong reminders that there are plenty of reasons to be positive and plenty of examples of the transformative and positive power of hope being lived and demonstrated all around us. And as Lily Yeh’s life illustrates, there are many people, groups and efforts in the world that are building on that hope and working to bring aspects of it into existence. Fear, despair and conflict drive our media-it is flashy, it delivers viewers for advertisers, and it can even ignite a political movement or two. But it has never produced a way of life or a society that has delivered peace, stability, beauty and tolerance. Never. We need to remember that and to focus instead on hope and to find ways, even small ways, we can be a part of building the world in which we say we want to live. Using that hope to motivate us and then putting effort into manifesting it are the only things that can defeat our fears and help us envision, engage with and build toward the world we want. For I agree with the words of Holocaust survivor, psychologist and philosopher Victor Frankl: “The last of human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude.” I say look up, do not despair. Choose hope, and then work in some small way to make what you are hoping for happen in our world. We must be the world we wish to see and to live in. It starts with us. I say, choose hope. 1) Here is a link to Sharon Katz’s music and work:http://sharonkatz.com/ 2) Kevin Briggs Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_briggs_the_bridge_between_suicide_and_life/transcript 3)Here is a link to the American Visionary Art Museum. The exhibit, The Big Hope Show, is no longer on the site, but there are other wonderful and inspiring exhibits here: http://www.avam.org/ And if you are ever in Baltimore, visit that museum! 4) If you are interested in getting a list of some organizations that I support and think are doing some important work in building positive things in the face of adversity, please write me.

Unplanned Interactions

DUKES FANS: “ When we live a good life, we are capable of the joys of surprise. But surprise is not going to come up to your door, knock, and ask to be let in. You have to be out in the world and open to it”…. Anonymous This past week has been like an oasis in the desert. The weather has been much more moderate and bearable. The temperatures have been in the 70’s and low 80’s for the most part, and the humidity has been much lower than it had been during the previous weeks. I have been able to breathe, and most enjoyably, been able to enjoy being outdoors in my neighborhood. I have not been out in a leisurely fashion for much of this summer due to the weather, and I have missed the casual joys of neighborhood life. I have lived in my neighborhood for 35 years-almost half of my life. I consider myself extremely lucky to live here in West Mt Airy as there are so many things that I love about this area. For one, I love the houses. There are a lot of rowhouses, but they are wider than the stereotypical narrow ones that fill many Philly neighborhoods, and most of them have porches. They also have some patch of land both in front of and behind them. That means there are plenty of opportunities to see and have interactions with neighbors in unplanned ways. Folks are sitting on their porches and/or working on that plot of land as I walk by, and unplanned interactions take place. Little check-in conversations, talks about trips and activities, what the kids are up to, and more have taken place on just about every street I have been traveling this week. We have two coffeehouses in the neighborhood, and more folks have been sitting outside the shops, enjoying their beverages, sitting with friends and family, and greeting me as I walk by. People have just been out walking-with friends, with kids, and with dogs. And so there have been more chance for unplanned interactions. The hot, humid weather kept a lot of us indoors for a while, as being outdoors was largely miserable. But this week we are all out and about, and the unplanned interactions are plentiful and joyous. So here’s to the possibility of surprise and the unplanned. Indeed, some of the best times in our lives are things we neither plan nor envision. And in this weather, it is much easier to encounter those surprises. Enjoy being out and about.

The Parkway and Memory

DUKES FANS: “If you stay in one place for a long time and don’t die, your past will come back to visit you in different ways” John C-D As folks who have read the last of these missives know, I do not like hot and humid weather. The heat just saps my energy, and the humidity makes it hard to breathe and move around. Add in the thunderstorms, the flash floods, and the tornado warnings, the past few weeks have been weeks I definitely have not enjoyed. That is why this week has been so special. Cooler temps, much lower humidity, gentle breezes, and gorgeous clouds in the sky-Ahhhhh. I welcomed it and decided to do one of my favorite things; spend some time in Center City and visit the Ben Franklin Parkway. The Parkway is one of my favorite things in Philly design and architecture. It is a glorious diagonal that starts at City Hall and cuts its way down to the Art Museum. I used to love when my parents drove us on it when I was a kid. Looking from side to side out the car window and seeing the hotels, the Free Library, The Franklin Institute, and the statues was exciting to me. And when I went to Masterman Jr High School at 17th and Spring Garden, I regularly spent time going to the main branch of the Free Library just off the Parkway, and then walking along it up to City Hall. I visited the library again on Monday, and as I was walking towards it, I realized it had been months since I had last traveled that road. So I walked steadily, looking at the people on the benches and all of the buildings, including my long-time place of employment at 17th Street. And I loved viewing the gorgeous skies over the trees and over the Art Museum as I walked. It was a walk both in the present and back into my past. The Main Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library at 19th and Vine is one of my all-time sacred places. I love the design of the building; it is grand and built to look like a mythic temple. And to me it is a temple, one dedicated to learning, information, questioning, and thinking. I spent time in the main lending room on the first floor, of course, as I wanted to borrow a couple of books by two of my favorite authors. But I also wanted to revisit some of the places that have been so important to me over the years as bota curious person and teacher. I revisited the map room, the Social Science and History room, the music room, the walls outside the Children’s section filled with art by children, and the first floor special exhibition cases which houses changing displays of work by various authors and artists The current exhibit features works by Ellen Powell Tiberino, an incredible and intense local artist whose work I have always loved. Her pencil works and portraits are incredibly moving. The past coming back again, she and her husband, Joe, used to run Bacchanal, a great funky nightspot at 13th and South where I first heard and met many musicians with whom I am still friendly. The past coming back, indeed. Finally, I left the library and headed to Sister Cities Café at 18th and the Parkway. Sister Cities is a mini-park area with mini-sculptures, geyser fountains, and a wading pool for kids, and it was wonderful drinking coffee and eating a croissant at the café and watching parents and kids playing in the pool and using the Discovery Garden. It was a perfect end to a great day of re-discovery. I know we are in for another heat wave this weekend into next week, so I won’t be getting back downtown for a while. But I would love to return and re-visit the Rittenhouse Square area, site of so much of my early musical experiences, and the Franklin Square area, where I explored so much of early American history both as a learner and as a teacher. I love all that there is to see and experience in Philly, and I am glad I can still get to so much of it. And if you are interested, here is some info on the main branch of the Free Library and Sister Cities Park .I hope you can get to visit both places. (https://libwww.freelibrary.org/locations/parkway-central-library) (https://www.visitphilly.com/things-to-do/attractions/sister-cities-park/ ) Dukes of Destiny gigs (www.dukesofdestiny.com ) 1) Saturday, August 9; Kennett Square Blues Fest: Anson Nixon Park; 405 N. Walnut St; Kennett Square PA; fest starts at noon; 3:45- 5PM is Brother John then The Dukes; $27.50; featured acts include Brother John, The Dukes of Destiny, Mikey Jr, Stevie and The Bluescasters, and more https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anson-b-nixon-park-roots-blues-festival-tickets-1450774318039 2)Tuesday, August 19: Seger Playground 1002 Lombard St; Phila. PA; 5:30PM-7:30PM; https://segerpark.org/ 3)Wednesday August 20 Kahn Park 11th and Pine Sts. Phila PA (rain date August 21st);7:30-9PM; https://kahnpark.org/events Outdoor fun for the Dukes for the month of August. This is our first time at the Kennett Roots and Blues Fest, and readers of this newsletter know that I love Chester County and Kennett Square in particular. This is a wonderfully shaded park with a couple of great stages, good food vendors, and a great lineup of performers. A wonderful afternoon of blues fun in a great place. Seger Playground and Kahn Park have become regular gigs for the Dukes in my old neighborhood. These are beautiful urban parks-Seger has pickleball courts, dog runs, basketball courts and climbing things for kids. Kahn Park has lovely plantings, easy access to good restaurants, comfortable seats, and like Seger, great crowds of all ages. We love both of these places and look forward to seeing you there. BROTHER JOHN-JOHNNY NEVER & JOHN COLGAN-DAVIS Brother John gigs; www.BrotherJohnBlues.com 1)Friday, July 25; 7-10PM Letty’sTavern; 201 State Street; Kennett Square PA 19348 https://www.lettystavern.com 2)Saturday, July 26; 7--10:00PM Braeloch Brewing; 225 Birch Street; Kennett Square PA https://braelochbrewing.beer 3)Saturday, August 2 7PM - 10PM Hummingbird to Mars-a 1930 Speakeasy (ring the bell); W 16th St, Wilmington, DE 19806 http://catherinerooneys.com/hummingbird Reservations recommended 4)Friday, August 8; 8-11PM;Triple Sun Distiller;126 South State Street;Newtown, PA 18940; Phone: (215) 944-3057 5)Saturday, August 9; 3:45 PM; Kennett Square Roots and Blues Festival; Anson B Nixon Memorial Park405 N. Walnut Street; Kennett Square PA;tickets $27.50-$150 https://www.ansonbnixonpark.org/events/2024-roots-blues-festival The end of July into August is a time for some great return gigs for Brother John. This weekend finds us at two places in Kennett Square that we have been playing for a while. like. Letty’s is a great casual restaurant with a friendly staff and bartenders and a good unique menu. Braeloch is a brewery/sports bar with craft brews, good pub food, and a lovely outdoor space with a little playground for kids. Next week we return to the Hummingbird, a unique place with great period décor, a great staff and bartender, and wonderful food. The week after that we return to Triple Sun, a craft distillery in the beautiful town of Newtown with a variety of handcrafted drinks and delicious French and Cajun inspired food. Last but not least, we are happy to be back at The Kennett Roots and Blues Fest in Anson Nixon Park on a bill that includes James Day, Stevie and The Bluescasters, Mikey Jr, The Dukes, and more. So it is a busy next three weeks for Brother John. We do hope to see you at at least one of our upcoming gigs. BTW: Thank you for all of you who made it out to our CD release party last week at Steel City. It was a great crowd, we sold a number of CD’s, and we had a ball. we are proud of the Black Crow CD, but it is and was an expensive process. We have set up a Go Fund Me page to help cover the cost. Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much. https://gofund.me/c62805b7 The Sunday Blues Jam at Jamey’s House of Music; 32 S. Landsdowne, Ave; Lansdowne, PA; jamey@jameyshouseofmusic.com Blues lovers and players have made Jamey's Sunday Blues Jam the place for great blues jamming, inexpensive and tasty eats, craft brews on tap, fresh brewed coffee, a great waitstaff, and friendly people who love the blues.  Each Sunday features an hour long set by a different house band, and then there is an open jam until 3PM. This month the jam features The Philly Blues Kings with various guitarists and singers. The 2nd Sunday of each month features The Roger Girke-John Colgan-Davis Project as the house band, and our next gig there is Sunday, August 10th. Got an instrument? Sing? Just want to listen to some exciting blues and have some good food? Come on out and take part in this great blues jam with great food and liquid refreshments. $5 minimum to be spent

The Dog Days Are Here

DUKES FANS: THE RETURN OF THE DOG DAYS! A couple of weeks ago I wrote a newsletter talking about the joys of summer outdoor music. Festivals, summer park concerts, and street parties have long been a part of my musical inspiration and playing career. I got to see some of my favorite musicians of all genres at the Philly Folk Festival, Be-Ins in Fairmount Park and summer park concerts in the 1960’s and 70’s. As a working musician I have been privileged to have played The Philly Folk Festival, Chestnut Hill Spring and Fall concerts, Narberth street concerts, Bryan Mawr’s Twilight Series, Kahn Park concerts, and many, many more. I love playing these gigs because the crowds are very diverse in age and music interest, and there is a special sense of unity that outdoor music seems to bring to people. There is a special sense of being together that inspires us musicians, and we reflect that back to the crowd. It is magical and powerful. This year it has been challenging for outdoor gigs. The unpredictability and intensity of this summer’s weather has made it hard for concert planners, audiences, and musicians. There have been several postponements of shows and several cancellations. This got me thinking about a newsletter piece I wrote way back in 2020 on “The Dog Days’, and I thought I would reprint part of it, slightly modified, again: THE DOG DAYS AT HOME It is hot and rainy again, and the weather has been a big part of our lives these last few weeks. There were most notably downpours, thunderstorms, and tornadoes, and floods of the last few weeks. Power was knocked out, roads, farmlands, and basements were flooded, and trees were felled throughout much of the country-indeed, much of the world. Those events were both preceded by, and then followed by, intense heat and humidity. We are spending a lot of time inside these days in front of fans, in air-conditioned environments, or trying to grab a little shade and a stray breeze on our porches or in our backyards. This can often be a time of two-three showers a day. The “Dog Days” of summer are definitely here, and they have announced their presence in very dramatic fashion. The Dog Days are traditionally cited as falling between July 3 and August 17th-18th. In the Southern and mid-Atlantic regions of the US it is a time of intense heat, high humidity, torrential downpours, thunderstorms and windstorms, and increasingly, floods. When I was young, I thought this time was called the “Dog Days’ because so often dogs would be seen on the streets with their tongues hanging out and panting, as if struggling to breathe. I had friends who said, “No, it is because dogs get driven mad by the heat in this weather, and they go around biting and attacking you.” I did not grow up in a house that had a dog, so this made me a little wary and afraid of dogs for a good long while. I did not want to be seen as a potential meal for a canine. Neither of those stories are true; “The Dog Days” refer to the period of time when there is the visible appearance of a super-bright star in the morning sky in a southeastern position. That star is now called, Sirius,” and its sunrise appearance was first noted and recorded yearly by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. They noted that when that star appeared, the Nile River would begin its period of flooding, and that was vital information. The Egyptians needed to know that for their agricultural output depended on the regular flooding of the Nile. The height and length of time of the flood season was the key to knowing when to plant crops, and when to trade items up and down the Nile. Knowing that was, therefore, the key to Egypt’s success as a civilization. Sirius was literally a watchdog for that event. Greece and Rome got a lot of their celestial knowledge from the Egyptians, and they eventually put Sirius into a constellation-Camus Majoris or Great Dog. The name of the constellation shows how important the star’s arrival was to them. And like so much of Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures, that knowledge made its way to us. So we are in the Dog Days and trying to do that human thing; accept, adjust and apply. The Dukes and Brother John both have several outdoor gigs this summer, and my hope is that the weather pauses to allow those gigs to happen: as I said before, these gigs are very special to me. And if you are planning to come to any of them, I do hope you contact concert organizers before the scheduled event, particularly if there is rain in the forecast the day or night before to see if there is a postponement, cancellation, or change of venue. And if you come to these concerts, please bring plenty of water and insect repellent. The Dog Days are here, but we can still have the joy and connectedness of outdoor music in a crowd. Looking forward to sharing those joys with many of you this summer. Dukes of Destiny gigs (www.dukesofdestiny.com ) 1) Friday, July 18; CANCELED!! Mermaid Inn-corner of Germantown Ave and Mermaid Lane;8-11PM; THIS SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELED! 2)Saturday, August 9; Kennett Square Blues Fest: Anson Nixon Park; 405 N. Walnut St; Kennett Square PA; fest starts at noon; 3:45- 5PM is Brother John then The Dukes; $27.50; featured acts include Brother John, The Dukes of Destiny, Mikey Jr, Stevie and The Bluescasters, and more https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anson-b-nixon-park-roots-blues-festival-tickets-1450774318039 3)Tuesday, August 19: Seger Playground 1002 Lombard St; Phila. PA; 5:30PM-7:30PM; https://segerpark.org/ 4)Wednesday August 20 Kahn Park 11th and Pine Sts. Phila PA (rain date August 21st);7:30-9PM; https://kahnpark.org/events Outdoor fun for the Dukes for the month of August. This is our first time at the Kennett Roots and Blues Fest, and readers of this newsletter know tat I love Chester County and Kennett Square in particular. This is a wonderfully shaded park with a couple of great stages, good food vendors, and a great lineup of performers. A wonderful afternoon of blues fun in a great place. Seger Playground and Kahn Park have become regular gigs for the Dukes in my old neighborhood. These are beautiful urban parks-Seger has pickleball courts, dog runs, basketball courts and climbing things for kids. Kahn Park has lovely plantings, easy access to good restaurants, comfortable seats, and like Seger, great crowds of all ages. We love both of these places and look forward to seeing you there. BROTHER JOHN-JOHNNY NEVER & JOHN COLGAN-DAVIS Brother John gigs; www.johnnynver.com 1)Wednesday, July 16 Pastorius Park Summer Concert Series; Pastorious Park, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia PA. https://www.chestnuthill.org/pastorius_park_summer_concerts.php 2) July 19. Black Crow CD pre-release party; Steel City Coffeehouse and Brewery; 203 Bridge Street, Phoenixville PA 19460; 484-925-8425 TICKETS $20 in advance $25 at the Door. Tickets available at www.steelcitybrews.com The Pastorious Park Summer Concert Series is one of the longest running summer concert series in Philadelphia. It is in a big, beautiful park with fountains, and nice sloping grass and trees. Bring a picnic, lawn chair and/or blanket, and bring the whole family. Beverages and snacks are available for sale. Steel City is a great listening room with good views of the stage, a great sound system and a great coffeehouse vibe. We love playing here, and we are happy to be having our CD release party in the wonderful town of Phoenixville. In recognition of the similarities of our first name and our tightness and intimate interaction of our music we are taking the occasion of the release of our New CD, Black Crow, to change our name and officially become Brother John. We are excited about this as it marks the continued evolution of our music and our sound. Advanced tickets are on sale now, and there is a link above to that gig. A gentle reminder: We are proud of the CD, but it is and was an expensive process. We had to pay for studio time, mastering the CD, making the actual physical copies of the CD, distributing it, and promoting it. To that end, we have established a Go Fund Me campaign to help cover the production costs. Following the link below will take you to the donation page where you can see a video that allows you to hear some clips from the CD and see a breakdown of our costs. And if you listen to Jonny Meister’s Blues show on WXPN, you can also hear cuts from Black Crow most Saturday nights. Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated. Welcome to the unveiling of Brother John. Thanks https://gofund.me/c62805b7 The Sunday Blues Jam at Jamey’s House of Music; 32 S. Landsdowne, Ave; Lansdowne, PA; jamey@jameyshouseofmusic.com Blues lovers and players have made Jamey's Sunday Blues Jam the place for great blues jamming, inexpensive and tasty eats, craft brews on tap, fresh brewed coffee, a great waitstaff, and friendly people who love the blues.  Each Sunday features an hour long set by a different house band, and then there is an open jam until 3PM. This month the jam features The Philly Blues Kings with various guitarists and singers. The 2nd Sunday of each month features The Roger Girke-John Colgan-Davis Project as the house band, and our next gig there is Sunday, August 10th. Got an instrument? Sing? Just want to listen to some exciting blues and have some good food? Come on out and take part in this great blues jam with great food and liquid refreshments. $5 minimum to be spent.

Outdoor Summer Music

John Colgan-Davis From:j.colgan-davis@att.net To:blackjayduke!1200@yahoo.com Wed, Jul 2 at 2:49 PM DUKES FANS: “Hot Fun in the Summertime" Sly Stone Somehow, we slipped right from May into August. Hot, humid, rainy August in Philadelphia is far from my favorite month. I generally like the first part of summer, but August gets tough and uncomfortable. When my wife was alive, we would always take the last two weeks of that month for our extended camping trips. We would head north and would camp in NY state, go up to Canada, and generally enjoy cooler weather. But it is here early, and we just have to face it. Accept, adapt, and apply; that is the human condition. One of the good things about summer, though, is the outdoor park and street concert series that abound. I love playing outdoor concerts. I love seeing families together, folks who don’t come to hear us in clubs, and visiting different city and suburban neighborhoods and areas. I have played each of the three parks we are playing this summer before, and I love them all. Bring picnics, lawn chairs, family and friends to each of them. And at Seger, you can bring your dog. These are all wonderful gigs. Of course, with the heat and humidity being what it is, it is important to remember to stay hydrated, hydrated, hydrated. If you are coming to hear us at any of our outdoor gigs this August, please remember this. And don’t forget-you can stay cool with The Dukes indoors this month at the Mermaid as well. Have a Happy Summer. Hope to see you at some of our gigs.

DUKES FANS: Sunday June 15 was father's Day, and it was an important day for many of us fathers. Some of us were taken to brunch or dinner, were presented with gifts ranging from tools to ties, and others got to spend time with our children either in person and/or through face-timing. My son and I had a good dinner together at my house and watched a movie together-something my family had done for years when my wife was alive. My son and I still do it periodically, but it felt especially right and special on Sunday. I like being a father, and I love the relationship my son and I have. I am also a history guy, so I am always interested in where something came from-how it originated, caught on somewhere, and then spread. Mother’s Day, I knew, grew out of a post-Civil War attempt to unite a town in West Virginia that had been divided by that war. A day was held to honor the mothers of fallen Union and Confederate soldiers. Started by Ann Jarvis in 1868, it became an annual event to honor the work and sacrifices of mothers. Eventually Ann’s daughter, Anna, started a large nationwide campaign to have it become a national holiday. She got hundreds of people to write letters to Congressmen in support of the idea and had a huge Mother’s Day celebration at Wanamaker’s Department store in Philadelphia. The campaign took off, and Mother’s Day became a national holiday signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. In some ways, Father’s Day can also trace its roots to the Civil War. William Jackson Smart was a Civil War veteran living in Spokane, Washington. He was a single father to six children who loved and adored him. One of those children, Sonora Smart Dodd, heard a sermon in 1909 about Ana Jarvis and the start of Mother’s Day. She went to her pastor asking for a day to honor and to celebrate fathers in the way Mother’s Day honored mothers. He agreed, and after the initial service, she started going to other churches, YMCA’s, and government officials trying to sell the idea. iI tworked. Washington State had the first statewide celebration of Father’s Day in 1910. But It didn’t become a national holiday for quite a while. President Wilson was in favor of it, and President Calvin Cooledge urged states to celebrate it in 1924. But it was slow going. Many men, apparently, thought the idea of a day like Mother’s Day was too effeminate; not manly enough. While there were states that observed it and it was routinely debated in Congress, the idea of a national day for fathers did not catch on at first. Retailers, though, looked at it as an opportunity, so they started advertising ties and tools and cars as ways to “give dads a Christmas in the summer.” The constant push by retailers led to a steadily growing interest in celebrating the day. It became an unofficial holiday celebrated throughout the counrtny. In 1996 President Lyndon Baines Johnson issued a proclamation declaring the third Sunday in June as a day to honor fathers. Finally, President Richard Nixon made it an official national holiday in 1972. Father’s Day was officially recognized. I love the day; I think about my father and his life and all he went through to establish a family and help keep it together. And when I see little kids in the neighborhood walking and playing with their dads, I am reminded of the joy doing such a simple thing brought me. No, not every father knows or knew how to parent well. Not every one was good to be around. But most of them are and recognizing it and celebrating it makes sense to me. And if you did not have such a person in your birth family life, I hope you found someone who could fill that role. (In 2023 Americans spent some $34 billion dollars on Mother’s Day, and some 23 Billion dollars on Father’s Day)

The Genius of Sylvester Stewart

DUKES FANS: “Before there was Prince, there was Sly. Before there was Parliament-Funkadelic, there was Sly.” Questlove of the Roots I was planning to write today about the origins of Father’s Day as many of us will observe and celebrate it this Sunday. But yesterday a friend sent me an e-mail letting me know that a musical hero of mine had died. Sylvester Stewart, better known as Sly Stone, died at age 82 yesterday. Leader and founder of Sly and The Family Stone, he and that band have long been one of my favorite musical ensembles. With their strong, exuberant singing, unique blend of voices and powerful bass and horn lines, they were a joyous combination of gospel, soul, what would be called funk, and psychedelia. They set the groundwork for much of popular music in the 80’s and 90’s. I loved them. Dance to The Music was the first song of theirs that I heard, and I was immediately hooked. I loved the gospel-tinged group harmonies and shouting, the bright horns, the bass lines, the “take no prisoners” drum beats, and the strong alternating lead voices.’ It was bright and bold, and their follow up songs, “Stand, "Hot Fun in the Summertime" and " Thank you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again) all had that same intoxicating combination. And they were all high-energy and joyous. You just had to move, sing along, and dance when you heard Sly’s music. And there was the band itself: garishly dressed and seemingly on a mission to lighten everyone’s load. They were one of the very few integrated bands at that time, and they had females as full members of the band, not just back-up singers. That was unusual also. Of course, they had their demons. Success came fast and sudden, and drugs and alcohol became an issue for several of them, including Sly. There were also personality problems that developed and financial troubles. By the mid-70’s the group had essentially broken up. There were occasional performances and TV things with Sly, and on occasion the band would get together for a one time thing. But it was never to be a touring or full time performing band”again. Sly and the Family Stone was essentially done by 1975. They slipped out of view,heard occasionally on oldies stations. But there has been a lot more interest in Sly recently. Sly wrote a memoir, and it won an award. He also did some appearances with several pop and funk performers such as George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. There have also been a couple of films released recently featuring Sly. Questlove produced and released the film, Summer of Soul, about the amazing 1969 concert in Harlem that featured all types of Black music and was a grand celebration of both the people and the place. Sly and The Family Stone have a set that is super-hot and catches them at their best. Questlove also released a documentary on Sly’s life called Sly Lives, (aka the Burden of Black Genius), which is available on Hulu and Disney streaming channels. I haven’t seen it yet, but I definitely will. He also has been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and much of his work is getting serious analysis. His amazing contributions to soul, rock, and pop are finally being recognized. Sly’s music was ahead of its time. It combined facets from various musical styles, and he somehow made it all work. It was all celebratory and joyous. Thank you, Sylvester Stewart. Your work has enriched my life and given me many smiles and joyous moments. Thank you. (The films Summer of Soul and Sly Lives are both available for streaming on Hulu) Sly’s website is https://www.slystonemusic.com/ There is also an excellent Wikipedia article on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sly_Stone