Floating in the Wind

Over the summer I was driving in West Philadelphia and came across this small city-block-size park with what appeared to be a large number of shirts blowing in the wind. I resolved to go back another day and see what it was.

It was a memorial to over two hundred Philadelphians killed by illegal guns. Each shirt bore the name, age and dates of a person who had been shot and killed in Philadelphia in 2013. The memorial was the work of Neighborhood Partners to End Gun Violence. They move the memorial to different parks around the city. This is their page on Facebook

I went back again with a camera and took this video. It was a windy day following a night of thunderstorms so the shirts are in a bit of disarray. I wrote a song to accompany the video.

Around this time I rediscovered the hymn "Oh Sacred Head Now Wounded." I love the melody of this old hymn which I believe also appears in Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion." My friend Janice Woodcock learned the piece and we inserted it as a bridge in the song.

  

Link to the video: Floating in the Wind

Busking at the Bagelry

Elgie's Kitchen doing a little street performing in front of Spread Bagelry in Philly (at their request, of course) with guest artist Ryan whose harmonica solo on "Key to the Highway" ruled the day.

We highly recommend Spread Bagelry's Montreal-style wood oven bagels -- and not just because they bought us lunch after the gig.

"Home" (I see the sunrise open your eyes).

It seems like I've been spending a lot of time on trains and subways and in their interconnecting terminal spaces this winter. These places inspired this song and video.

Building the Silver Box

Last summer I had a building project going on. It is a 12 x 16 building that my wife will use for a studio. We put galvanized steel panels on the roof and one side thus giving the building the look of a silver box.

I had a lot of help from friends and neighbors especially from a carpenter friend, Jeff, who knew a lot more about construction work than I do.

Later I put a slide show together of photos we took during construction and then wrote a song to accompany it. This video is the result.

Elgie's Kitchen at Crossroads

February 7, 2014  we opened for Saint Mad for their monthly
First Friday show at Crossroads in Roxborough.
Here is a five-song compilation from that evening:

Elgie's Kitchen on Soundcloud