Report on Medway Music!
Some of you must be curious about how the music went, so I will tell you as much as I can. The Marian Community is in Medway, MA right across the line from Holliston, and it's a stone's throw from the Fatima Shrine where the group used to be based. It's a small group of families, several of whom we knew back in Oblate Center days. Greg's dad and his wife, who is mom for Joyce Drahos, and Joyce's sister were all there. I'm not so good at estimating, but I'm guessing there were maybe 80 people there? It was a private show only for the Community members and their families. It was Greg's dad, Bernie, who arranged us coming for the group.
After working hard at school all day, I packed my stuff in the car and drove through traffic about an hour and a half. There was a big surprise when I got there. Not only was Greg there, but Anne-Marie was dropping off their son Josh with his guitar! He was really enthusiastic and joined in nicely.
Their place is beautiful and well kept. We tuned up and got ready in the hall and eventually Caroline Drahos showed up as she said she would. We only got to practice a couple of songs but she picked it up quickly. And as the night went on, though she didn't know several of the songs, she joined in very well quite a bit.
At 5:00, we all went into the prayer room for Rosary. We played part of "Gentle Woman", to start with, and parts of "Magnificat" throughout. Bernie pointed out it was the feast of St. Bernard! And we did the Glorious Mysteries though it was Friday because it was the Assumption earlier this week and it felt 'glorious'!
We then went into the hall and began playing while everyone ate; we played until about 7:00 PM intermittently. After a few songs, John went to get something to eat. Some of the songs we did: "Carry On", "Forever", "I See His Face", "The Word", "Home is Where the Heart Is", "Make Me Free" and "Peter the Rock" (which Caroline joined in on nicely, which made her mother smile who composed the dance for the song!). Josh begged me to do "Do You Understand" and we did; I had some trouble playing the darn thing but Josh said he really likes that one and it had great energy and vocals. After a while, Josh, Greg and I went to go get some food and John and daughter Caroline did a nice job on a song I hadn't heard, "Be Still and Know". Then Caroline went to eat and John carried on for a while. We all returned to join John on his Christmas song, "Rejoice Now All Men" and I must say, the singing was really marvelous and it got quite a reaction; most people were done eating by now and most of them were smiling at this one. Bernie asked us to do a couple from their songbook so they could join in, now that they were done eating. We did "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", threw in my "This is My Body" and segued into Dana's "We Are One Body" which came out REALLY well and made a rousing ending. I introduced everyone and put in a plug for the LW website, that so much of the old LW music was now available.
We were done, but Arline Coppa insisted we do "Make Me Free" again because everyone had been eating before; we did it again (and we did a really good job of it last night) and everyone seemed genuinely thrilled to hear it. Caroline did verses two and four and John verse three and we all ad libbed background singing and the coda was as rousing as it's ever been. I was sweating and exhausted by the time we got done, but it was that wonderful, familiar satisfied exhaustion we all knew from concerts in the past. We were thrown together with little practice, but, by consensus, it was sonically pleasant and prayerful and it makes me want to do more of this! Kudos to John and Caroline and Greg and Josh!
After working hard at school all day, I packed my stuff in the car and drove through traffic about an hour and a half. There was a big surprise when I got there. Not only was Greg there, but Anne-Marie was dropping off their son Josh with his guitar! He was really enthusiastic and joined in nicely.
Their place is beautiful and well kept. We tuned up and got ready in the hall and eventually Caroline Drahos showed up as she said she would. We only got to practice a couple of songs but she picked it up quickly. And as the night went on, though she didn't know several of the songs, she joined in very well quite a bit.
At 5:00, we all went into the prayer room for Rosary. We played part of "Gentle Woman", to start with, and parts of "Magnificat" throughout. Bernie pointed out it was the feast of St. Bernard! And we did the Glorious Mysteries though it was Friday because it was the Assumption earlier this week and it felt 'glorious'!
We then went into the hall and began playing while everyone ate; we played until about 7:00 PM intermittently. After a few songs, John went to get something to eat. Some of the songs we did: "Carry On", "Forever", "I See His Face", "The Word", "Home is Where the Heart Is", "Make Me Free" and "Peter the Rock" (which Caroline joined in on nicely, which made her mother smile who composed the dance for the song!). Josh begged me to do "Do You Understand" and we did; I had some trouble playing the darn thing but Josh said he really likes that one and it had great energy and vocals. After a while, Josh, Greg and I went to go get some food and John and daughter Caroline did a nice job on a song I hadn't heard, "Be Still and Know". Then Caroline went to eat and John carried on for a while. We all returned to join John on his Christmas song, "Rejoice Now All Men" and I must say, the singing was really marvelous and it got quite a reaction; most people were done eating by now and most of them were smiling at this one. Bernie asked us to do a couple from their songbook so they could join in, now that they were done eating. We did "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", threw in my "This is My Body" and segued into Dana's "We Are One Body" which came out REALLY well and made a rousing ending. I introduced everyone and put in a plug for the LW website, that so much of the old LW music was now available.
We were done, but Arline Coppa insisted we do "Make Me Free" again because everyone had been eating before; we did it again (and we did a really good job of it last night) and everyone seemed genuinely thrilled to hear it. Caroline did verses two and four and John verse three and we all ad libbed background singing and the coda was as rousing as it's ever been. I was sweating and exhausted by the time we got done, but it was that wonderful, familiar satisfied exhaustion we all knew from concerts in the past. We were thrown together with little practice, but, by consensus, it was sonically pleasant and prayerful and it makes me want to do more of this! Kudos to John and Caroline and Greg and Josh!
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