My day at BeKind Festival

Here's a 5 minute highlight reel of my night at the brand new Speak Music BeKind Festival. In order of appearance, Conor Gains, Maggie and Mr. Rogers w/Don Rooke, Shi Wisdom, Simone Morris, Chloe Watkinson with my discovery of the night, Mip, trumpeter Mike Field's Quintet, Ori Dagan, Tia Brazda and Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar with fill-in guitarist Steve Marriner who did a bang-up job (you can take that boy anywhere).

The Festival continues through the weekend and I hope more folks make it out despite the weather. I would be back but I'm seeing Laurie Anderson tonight and Ken Whiteley's Gospel Brunch tomorrow. I was a last-minute fill-in as MC on the main stage and I feel like I have to add a new self-deprecating moniker to my sig – (barely)managing editor, absentee listmom, intermittent IT guy and now, absent-minded MC. In previous MC gigs (usually last-minute fill-in) I have been known to leave out a sponsor or mispronounce an artist name. This time I was AWOL at the wrong time (mesmerized by the silky lap steel of Don Rooke) then I mispronounce Shi (should have been "shy"…I said "chai"). Then the last intro I had to do was Samantha Martin and I had a great story of how I met her and I'm sitting right by the stage waiting for them to finish their line check and then I'm joined by Rob Bowman, who is Sam's manager and biggest fan so I'm thinking I should let Tob do the intro – he's so good at this – but I've got this great story I want to share…but then Sam just dives right in and starts the set so…never mind.