"Oh! What A Beautiful Day..."

Here's the scene...
It's been a pretty brutal winter, with snow, ice, power outtages, stuck in the house with nothing to do but watch endless television ( "57 channels and nothing on..." thanks to Bruce Springsteen for that line.).
This Sunday was just different. It was a sunny day, yes the actual sun folks; not the TV version, it was warm out, and people were smiling uncontrollably, even the kids were orderly.
That night after a great Mountain Stage show, the Empty Glass held their usual post MS jam hosted by yours truly, the Carpenter Ants. Now keep in mind 2 things here: I haven't played with the band in almost four months where I've been so ill last year, and the Glass hasn't had too much of a crowd of late (it's the ecomomy folks...).
So I made my semi return to the stage and when  the band finally kicked in to a packed house everybody, and I mean everybody got in the spirit. I haven't seen this much dancing since the disco era. It was hot, it was sweaty, and eveyone lost their winter inhibitions, and sundanced, moonwalked and grooved the night away.
My bandmates were on fire. My boys played like their very lives depended on it, and I felt better than I had in ages.
Not only did we get in the zone, but we changed the zip code to 25301-GROOVIN.
I watched from the stage as people just had a great night, laughing and joking and digging each other.
To me that is the true power of music, it brings out the best spirit in people. It was really cool to watch even those who weren't dancing, just standing or sitting there enjoying the evening. One lady in particular was especially moving to me. She was standing at the front near the stage against a speaker deck  and she was swaying back and forth and having what seemed like the time of her life. She, as well as Friends of Mountain Stage photog Chris Morris were clicking away with their cameras. It felt like a rock concert event.
I always get a big charge out of playing for my hometown crowd, and even though I'm in the band part of that experience, I feel in the same way that everyone else did that night, WOWWED !!!
At the end of our performance I was pretty tired so I packed up and headed for home.
I want to say that I really miss everybody, I miss connecting with you and helping you to have a great musical experience, but hopefully soon, I'll return and continue to try and show you just how much playing for you means to me.
All in all the only thing that I can say that brings us to a close here is "oh what a beautiful mornin' (or evening, as it were...) oh, what a beautiful day."
I look forward to many more. Take care everybody, have a great week.

PS. If you'd like to see some perspective on the night go to: www.myspace.com/mountainstage to check out Chris' photo works

Support Live music today tomorrow and always.