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Yesterday was Mardi Gras Day at the River Festival, and Dennis and I spent the afternoon/evening downtown singing to strangers for a few hours before the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert.

Highlights:

• Getting rousted by Festival volunteers asking for our performer’s badges (Badges? We don’t need no steenking badges!)
• Charlayne, who brought her dad’s multi-headed Hydra of a harmonica (photo below)
• Danelle and her crew of young ladies, who came to urge us on with their charming smiles (photos below)
• The little (really little!) girl who stood hands-on-hips and gave Bryan world-class stink-eye all through “You Again” (no photo, dangit!)
• Nicole, who brought us lemonade and comfort (photo below)

This whole thing is a reminder of how much fun street music can be. And hey, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy wasn’t bad either!

Charlayne and the bizarro harp

Bryan with Danelle and her lovely crew

Note how Dennis’ big hand has sprouted a little hand.

Nicole, who rocks.

It was a perfect Wichita moment — a fantastic night for a fantastic cause, and all in support of a fantastic person. Wichita’s acoustic music community gathered at the venerable Artichoke to celebrate their encouragement for the recovery of local harmonica royalty Kelly Slack.

Dennis and I opened the proceedings with a full (really full!) house. We were followed by great sets from The Crowsons, The Bennett Brothers, Medicine Finger and Good Question. MVP shoutouts to Haley Crowson, who turned in a great fiddle performance with her parents, and Phil Burress, who sat in with The Crowsons and subbed as bassist for Medicine Finger as well.

When the last notes had rung out and the last dollars had been counted, there was a little more than $3500 in the hat to help Kelly and his family.

Today I’m very proud to be a Wichitan.

We played the Shamrock last night for their St. Patrick’s Day debauch. It was amazing.

The place was packed — 100 squillion people were jammed in, with more hanging out in the outdoor beergarden.

The Huddlers were excellent. A new round of originals (mostly by Wayne Gottstine) and some great old AM country songs (Saginaw, Michigan) were rolled out expertly by the boys after only a handful of practices. I made sure to procure my first-ever Huddlers tee-shirt.

The Buddha boys were treated very well. The crowd was loud and rowdy, but still listened and remained engaged through the whole set. We introduced our duet version of the Abbey Road Suite, which delighted the graybeards and confused the youths. In all, our reception was fantastic, and I believe we made some friends. (For anyone following the Saga of Dennis’ New Pickup: It sounded really good.)

It was great to play for such a large and enthusiastic audience. Thanks to The Huddlers for putting us in front of their folks, and thanks to their folks for treating us so well. Hope to see you all again soon.