Weddings And Street Fairs. Issue #102

This past weekend I had the pleasure of performing at my friend Shawn Kirk's wedding to his lovely bride Christa. I've known Shawn for about 5 years, and though we don't get to see each other very much he's good friend; the kind of guy you just feel good to be around. So as you can imagine I was honored when he asked me to play "Tonight" off of Songs From The Orange Room for the kick-off to his ceremony.

The wedding was atop Pier 66 downtown which overlooks the sound and all of downtown. A beautiful Saturday night held about 240 guests on the roof-top plaza area and it was a really nice ceremony. They had also asked me to bust out the ukulele for the Hawaiian version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, and duet with their cellist friend on Death Cab For Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into The Dark". Both were songs I had to learn and right up until the last moment wasn't sure I had down but ended up going well. The wedding was also pretty unique as it was a melding of their families Irish and Jewish cultures. Lot's of references to both in tradition and readings...MAZELTOFF! Now lets go watch Boondock Saints!
Hopefully that was culturally offensive enough...



I felt bad bailing after dinner before the dancing (love getting my dance on), but had to get home due to The Wifey's 6:45 signup for her "Beat The Bridge" run and my UW Street Fair Show with KIRBY KRACKLE. I played last year with my solo band but thought that the timing was nice this year to get KK out of the conventions and see if geeks melt in the sun or not (they don't). As I think I've mentioned many times, I love playing outside and fairs so it was a blast. The standout factor for me with the show was the debut of our keyboardist Bryce Francis who kicked the songs up a notch covering all the string/piano parts and even adding some of his own flourishes to the songs. The KK live band is starting to really gel, but unfortunately this Tuesday @ ToSt is the last set for our bass player Kent. Starting the searching process...again. Still, I can't believe I went this long without keys on stage in my life...LOVED IT!


In non-music related stuff, I'm looking forward to my sister's wedding in Hawaii in a month. It'll be the first destination vacation where my family will all be outside of Seattle so it's gonna be a trip. Lot's of yard work, video games to catch up on, maybe just sitting in one spot for a week sounds good...

Nah, I'd drive everyone nuts.

Enjoy the sun you pasty ass (like me) Seattlites!

KS