Shinn the Writer

Much Ado about Nothing

​The phrase “herding cats” has been around for some time. It generally refers to people, not felines, who need someone to organize their efforts, often to simply be at the same place at the same time. Having had two cats for about three weeks, I can say with confidence that the phrase fits. Nowhere have I heard a better description of trying to get a group of musicians together.

Last month I chronicled being called on to put together a performance of the song “Ripple”. An update is in order. The bestest of the good news is that treatment of Covid has progressed that Joe actually found himself on a plane bound for France on that Sunday as planned. Paxlovid seems to work wonders. Yes, he wore a mask and was still feeling pretty sick for the first part of his trip, but managed to enjoy the whole thing and is now safely back in the U.S.A.

I worked on the song during his absence and now have the timing of the lyrics down pretty well. I know it well enough that I’m going to use it as a solo effort at this year’s Neighborhood Night Out, scheduled for early August. But we left our first rehearsal with some bugs to work out. Which leads us to the second (and last until our sound check) rehearsal. Let the herding begin.

That big computer glitch that caused so many transportation foul-ups? It left poor Joci stranded in Minneapolis. She wouldn’t get a flight out until Tuesday. When the dust settled, Thursday and Friday were do-able most any time. I was the only one who had anything going on Friday, a rehearsal with my band, but it was an 11:30 get-together. Not very rock-and-roll, but good news for the Ripple rehearsal. Still, I thought that the later I made the Ripple rehearsal, the easier it would be for me, so I set it for 7:00.

But it now came out that a couple of the Ripple group were actually hoping for an earlier time, maybe 4:00. Damn. I decided I’d manage, and only hoped that I could get everyone to agree to the change. More herding, more worry. Though bad news overall, it was nonetheless convenient that my 11:30 rehearsal was cancelled. One of the members was exposed to Covid and, we figured better safe than sorry. Word passed quickly, though, and the 4:00 time worked well for everyone.

All were on time, even Chuck who overcame his back issues to make the rehearsal. He suggested that since we were doing a Dead song, tie-die shirts would be appropriate. Ya gotta love Unitarian services. Chuck said he had a few from back in the day and could provide for Joe and me. But I had my own! The practice went astonishingly well. We went through the song twice and were satisfied that we were ready. The whole session lasted less than an hour. I thought to verify who planned on standing and who would sit and what we’d need from the Church. Mostly we needed to be at ground level, since two of us were using walkers!

Saturday I made the discovery that my tie dye shirt was gone, no doubt a victim of the great house purge I did a few years earlier to make room when I cleaned out my attic. I sent an email and a text to Chuck but it was fairly late and I got no reply. It was either a measure of how well our rehearsal had gone or how I simply always need something to worry about, but I was concerned now more about being the only one dressed inappropriately than the music itself.

The album cover for the Grateful Dead's "American Beauty" album. It was their fifth studio effort and contained "Ripple".

I used this pic last month, but it works again!