We were invited to play for an outdoor BBQ at the Episcopal Church and really looked forward to it. We had a polished list of 32 of our favorite tunes ready to go. I don’t know about John, but I felt really good about how we sounded and was sure we’d do a great job and leave a great impression. I could see all kinds of opportunities coming our way because the hammered dulcimer is so unknown around here. It would have been a good way to display the instruments.

When it came to our performance, the best way to describe it was “blown away!” We arrived about 1:40 for our 2:00 performance but the winds were so strong that they recommended that we should forget about it. We hung around until about 2:30 and had to agree that there was no way we could play. It was about 62 degrees out and the winds were gusting to about 35 mph. (Flags were straight out which is an indication of high winds.)

Graciously they still give us a BBQ’ed pork dinner which we’ll enjoy tonight. (We tried refusing but they insisted and it was obvious that the crowd would be down from what they’d planned so we thanked them and accepted their offer.)

They’d decided that sound equipment wasn’t workable in the wind because the mics would just pick up wind noise, so they’d put away the amplification.

There was a band playing when when we arrived — all horns and a drum. They were good. But with the wind, even their sound died out 25 feet from where they were playing.

We didn’t even try it. John’s hammers would have ended up in the next county and we’d have been playing for ourselves because no one could have heard us. The tent was empty. No one stayed to eat there because it was so cold and windy. We were relieved that they didn’t insist because the situation wasn’t good, but I’m disappointed. We were ready and we would have blown them away, instead we were.