By Paul Mack

June 7, 2018

We played a terrific show on May 25 at Montecito Senior Living in Concord.   Playing songs with an Americana theme, we had fourteen musicians and singers: Paul Mack, Slavka Ruzicka, Jan Ruzicka, Sheila Welt, Ardie Jarrett, Kit Nelson, Tom Brunetti, Diane Malucelli, Bob Malucelli, Chris Lardge, Bud Pearce, Garry Kerr, John Greitzer and Guy Black. Paul was the Master of Ceremonies, Bud was the Music Director, and Bob Malucelli set up the sound equipment.

This was our second playout at Montecito this year, as we did a show in March. Since this was the Memorial Day weekend, we began our program with a moment of silence to honor those who died while serving in the country’s armed forces. Our first five songs were the songs of each branch of the armed forces — Anchors Aweigh, The Marine’s Hymn, The Caissons Go Rolling Along, The Air Force Song, and Semper Paratus (a Coast Guard song). We continued playing another eighteen songs to complete the hour-long performance.

The audience loved the show as most everyone was singing and clapping to the songs. During the show Bob Nelson was handed a note which read, “Claire’s mother loved the music you brought to us. It brings back memories.”  As we were putting our equipment away after the show, a resident showed us a George Formby songbook which she graciously gave to us.  Formby was a British entertainer, popular mostly in the pre-World War II era, often playing banjo or ukulele to accompany his singing.