August 23, 2019

Your East Bay Banjo Club entertained an enthusiastic audience at Brookdale Senior Living in Danville on Friday, August 23.  It was a return engagement for the club and this year’s performance was just as rousing as the previous ones.

Bud Pearce served as music director for the performance, and Paul Mack did his usual fine job as master of ceremonies, providing some interesting historical background about what was happening in the early 1900s as he introduced each of our songs from that era.  In addition to Bud and Paul, club members at the playout were Don Granberg, John Greitzer, Jan and Slavka Ruzicka, Betty David, Rich Combs, Chris Lardge, Kit Nelson, Tom Brunetti, Deb Hodson, and Doug Johnson.  Our vocalists were Bud, Rich, Chris, Kit, and Slavka.  Bob Nelson and Mimi Johnson also attended, and Bob snapped some photographs for us.

We played a well-constructed set, including some of our time-tested standards as well as a couple of songs we don’t play very often, such as the Beatles’ “Honey Pie.”  We opened with the old chestnut “Hello My Baby” and ended with our standard closer, “When The Saints Go Marching In.”  Along the way, we did a version of “Beer Barrel Polka” in which Slavka sang a couple of verses in English and then a verse in Czech.

Our club members had as good a time as the residents, and we hope to perform at Brookdale again.