Carolyn Cruso
In the last twenty-four hours, I’ve had news of four musician friends – all Oysterville House Concert veterans. The news comes from several disparate sources and was I reminded, once again, of how ‘connected’ we have all become. Some of this ‘news’ was by direct contact, some through the magic of cyberspace. and all unexpected and gratefully received.
First was a phone call from Carolyn Cruso, singer-songwriter and “multi-instrumentalist” according to her website, though I think of her and the hammered dulcimer in one breath (if you can think in breaths.) Carolyn was our very first House Concert musician, along with Randal Bays, back in 2001 and has been back a number of times. She will be here again on November 20th, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and she was just checking in.
Larry Murante
Hard on the heels of that call (if calls have heels) was a note on FaceBook from Larry Murante who was reporting on “the first official on-line review of his new album by Minor 7th, Acoustic Guitar Music Reviews which begins: By using “Little Patch of Sky” as the title track and opener, Larry Murante makes it clear that that this is not your typical singer/songwriter… As one of Larry’s many FB fans wrote, “They really get him.” And… interestingly, Larry was introduced to us by Carolyn Cruso in 2001. He’s been coming to Oysterville ever since.
James Hurley
Then… late last night, I was looking at FB again, this time catching up with my son Charlie, when lo and behold I saw that one of our mutual FB friends is James Hurley! Wow! Talk about being connected! James was introduced to us by… drumroll… Larry Murante(!) some years back and did his first House Concert here in 2012. Both Charlie and James live in the L.A. area and both are in the entertainment biz… but, still. I can’t wait to ask one or the other of them how their FB friendship happened to be.
Aaron Larget-Caplan
And, finally, first thing this morning was an email from Aaron Larget-Caplan who says: “I want to personally invite you to my concerts this weekend on the Oregon coast. I’ll be at the Coaster Theatre (Saturday, 7 pm) and Grace Episcopal Church (Sunday at 3 pm). I’m also doing a house concert in Portland on Friday evening (public welcome).” Aaron is a classical guitarist who lives in Boston and, truth to tell, I don’t really remember how we first “met.” I think he reached out to me by email when he was planning a West Coast Tour several years ago. Since then, he’s done several fabulous concerts here and we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know his mother, Laurie, who lives in Astoria.
All I can think to say about these marvelous communications is, “Lucky! Lucky! Lucky!” and “Small World, Small World, Small World!”
Through technology, it is a small world and I believe you lead a charmed life!