I do not usually pay much attention to mass mailings, but I recently got a mailing from Tuesday Musical, a fine-arts group in Akron, and they were sponsoring a concert by the male a cappella group Cantus. Mer and I like Cantus, so I thought we should go. As I thought about it more, I decided that Mer’s parents, Dale and Carlene, would probably like it as well, so I got four tickets. On Tuesday the 24th, we had a double date that started with supper at Cardinal Retirement Home with Dale and Carlene before we headed down to EJ Thomas Hall in Akron. No one besides myself knew where we were going, but everyone seemed pleased when we got to the venue. I dropped everyone off and parked the car before rejoining the group. Those who know me will not be surprised that we were about thirty-five minutes early, but there were comfortable couches to sit on in the lobby.

Cantus was doing a show highlighting American music through the ages, with a couple of side trips to Canada and Mexico. The music was amazing, and my only complaint was that Cantus dropped two songs from the program for some reason, and they happened to be the two songs I most wanted to hear them cover since they were folks songs with which I am familiar, and I wanted to hear their take on them. They won me back by doing Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More” for an encore. It was a pretty great evening.