Early in August I got an e-mail from Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps (Heather’s guitarist) that said that they were coming back through our area and were wondering if we would be willing to host another house concert. I sent off an enthusiastic “Yes!” and ran to tell Meredith. She was equally excited.

Fast forward to last Wednesday, which was the day of the concert. I stayed home and cleaned and cooked and set up all day, so the house was in good shape to welcome people. Mer got home at about 5:00, and Heather and Ben showed up shortly thereafter. We helped them unload the few things they needed, and then we sat down to supper together (pizza) and got caught up on what had been going on with Heather and Ben since we saw them last April.

I had planned a surprise for Heather, which was slightly selfish – CVCA let me borrow an excellent keyboard, so I had it ready for Heather. Many of her prettiest songs are for piano, so I wanted her to be able to do those songs. I was afraid it might be a bit overbearing, but she and Ben were delighted. Ben also wandered down into the music room and was checking things out, and I offered him the use of my bouzouki (an instrument very closely related to an octave mandolin).  I was very pleased when Ben took it down and started tuning it up. He tried it for awhile and decided to use it in the show. That was really cool, and for the record, he played it very, very well. That instrument deserved to have someone good play it for a change.

Heather sat at the keyboard and used it to warm up. She had taken many requests from me and Meredith to help her build her show. She did not end up using them all (there were a lot of songs we suggested), but she did use many of them. During her warm up she played and sang “Miles to Go,” a very pretty song about Queen Guinevere telling Sir Lancelot that she could not be with him after King Arthur had died. I was in the kitchen and started singing because I could. Meredith was in the dining area and also started singing. We both wandered over to where Heather was in the living room, and all three of us sang most of the song together. It was a wonderful moment for me – I love to sing, but am not terribly good. With Heather and Mer singing with me, though, it sounded beautiful, and it meant a lot to me. Mer and Heather then ran through a rare Christmas carol together, a cappella. Mer knew the song from her madrigal singing days in college, and Heather had recorded it on her Christmas album. Heather and Mer share much of the same range, so Heather sang melody and Mer sang harmony, and it was gorgeous. Heather decided to put it in the show.

People started showing up at about 7:00. A friend of Heather’s came, Ian. He works at a pizza place, so he brought four pizzas with him to add to my bread, brownies, and peanut butter bars. That made for a well-loaded table. Another of Heather’s friends came, but otherwise it was all people whom Mer and I know. They were mostly current CVCA people, although we had two former students show up (one brought chocolate chip muffins,) and Janet Baker came (our pastor’s wife and a good friend of ours). It was a smaller crowd than last spring, but we had about 15 or 16 people, so the evening felt festive.

  The concert started at 7:30, and was wonderful. House concerts are very intimate. Ben played guitar and bouzouki and some Irish flute, and Heather played bodhran (Irish drum) and whistles and keyboard. Heather is a great storyteller, and she introduced most of her songs with the story that inspired the song. She mixed up fun songs with poignant ones, and the evening went off very well. There was an intermission, and I think Heather sang for about an hour and a half. She played “Miles to Go” and asked me and Mer to join in, which we did do about a third of the way in to the song. She followed that up with Mer and Heather singing their duet (it is posted on my Facebook page since it is too large a file for Xanga).

Right after the concert was over, I took the keyboard back to CVCA. It would be needed Thursday morning. Ian and a fellow CVCA teacher, Dale, helped me get it back to where it belongs. They then helped me get the chairs back to CVCA. Lots of people helped me load up the chairs, which was nice and saved me a lot of time. After everything was back where it belonged, I spent about thirty minutes cleaning things up. The last couple of guests left, and so we talked with Heather and Ben for a short while and then went off to bed. It was a grand night for singing, and since Heather and Ben tour eight months of the year, I hope to see them again in six months to a year.