Okie in Muskogee and Okmulgee

Whew, this day has been looming on the calendar as a toughie, but it turned out really well! I was worried about performing outside, and about getting to the second show on time.

The morning show in Muskogee was in the parking lot behind the library, and it was part of their end of summer reading centennial party. I didn't know if my program, which works wonderfully indoors, would translate well in the great outdoors. There were tables full of prizes and other potentially distracting activities laid out for later, and the day was quickly warming up. A scattered, distracted, possibly uncomfortable audience can spell bad news for attentive participation.

However, there was a nice breeze and I set up on the loading dock in the shade, with the sound system blasting, so I figured it would at least be fun for me!

As it turned out, the kids were fantastic. They sat down and behaved just like a great library audience in a program room. I was pumped due to the unusual circumstance, and gave a high-energy performance. Even the song introductions were snappy - with the audience so far away I ditched my usual chatty approach, getting me from song to song much more quickly while still providing the needed background. I hope I can remember how I did that!

The crowd clapped after each chorus when Evalyn sang Oklahoma Annie, and they gave her quite a send off at the end. She even received a nice complement from the Mayor of Muskogee (who was there to decree Oklahoma Kids Day after my part of the program).

I'd say this morning's show turned out to be one of the very best of the whole summer!

In order to get to Okmulgee on time, we needed to be packed up and on the road half an hour quicker than usual, and we made it no problem.

The Okmulgee Library has been remodeled and expanded since the last time we were there. Evalyn was very impressed with the architecture. I was very impressed that they now have an elevator to the basement, so loading in was a breeze.

My parents and Evalyn's cousin, Brittany made it to the second Okmulgee show (see the photo above). This was cousin Brittany's first chance to see Evalyn perform. The girls had a blast running around together after the show, and then we all met for dinner in Tulsa on the way home. Fun fun!

Tomorrow's program in Duncan is the last show on our Summer 2007 tour!!!

See you at the library!

Lawton

Well, we're back to typical Oklahoma summer weather now - no rain, but it's hot! We did three shows today at the Lawton library. They all went really well, but Evalyn had a mishap during show number three.

During the verses in "Oklahoma Annie" Evalyn pulls a stick horse out from behind my guitar case and rides it around. (This is choreography she worked out herself at home out of an insistence that the "real" Annie should be in the show.) Well, as she set off with Annie her foot got caught in the microphone cord and down she went!

I saw it coming, too - I stood there thinking, "Should I stop to fix this, or will she manage to step out of that loop on her own..." and pow she was down. Needless to say, Daddy felt pretty bad about that.

Evalyn's knee was hurting and she cried some. After a few seconds of trying to figure out if she could go on, the audience applauded her like an injured athlete, and she went to sit with Mama. I continued the show with "Silly Song."

After "Silly Song" Evalyn came up wanting to try again. We started from the beginning and gave a great performance. Evalyn received a huge round of applause - the biggest we've ever gotten! Mama and Daddy were mighty proud of her for getting up to try again!!

Evalyn says, "My knee hurt real bad and I was very sad and I was proud of myself that I got the biggest round of applause we've ever gotten."

At all three shows the kids did a wonderful job singing "Oklahoma Kids a Kaleidoscope." At my previous two shows in Glenpool and Piedmont I thought I just had particularly good singers, but now I'm thinking that the way I've been introducing the song lately must be making a big difference. It's fascinating to me how small changes in the presentation can really effect the way the audience participates. Now that I've got it figured out, the summer is nearly over! Well, that's OK - I always strive to improve on what I'm doing!

Here are two photos of Evalyn outside the Lawton library in front of the "Sun Burst" sculpture, one from today and the other from 2005. We just thought it'd be fun to look up the old photo and compare.

Two more days to Harry Potter 7!

See you at the library!

Durant

Here is a photo of me with half my audience in Durant! That's right, there were six kids today. Actually, we started with five, went to eight, then down to six, plus one baby, two moms, and two librarians. Participation rarely works with a group that small and my show is highly participatory this summer. I made a valiant effort, but in the end I pulled some quick substitutions and did a few story songs I haven't gotten to do in a while.

Whew - seven hours of driving (and I set up the sound system) to sing for six kids! I hope they liked it! It happens sometimes - once many years ago Lisa and I drove all the way down to Hollis, in the far southwest corner of the state, and we got zero kids! I did the program for two librarians that day. So any kids at all are way more kids than my all-time smallest audience!

Off to Kansas tomorrow. See you at the library!