I don't think I have ever written about the New York Roots Music Association, or NYRMA as our friends call us. That seems a bit odd as it has been a pretty big part of my life for the past 8 or so years. I'll save the story of how it all came to be for another time, but NYRMA is a musician's collective that puts on themed musical events about four times a year and we have a show this coming Saturday, July 20th 2019 that will feature over 30 local musicians.
For this show, it was decided that we would not take the more obvious route and do a tribute to Woodstock, which is celebrating a 50th anniversary. Instead, we set our sights on another event from fifty years past - the first moon landing. And we decided that we would hold the show fifty years to the day that the Eagle set down on the lunar surface.
The show is shaping up well. We have a couple more rehearsals to go, but everyone is sounding great. Ticket sales for this one have been a bit slow - we usually play to about 300 or so people - and I'm hoping to see an uptick in the final few days. No matter what, the show must, and will, go on.
I'll write more about NYRMA and the show later. Maybe.
I remember the events of the year 1969 pretty well. I was14 years old and the upcoming music festival taking place in upstate New York weighed heavily on my mind. Music was my world and I had already had quite a few concerts under my belt. However, I knew that there was no way that my parents would give me permission to go and, to be completely honest, I wasn't the most adventurous soul and even at that early age, was fond of creature comforts and personal spaces.
On July 20th of that year, we gathered in the living room to watch what seemed to be an impossible feat, the same room where I watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan change the course of my life, where we had watched Jack Ruby gun down Lee Harvey Oswald, where I watched "The Adventures Of Superman" and that "strange visitor from another planet" to watch men land on another planet. Yes, I know, the moon is not a planet. But no matter, this was space travel far beyond anything we had seen before and we had a front row seat.
Watching the grainy footage as the LEM touched ground and seeing the reaction on the faces on both the adults in the room and the news correspondents on the television made me realize just how epic the event was. It was if the entire world was holding its breath as they descended to the landing point.
I remember taking my dog out for a walk that night and looking up at the moon in wonder knowing that there were men up there. I also remember thinking about how Joe Cocker was so obviously ripping off Ray Charles. So, for me, music was a part of that night as it will be fifty years later to the day on Saturday. But there will not be any Ray Charles or Joe Cocker.
