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Free Concert
Free Concert – Suzanne & Jim!
It seems like only yesterday — in fact it was yesterday…25 years ago — that what I originally took to be a casual remark by Suzanne, “Let’s play music”, started to become our life. On December 15, 1992 we packed what we owned, a guitar and a banjo (and two cats) into our green Ford pickup, strapped a tent to the top of the bed topper and set out.
We never looked back but, to tell the truth, weren’t looking forward much either. We had no plan other than to see what we could do to earn our living by performing. After 25 years and an estimated three quarter of a million miles on the road that is still pretty much the plan.
Along the way we have made so many wonderful friends, people who have become as a family to us. We have experienced the joy of receptive listeners on concert stages, in living rooms and street corners across the country and in Canada and Europe, as well. We have introduced audiences to the beauty of our traditional and historic music, not as antique curiosities but as a living part of our American culture, the memes that have informed our culture, the voices of our ancestors who have spoken of their joys and trials.
We have searched for the narrative that puts these songs and stories in a framework of universal human experience. In short, we have been Song-Chasers.
We have shared our love of this music with other like minded musicians and found that it transcends philosophical, religious and political beliefs, drawing otherwise disparate people together in a bond of melody and song.
We have learned that our strength lies in the complete trust and confidence we share in one another. We have learned that, deep down, all peoples are the same in their need for the truth and beauty of music. That in times of doubt the music will carry us on. We have indeed been blessed.
With luck we’ll keep singing … and Keep Smilin’ —— Jim Hale and Suzanne Jaroszynski