Porch-i-oke is just a bunch of words on the page until everyone comes out to sing, dance, and play along. Thank you to our hosts Brian and Julianna and to everyone who 'oke-d under the 150-year-old copper beech in Jamaica Plain on July 9. Big shoutout to Mattie Deed for sharing her powerful words, to the Jamaica Plain Porchfest organizers, and of course, to the band - Bill (drums), Bill (keys), Dave (melodica, harmonica and slide whistle), Ela (violin), Jane (cello - from Paper Waves), Johnny (bass drum), Hadley (vocals and drum) and son Noey (bass), Marie (trombone and JP Porchfest co-producer), Matt (bass), Sari (accordion), and Wyatt (washboard). Here's some video and photos of our "calm chaos" (thanks, Mike, for the video, and Mary for the new tagline). Our next 'oke will most likely be some time this fall - watch this space and the Porch-i-oke Facebook page (@porchioke) for details. Until then...keep singing!
Porchioke and friends will be playing at JP Porchfest today from 4 to 6 pm (details here). Here's our setlist and links to the lyrics on Google Play, so you can sing along. We will be joined, at some point during our set, by spoken word artist Mattie Deed. Mattie will perform her piece Wake Up Everybody. We'll follow that by singing We Shall Overcome.
Porch-i-oke began at Somerville Porchfest in 2012 with an Excelsior accordion that Sari could barely play, a bass player that we'd just met a few days before, a uke player, and a guitarist from across the street who sat in when he saw how much fun we were having with our sing-along. What a difference four years makes! Video and pics from Somerville Porchfest 2016, fortified by Rev. Dave and the Reprobates. My favorite part about the black and whites (taken by Mike Riccuiti) is seeing all the open mouths of people singing!
