At last, a First Friday without rain. The weather was so nice this past Friday that my creaky legs and back help up through 5 exhibits rather than my usual two or three. We started up at Liberty Town with a tremendously energetic exhibit of a multitude of artists. As usual I will not comment on the quality of the work since I am not even close to being knowledgeable about art. I’m definitely in the “I don’t know much about art but know what I like” camp.  What I did notice however was that the Liberty Town exhibit seemed cluttered to me, almost a visual overload with so many pieces crowded into the display space that it was difficult for me to give any work the focus it deserved. Maybe they don’t really need to hang every work that’s worthy of hanging at one time. I much preferred the more leisurely flow of the ArtFirst and Brush Strokes galleries this month. They are, to me, very nice display spaces.

Sara Irby’s Studio A exhibit is worth mentioning as well. She always seems to feature work that is different, not the same old tired “vase & fruit” still life stuff. This month’s exhibit is, for lack of a better term. “kid art”, painting and collages done by children, some as young as 3 years old, from the Fredericksburg Head Start program. It even included a silent auction on pieces that one might feel should follow them home. Thoroughly enjoyable and a fresh and important recognition of the art that seems to flow so freely here in the Burg. Good on her for doing this.


We finished the evening with dinner at Frederick’s including a wonderful cracked crab soup that I highly recommend should you choose that excellent restaurant in your dining out plans. The acoustic guitar and vocals by Jon Bachman there Friday night was just right for a quiet dinner.  In fact two of his CD’s followed me home and he told me that another is in the works for later this year.  At a couple of points, Jon reminded me enough of Barry McGuire that I expected him to break into “The Eve of Destruction”.  His trips back Friday though were gentler, including innovative renditions of “Coal Tattoo”, the late Phil Ochs' "Changes" and “Spanish Is A LovingTongue”. He evoked the spirit and style of the sixties folk tradition while sidestepping the overdone songs we all remember from back then…well that I remember at least. If you see Jon billed as the featured performer, don’t miss it. Watch for more news about his gigs both here and on the www.rivervoices.net local event calendar. Old fogies folkies never die, we don’t even fade away.