The North American Folk Alliance is having its annual convention in Memphis this week. The Opera is helping them schedule outreach performances in the community. Today I took a songwriter from Woodstock New York, Tom Pacheco, to an assisted living community in Memphis. Initially I was a bit skeptical, what is this white New Yorker going to be able to say to retired African Americans from Memphis? He launched right in, singing a blues song he'd written and he won them over into laughter with a song about an old lady with her own marijuana garden. You can hear this song when you click on Tom's website.
My favorite song was one he did in the manner of Luke the Drifter--a recitation about hardened criminal who is made whole by a stray kitten.
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