A Plea for Sessioneers

The March Royal Mile session has come and gone, and we're teetering on the edge of it dying out altogether (again).

We only had 2 fiddlers (whose repertoires don't overlap much) and one guitarist this week. That's not a session, and it's not sustainable.

The Royal Mile is the only open, public Scottish session in the DC area, and if it doesn't work, there will be none. I'd like to make a plea to the Scottish musicians out there to mark this date in your calendar and try to make it. We really need people to start coming, or this session will die. Again.

If there's anything we (or I) can do differently to make the session better, we should definitely try it. So please, offer any suggestions you might have. The only thing that doesn't seem to be negotiable is the time and date; the management seems pretty firm on that.

But by the same token, the session is on the Royal Mile's calendar, whether or not anyone comes. Apparently some people came for the session promptly at 3:00, but when no one else arrived within 30 minutes, left. Remember, someone's always going to be there first! Start it up! Open your cases and play! I won't be on time to every one, and I won't even come to every one. Besides, this isn't my session, it belongs to all of us!

Sorry if I seem a little strident here, but I really want this thing to work, and I don't know how to do it but to plead for more warm bodies with instruments.