Last winter Feb 2020, BEFORE the pandemic lockdown, Tim Reppert instigated having a Water Bear reunion music session at REP Studio, and I was overjoyed to be playing that repertoire again, with almost all of the wonderful players who were part of our last grouping before Tim moved to Boston. Ben Blechman is in Oregon now, so he was not there to provide another violin, but we had Chris White on cello, Bill Cowdery on piano, Nate Richardson on guitar, Tim on bass, me on violin, and I recruited Tim Ball (who was a student of founding Water Bear member Ruth Roland’s) to play violin with me. We asked Hank Roberts as well, but he was only going to be in town briefly in between travels for gigs, so he begged off.
One piece we played was Dances One, and you can hear a recorded version on our Live at The Congo CD, with much the same players, except Ben Blechman instead of Tim Ball.
I can’t yet really play for very long at one sitting (or standing!), but had a blast and overdid it — had to recover for weeks afterward. But to hear how enthusiastic Tim has been about our music making together has been a wonderful rejuvenation for me! I didn’t think Water Bear would ever play together again, and then it happened!
I brought one new piece to the group, a swing tune I wrote for Luna, the grand-daughter of a friend of Bear’s. It was well-received, and I started working out a close three-part harmony arrangement for it for our next get-together, which was going to be in March.
But then Lockdown happened. I was devastated by this dream come true being snatched from me. But I went on composing Name Music tunes, and even a few fiddle tunes not based on people’s names that came to me at odd moments. Luckily I can play enough to do some composing on the fiddle — using this innovative strap that Eric Aceto (IthacaStrings.com) makes that holds up the violin without having to use my chin to grip it.
Now a lot has happened in a year, and it is beginning to seem like there’s a chance we will be able to play together again in 2021... Yay!