500 Songs for Kids Benefit

Smith’s Olde Bar has been holding a Songs for Kids Foundation “500 Songs for Kids” benefit. Which is quite a marathon. 500 bands/artists are given a different greatest sing-a-long song to play. 50 bands/artists play a night! Imagine. Equipment is already set up but some bands still drag in their own. Non-stop sing-a-long entertainment.

You are assigned your songs.

Thus it was that Marty was down there last Thursday (well, Thursday before last now) playing “Mandy” with Matthew Kahler and there was no room to complain over the fact it was “Mandy” because this is a cool benefit that helps a number of different charities for kids.

“Mandy”.

Christ.

I participated by purchasing the song so Marty could learn how to play it. I did my part. And I was sick, sick, and coughing my guts out and had a fever still so you know this was a real effort for me to have to download that song since Marty, who engineers and produces music, hasn’t quite figured out how to manage iTunes. So, give me some credit, please. Though not much. Except I was really really really sick at the time and having to drag my sorry butt out of bed to download “Mandy” was an ordeal.

I can imagine that Matthew and Marty did well with Mandy, and Marty says that Matthew killed it, people loved it.

Marty did double duty as he was down there again tonight with Heston. Their song was “Heard it Through the Grapevine”, which is difficult to do without a band and make it groove, Marty says, but they did it and had the whole room singing.

Unlike “Mandy”, Marty’s been playing “Heard it Through the Grapevine” for about 35 years, but never in e flat minor before.

The next to the saddest of all keys.

Marty tells me the cool thing is whenever there’s an original artist from the area, the original artist is coming in to do their song, so Cracker came in from Charleston to do a song and Sister Hazel came from where-ever, and Kevin Kinney flew in from New York to do his song then went straight back and Ce-lo is coming in tomorrow night to do a song.

He says Jill McAllister of Arlington Priest (did “With a Little Help From My Friends”) tore up “Dock of the Bay” tonight, jumping up and taking the place of an artist who didn’t show up.

Josh Rifkind organized the event which is run smooth as can be and that’s no easy feat for a benefit of this scale and type.