Joel Mabus wsg Calamity Jane and Blue Jello

Our biggest and best concert yet featured the incomparable Joel Mabus along with special guests Calamity Jane and Blue Jello. It was supposed to be our first outdoor concert of the season, but Mother Nature did not cooperate, so we wedged 45-50 people inside of our house. No one was complaining with so much good music and food available!

Jen Sygit and Laura Bates started off the evening, performing as the duo Calamity Jane. Their beautiful harmonies accompanied by guitar, flute, ukulele, and banjo was perfect way to begin. Ben Hassenger and Pat Malloy, otherwise known as Blue Jello, played both Mystic Shake favorites and some new, unreleased songs. A special treat was when Jen & Laura joined them for "Dog is My Co-Pilot" and "Little One", their voices making these songs sound better than ever!

After a brief intermission, Joel began, immediately capturing the audience's attention with his well-crafted songs and his exceptional guitar and banjo playing. Joel is a familar face and voice to many of us in the Mid-Michigan area, bbut everytime he performs you hear something new and intriguing. He demonstrated "Travis-style" picking, and also perfomed new songs from his upcoming parlor guitar album featuring the instrumental fingerpicking arrangements of popular tunes from the early 20th century from composers such as Iriving Berlin, Eubie Blake, George Gershwin, and others. What a wonderful evening!

Calamity Jane - Jen Sygit & Laura Bates - play Jen's "Race Car #4"

Ben Hassenger & Pat Malloy

All together now!

Carmen DeLorenzo and son Lucas enjoy house concerts!

Joel plays to the crowd.

Ben's little parlor guitar never sounded so good!

Have guitar, will pick!