Four of us made the journey up to Healdsburg tonight to attend what seems to be the start of a new local singing. And the word “Journey” is an apt description of our trip: accidents, construction, and a winter storm with high winds and lots of rain backed up traffic around the Bay area; it took me two hours to get from San Mateo to Berkeley, so I was over an hour late picking up Carl, Gretchen, and Elizabeth; which meant we arrived in Healdsburg an hour late.
We walked in to the Felta School House in Healdsburg a little more than an hour late, and we were pleased to see that Terry, another regular with the Berkeley weekly singing, was already there. By this time, I had been driving for three hours, and I was ready to sing. The local singers were taking a break — they had already been singing for an hour — but they were all willing to start singing again.
Two things quickly became apparent. First, the Felta School House is a wonderful place in which to sing. The wood floors and wood walls made for a warm, resonant sound; the old-fashioned slate blackboards provided some additional brightness, and the ten-foot high ceilings kept the space from being too bright and too loud. Second, the local singers included some fine voices; if they keep it up, they could become a really fine local singing. We even sang the Easter Anthem — something of a challenge considering how many newcomers there were — and the class sounded very good indeed.