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May 4, 2006

Follow this Blue Trail for fun evening

By Mike Wood

Before marrying a Sunday school teacher, I wasn’t what you would call a regular churchgoer. Sure, I’d go for the occasional wedding, baptism or funeral and, of course, Christmas and Easter, but other than that, the closest I’d come to religion on a Sunday was if the Giants happened to be playing the Saints.

Now, thanks to the moral fiber my wife has instilled in me, I’m as regular as they come — even if most times I just sit in my pew, waiting to feel moved.

Which is no reflection on our priest, who is a wildly entertaining and interesting speaker, a far cry from the ones I remember as a kid. You see, I used to go to a Catholic church, but once I married an Episcopalian I had to change teams.

Making the switch was pretty easy, as the uniforms and rules were basically the same. And while I’ve literally been a benchwarmer for both teams, I did manage to maintain a lofty .600 lifetime batting average against the Ten Commandments.

But even with these statistics, I probably won’t make it into the Holy Hall of Fame once they consider all the errors I made while playing the field, committing six of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Anyway, now that we’ve established that I’m about as holy as a jelly doughnut and the last person you’d expect going to church on any day I didn’t “have to,� I will be going to the Mount Carmel Congregational Church in Hamden — on a Saturday no less — for the latest offering in its popular concert series. And I encourage you to go as well, because it’s going to be a good one.

For the past several years, organizer Mark Grindell, an incredible graphic artist, poet and lover of good music, has been using his considerable talents and influence to bring in an eclectic mix of talented musicians to play benefit concerts to raise money for his church.

His latest find is Blue Trail, a seven-piece band that specializes in taking the best of traditional American music — country, folk, blues, rock, gospel and bluegrass — and blending it into something instantly familiar, yet uniquely its own.

The band will take a well-deserved break from the recording studio, where it is busy working on a CD of original material titled Keep on Growin’, in order to perform in the 250-year-old church — an ideal location for its style of “old-timey� music.

But don’t let the church setting scare you away. Chances are you’ll need your hands more for clapping than for praying anyway.

True, it is a church fundraiser, but, trust me, there will be nothing “churchy� going on. No one will be trying to convert (or condemn) you. You won’t be blessed or baptized at the door. No endless sermons or painful kneeling, just plenty of great music and good people.

And, who knows, it might score you a couple brownie points with the Big Guy. God knows, I need all the help I can get.

So, while I would not encourage you to follow my moral lead, as the path I’ve chosen doesn’t seem to be leading toward Heaven (unless I’ve been holding my map upside down), I do strongly suggest you follow the Blue Trail over to the Mount Carmel Congregational Church (3284 Whitney Ave., Hamden; 248-7408) on May 13.

The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $10, with all proceeds going to the church’s outreach programs.

And don’t worry, dear, I’ll still go with you to our church on Sunday.

Posted by getout on May 4, 2006 12:40 PM