Leanna Keith & Daniel Husser

I know Leanna and Daniel through Marina Albero.  I met her at the chapel in the Good Shepherd Center.  Once a home for wayward girls it's now a community center with schools, performance space and gardens nestled into my neighborhood.  Marina was heading up a performance called ‘Undefined’ that Leanna was also performing in.  After the performance I asked Leanna would like to do a tinyboatsession.  She said yes, but that we must hurry because she and her husband were moving to San Diego to pursue her musical doctorate.  

She asked if her husband could come along. I was delighted. I love having more folks in the boat.  Either it comes with the joy of watching folks playing together, or the energy of an audience.  Daniel was coming to play, though I would find out one of his other more public talents is sculpting.

The day was blustery–not enough to keep us off the water but enough that it was worth talking about before we got in the boat.  Beyond the seawall it was calmer than I thought it would be.  Clouds and sunbeams worked together to make beautiful lighting and the two of them began to play.  The first song they sang was a Japanese fisherman’s folk song ‘Kaigara Bushi’ which speaks of the toil of rowing a boat dragging a net on the bottom of the sea for shellfish. There other songs were jams, no particular song, just riffing and jamming to the waves. They told me they could hear the wind try to play their instruments.  

I love seeing couples play.  The teamwork and the playfulness is heartwarming and inspiring.  

Sometime in the middle of this a  thought hit me.  The last few tinyboatsessions, and the ones I had planned after this, had a lot more folks in the boat. This fell significant because Tinyboatsession inception was the first lonely weeks of the pandemic.   The first four seasons only ever had one person in the boat. From Season 5 on there was the odd session with more folks, but it wasn't the norm.  Now a full boat seemed to be what to expect.  Watching Leanna & Daniel rock and play in the waves together gave me a warm round feeling.  Like we might, in fact, in this small, tiny, minuscule way be together once again. leannakeithflute.com https://www.instagram.com/daniel.husser.art/