Let’s Have a Parade!

Last year we performed in our first Chatham, MA 4th of July parade, riding on a flatbed trailer towed behind a septic system pump truck.  With the generator and the way we were arranged on the truck, it was tough for everyone to hear each other.

The folks in Chatham were crazy enough to ask us back this year, and Rikki suggested that we march. Truth be told, I was wary (as you probably know, I, your humble Valet, am not … umm … you know … in shape), but went along with it.

As it turns out, we didn’t really march; we walked.  Actually, I suppose it was really more of a saunter.  With some dancing.  Most importantly, it was FUN.

And we augmented the Philharmonic – there were two drummers, five trombonists, two sax players, a tuba player (actually, it was a helicon, an older version of the tuba) – plus the Ticks, who added percussion and vocals (and roller skating by Emma) – as well as several vehicles (a pickup, a VW Thing, a ’59 Galaxy 500, and a purple golf cart outfitted with its own parasol). John Clark eschewed putting a wheel on his upright bass and walked with an electric/acoustic bass plugged into a battery powered amp he had strapped onto his side. Cliff played an accordion. Matt was the lone trumpeter, but you can hear him throughout the recording. Chandler & I used megaphones for some of our vocals, but mostly we shouted a lot or played instrumentals. Lili McMurrer rode along in the back of the pickup and Jack McMurrer walked along with us wearing the “Nutcracker” head from last Christmas’ Ticks extravaganza rerigged to look like Uncle Sam.  You can see the whole motley crew in the picture above (photo taken by Lili McMurrer).

What you hear here was recorded by me, the Valet, in the middle of the parade – on a digital recorder that I had mounted on the top of a walking stick.  I was moving around the band, so  at times some instruments are louder than others.

The Songs

Grand Route St John
Graciously
Tootie Ma is a Big Fine Thing

The Players

The Chandler Travis Philharmonic:
Rikki Bates – bass drum
Fred Boak – percussion, vox
Quinn Carson – trombone
John Clark – bass
Matt Joseph – trumpet
Berke McKelvey – sax, clarinet
Bob Pilkington – trombone
Cliff Spencer – accordion
Chandler Travis – cowbell, vox

The Ticks Social Club and Pleasure Society:
Emma Dubner – percussion, roller skates
Sue LaVallee – percussion
Julia Randall – percussion

And Guests:
Matthias Bossi – snare drum
Dave Harris – helicon tuba
Klem Klimek – sax
Randy Pingrey – trombone
Johnny Spampinato – trombone
John Wolf – trombone

Thanks to Tim Wood and the Cape Cod Chronicle for the in-parade photos. If any of you happen to have photos or video of us in the parade, please send them along – we’d love to see what else there is out there!

And get this – this is just PART ONE! Stay tuned next week for more clips from the parade route.