Most of us have had the kind of experience that we are trying to create with Down By Riverside. You go to see a music performance in a smaller, intimate venue. Something about the space, the ambience, the musicians, the repertoire, the audience members makes it feel different. You’re hearing the music differently. You feel present and the music is speaking straight to you. You can feel the others attention focus into the emotion, into a series of reactions to emotions or tiny gestures. There is a tangible feeling of connection between yourself and the musicians, between yourself and the other audience members. Maybe during the set break you notice this deep sense of connectedness that can be compared to…
a spiritual experience or
to how you feel after sharing a hallucinogenic drug with close friends
or to playing with an amazingly creatively connected group of musicians.
This is what we want to create with our Spirit of Music Potluck Concerts. We curate the musicians, the music, the audience in a way to create the ideal set of conditions for connection. As a culture, many of us have left our religions, we have left our clubs, we aren’t joining teams anymore. Down By Riverside wants everyone to have these feelings of connection, these spiritual connections. These feelings strengthen our ability to fight isolation, depression, existential anxiety. It works by leaning in, by participating, by volunteering. It’s about feeling needed and connected.
This is what we’re trying to do.