Mrs. GR ''A'' Y

Mrs. Gr ''A'' y -

---It has been over a year, now, since the passing of Don Gray. In one of my jaunts around the hospital, a memory of Don and his mother, hit me. (The dates of posting on blog are sometimes Not chronological. They are changed for placement purposes.)
---Bobby and I were in the band, Franconia Notch, and Don Gray was hired as the drummer. His obvious talents aside, and with his vehicle that would hold ALL the equipment in the background...Don, also, had a third reason why we should hire him -
up his sleeve. It was the fact that he had a place for us to play on New Years Eve (1973-74).
---To set the stage a bit...Bobby had written a song, a few years before, called, ''Mrs. A.'' It was about an older woman in his neighborhood who had -

''A piano in the middle of the room - That played our songs a little out of tune''

it was one of the slower songs that we seemed to need in our repertoire. It was, especially, good for a crowd that did more slow dancing or an older crowd that, also, did more slow dancing. ''These young kids, nowadays, with their long hair and hippie music...I digress.'' I don't doubt that Bobby remembers the song, but, probably, hasn't played it in many years.
---On that particular New Years, we were presented with a golden opportunity...to make the night right. What I mean, here, is that we weren't really the ''best'' band for that night. If you ever saw the Blues Brothers movie, you will know what I'm talking about. I, myself, played the, ''Alley Cat,'' on Kazoo, after being taught how it goes from an audience member. I played it...twice during the evening, as an example.
---We had the song, ''Mrs. A.'' We were hired to play this gig by Don's Mother, ''Mrs. Gray.'' You do the math. We changed the song to Mrs. Gray and introduced it as a song for Dons Mom. With Jeff T. singing the lead, every song we had sounded better. We had a danceable, very personally dedicated song and suddenly something that we all could relate to. Talk about your win-win-win, situation. They were even talking about having us back. In a sense, the song, ''Mrs. A,'' pulled another night out of the dumper, and made it work.

(Hear Jeff sing lead on, ''SUNDAY MORNING,'' by Franconia Notch, below.)