Just a few weeks ago things changed.  With the spread of the novel corona virus (COVID-19) in the United States business has ground to a halt and with it many of the places where artists and musicians are able to perform and reach their audience. Performance is also where so many artists make their living, so it’s been a particularly painful few weeks.

But in the midst of this chaos people have been finding new ways of connecting, such as live videos of performances in living rooms, kitchens, and rehearsal spaces.  And for a handful of Baltimore musicians using social distancing to perform street or “sidewalk serenades” safely at a distance from the audience are singing along the streets of Baltimore with the help of the Creative Alliance.  This Saturday, Caleb Stine performed on my block to neighbors sitting on their stoops. 

Caleb along with Kagey Parrish of the duo The Honey Dewdrops played several songs with acoustic guitars, a fiddle, and a lot of heart. 

Caleb, who just released his new album, Mystic Country, with new group, The Revelations, near the end of last year performs music steeped in traditional folk and bluegrass with songs that feel like you’ve known them all your life.  And on a particularly calm, cool afternoon Caleb and Kagey performed several tunes, including fan favorite, “Butter” along with old tunes like the traditional fiddle tune, “Cumberland Gap,” the Carter Family’s “Let the Circle Be Unbroken,” and a song I hadn’t heard in forever, “Moonlight and Midnight” by Jerry Garcia’s bluegrass group, Old & In the Way – complete with surprise guest appearance of a FedEx truck! 

Throughout the day, Caleb and Kagey performed in different neighborhoods, but the Creative Alliance has a schedule of other artists, such as Gerson Durand of Bad Hombres, Baby Carrots, Katie Long, Jamal “Black Root” Callier, Letitia Vansant, and Scott Paytner of Jah Works playing to neighbors who book artists to play near their homes or streets. Find out more about Sidewalk Serenades here.