Another Thursday, another Sounds & Sights.

The Clocktower Gazebo hosted the North Creek Fiddlers:

The top of the clocktower is visible at the top right of the photo.  Of course, I say that for the benefit of those who haven’t been to downtown Chelsea: if you’ve been to downtown Chelsea, you’re familiar with the clocktower.

The North Creek Fiddlers feature one local citizen who has made several prior appearances on this blog:

The fiddler in the middle is the one to whom I refer.  But in previous pictures, rather than making beautiful music, he was committing beautiful acts of violence on the football field (he’s #9).  And beautiful acts of graduation.

Not far from the gazebo, the Mister Laurence Experience was entertaining the kids.  Mister Laurence likes the color green.

The Experience includes a self-proclaimed princess and a bear drummer.

Seriously: the bear actually played the drums.  It’s a marvel of modern engineering, for sure.

On the other side of the clocktower complex, A Soft Serve Symphony was entertaining the crowd.

Much to my dismay, A Soft Serve Symphony didn’t offer free ice cream as part of its performance.

Letha Allen & the Benders had a spot by the police station.

That’s Letha on the left.  It stands to reason the gentleman on the right would be one of the Benders.  The other Bender was on her other side:

As usual, the pleasant weather brought plenty of people to Chelsea.

One more block south was the Dorkestra.  Yes, the Dorkestra.  They were every bit as entertaining as their name.

A band featuring a highly-bearded man playing a washboard has to be entertaining.  That’s just how it is.

They had a selection of balloon animals, one of which found its way onto a band member’s head:

Is that a balloon elephant?  That’s what it looks like to me.

The highly-bearded man played more than just the washboard:

As I recall, they were playing the Can Can when I took that photo.  They encouraged the crowd to get up and dance, but nobody obeyed.

See?!

The library, having exhausted its supply of comedians, featured the music of Annie & Rod Capps.

You probably don’t recognize the mandolin player on the right, but to my great surprise, I did: that’s none other than the fabulously talented Jason Dennie.  More recently Jason has been playing with the Capps and in another bluegrass band, but I know him from his superb solo guitar recordings of years past.  I hadn’t seen him in at least a couple years, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him in Chelsea.

You can hear a sample of one of his solo guitar songs here, you can find out more about him and buy his solo guitar albums here, and you can find out more about his bluegrass band and hear some of their music here.

And yes, I’m a big Jason Dennie fan.  If you enjoy solo guitar or bluegrass, go buy the music.  Now.  NOW.

Finally, on my way back to my car, I encountered Anna Elizabeth playing in the alley next to the barber shop.

Was she smiling because I was taking her picture, or was she smiling because I look strange?  The world may never know.

Another summer Thursday in Chelsea meant another evening of live music.

David Bloom & Friends showed up in the Clocktower Gazebo.  This is David Bloom himself:

And this is his drummer friend, Alan Harris:

David Bloom might consider the audience members his friends, too, but they’re not his & Friends.

His website explains that David sings jazz standards and ballads of the 30s, 40s and 50s.  Here, David is singing the Gershwin song ” ‘S Wonderful“:

Also worth noting is that his website address is a hilarious anagram of his name: David C. Bloom becomes BoldDiva.com.  Well done, Mr. Bloom.  Well done.

Not far from DB&F, The Dixie Mafia was performing next to the old Glazier Stove Co. welfare building.

I’m reasonably certain they’re not connected to the actual Dixie Mafia.

Just across the railroad tracks, Los Dingos del Norte performed almost in the shadows of the Jiffy towers.

One block south, Zero Gravity Band entertained crowds in front of the soon-to-be-vacant police station.

(Wait, what?  No, potential criminals, don’t get your hopes up: the Chelsea Police Department isn’t disappearing.  The city is building a new police station a couple blocks down the road.)

One little girl enjoyed dancing to the music of the Zero Gravity Band.

The rest of the crowd enjoyed the music a bit more sedately.

And, of course, the library brought in another comedian.

The Chelsea library invited Baffling Bill the Magician to put on a magic show for local kids.

Bill brought a book full of magic words hoping to light a candle…

…but it didn’t quite work out that way.

He also brought a rope…

…and invited two volunteers to tie his hands…

…after which he quickly (and humorously) extracted his hands from the rope.

(Take a look at the volunteer on the left: he might be doing his best to sneak a glance at the trick without looking like he’s peeking.)

The kids were eager to volunteer.

Baffling Bill was astounded to discover his magic wand was broken.

Later in the show, Bill introduced his rabbit, Gus.

Gus displayed his own magical talent…

…by correctly identifying the card a volunteer had picked.

On Thursday evenings during the summer, downtown Chelsea gets a little more lively thanks to Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights.  What’s that, you ask as you don’t click on that link?  (Hey, it worked last time.)  That’s a weekly festival that brings a variety of live music, entertainers and art to the streets of Chelsea.

Thursday the 16th marked the first Sounds & Sights of 2011.

The library has started to bring in comedians to perform on its front lawn.

Comedians like to smile.

As usual, there were lots of musical sounds, like those from Bill Bynum.

Dave Boutette and John Latini were there, too.  This is John:

And this is Dave:

For the kids, there were various balloon creations.  Take note of the hat on the right side of the photo:

Is that hat amazing?  Yes.  Yes it is.