Outdoor gigs in July are always a bit of a gamble. Heat, humidity, storms – usually at least one shows up. Our live acoustic duo performance for Valley View Club’s 60th anniversary in Cambridge managed to flirt with all three and still let us get through the show.
Setting up on the flatbed and watching the sky
Valley View had a flatbed trailer set up under a big tree for us, which we were grateful for right away. It wasn’t too high off the ground (our backs thanked them for that), and when we asked if there was any way to get a canopy over us to block the sun, they had one up within minutes. That alone put this firmly in the “thoughtful venue” category for us.
The forecast had been calling for scattered storms all day, so we showed up half-expecting to be moved inside. Instead, when we arrived it actually felt pretty good out – warm, but with a nice breeze moving across the course. People were already outside on the patio and around the clubhouse, clearly not letting the radar scare them off.
We had Paul Weddle with us on sax, which always changes the way the night feels. Whenever Paul’s on the gig, we tend to push ourselves a little harder – more harmonies, more songs we only pull out when there’s a sax in the mix.
Feedback, thunder, and a few big umbrellas
We’ll be honest: the first part of the night was more about fighting the sound than anything else. Smaller outdoor space, sax mic, monitors – that combo seems to invite feedback if we’re not careful. We had a few squeals early on that made us wince, but after some quick adjustments (and a little trial and error), we got it dialed in.
Meanwhile, the sky was doing its own thing. As we worked through the first handful of songs, we could see a darker blob of clouds creeping toward us. Then came the first crack of lightning and thunder, and it was close enough that all of us had the same thought: “Should we be out here right now?”
It started to sprinkle just enough to make us nervous for the gear. The Valley View crew came through again with some big umbrellas, and we did this funny dance of covering the exposed speakers and cables while still trying to look like a band that had everything under control. We took a short break, grabbed some food, watched the sky, and decided to roll the dice and get back up there.
The rain never really came back, but the lightning kept showing up in different directions. Puffy clouds one way, dark sky another, blue patches in between – it was like three different weather reports at the same time. We took our chances and, somehow, it worked out.
Anniversaries, harmonies, and Paul’s feature tunes
T
his whole night was about anniversaries – 250 years of America and 60 years of Valley View Club. The course has been there for about one-fifth of the country’s history, which is kind of wild when you think about it.
Onstage, the songs that felt best were the ones where we really leaned into the harmonies. There’s something about locking in three voices outside, with that stormy air hanging around, that’s hard to explain. We both found ourselves thinking, “Okay, this is why we haul all this gear around.”
With Paul on sax and vocals, we got to pull out some of the tunes we only do when he’s with us: “Lido Shuffle,” “Take the Long Way Home,” and “Baker Street” all made appearances. Those songs just land differently when there’s a real sax solo cutting through the night instead of a keyboard patch or a guitar line faking it.
“Jessie’s Girl” with some dancing from Denis
One of our favorite moments was a request from Denis for “Jessie’s Girl.” We hadn’t played it before, but we decided to give it a shot. The funny part is that we knew about the request in advance and we had actually been in Greg’s car before the show, quietly working out harmony ideas over the bridge.
When we finally got to that bridge live, Paul and Greg kind of lost their nerve and backed off the harmonies, leaving Tom out there on his own. He didn’t drop the ball.
“America the Beautiful” and the mad dash teardown
We wrapped the main part of the night with “Wild Night,” which is always a fun one to end on, and then closed things out with “America the Beautiful” on the eve of the 4th. Greg and Paul leaned into a version that stays close to the Ray Charles arrangement – soulful, patient, and not rushed. It felt like the right way to nod to both the country’s birthday and Valley View’s 60 years.
As the last notes floated off into the breeze, the temperature dropped what felt like 15 degrees in a couple of minutes. The wind kicked up, the sky darkened for real this time, and suddenly it was less “encore” and more “everyone grab a cable.”
We went into full teardown sprint mode – winding cords, hauling speakers off the flatbed, tossing cases into cars. There’s a photo of Tom holding an umbrella, looking up at the sky, with lightning defining the clouds in the background. That pretty much sums up the end of the night. By the time we got the last piece of gear in the car and pulled away, the rain was coming down hard and the lightning was picking up. We definitely got lucky.
Thanks, Valley View
Huge thanks to everyone at Valley View Club for having us out for your 60th, for the flatbed stage, the quick canopy and umbrellas, and for rolling with the weather right alongside us. For anyone looking for golf in Cambridge, this is your place!
If you’re planning a celebration and want a piano-guitar acoustic duo (sometimes with sax in tow) to bring this kind of live music to your place, you can reach us through this page: bellandfieldmusic.com/book-acoustic-duo/.
We don’t play a lot of museums, so getting asked to be part of the Kewanee Historical Society’s 50th birthday party already felt a little different in the best way. Instead of a stage or a corner of a bar, we were set up on the mezzanine, looking down over the main floor while people came in, grabbed food, and found old friends.
The star of our setup area, though, was this bright orange vintage sofa under a painting of a Hawaiian woman who is… let’s just say, not overdressed. The painting used to hang at the old Waunee Farms restaurant, and once we saw it, we knew there was no way we were getting through the night without a photo or two.
Our second Father’s Day at Tuggers in Port Byron looked pretty different from the first one. Last year it was all sunshine on the patio and people hanging out by the river. This year: nonstop rain, temps in the upper 50s, and us hauling gear inside instead of out to the deck. Still, by the time we finished playing, it felt like exactly the kind of Father’s Day we both needed.
This show had an extra layer for Tom: his whole family was there—parents, kids, significant others, Malissa—taking over a couple of tables and making it very clearly a Father’s Day thing. Somewhere in the middle of the set, Tom took a short break to open his gifts. From Greg’s vantage point, it looked like a mini living room scene right there in the bar, which fit the mood of the day perfectly.
This was Tom’s first gig since turning fifty the week before, and that milestone was definitely in the back of his mind, as he reflected on his appreciation for family, life, and music.
About Bell & Field:
We’ll be at Coal Creek Brewing Company in Princeton on Tuesday, July 21, from 5–7 PM.
Rams Riverhouse is starting to feel like our own little experiment in how many tiny things can go sideways before a show and still add up to a really good night.
Kewanee has one of those downtowns where you can still picture what it looked like a few decades ago just by walking a block or two. The Historical Society sits right in the middle of that, with the murals and old storefronts close by and the museum quietly holding all the details the sidewalks don’t show anymore.
Some Saturday nights are for squeezing into a crowded room and shouting over the music. This one at Tiny Acres is the opposite. It’s a work thing, a corporate night out, where people will probably be trying to finish a conversation they started in a meeting three months ago.
The drive over set the tone. The forecast was calling for heavy rain and possible storms, so we were half-joking, half-serious about whether this was going to turn into an “adventure gig.” Somewhere along I-80, we passed a red pickup that Tom thought might be his parents. They took an off-ramp, we kept going, and we didn’t think much of it.
About half an hour in, the skies just opened up. It poured for what felt like an hour. You could see sheets of rain pounding the patio and, in a few spots, water started sneaking into the room. The Cedar Ridge staff hustled with squeegees and towels, pushing water back out the doors and toward the drains while we kept playing.
Tom’s parents made it to the show, along with his mom’s cousin and cousin’s husband from Cedar Rapids. It had been a long time since Tom had seen them, so having them in the crowd added another layer to the day. After the set, we caught up, and that’s when the full “red pickup / side-of-the-road pee / mystery honk” story came out. That spiraled into Greg telling the story about making his wife, Noriko, stop at every floor in a Japanese elevator years ago when she really needed a bathroom. “She did not think it was funny then,” Greg said, “but 20 years later it’s… kind of funny. Maybe.”
Paul and the crew had us dialed in before we even opened a case. They’d set up a big canopy over the patio “stage” area, plus the camera feed that sends our set inside the bar. From a musician’s point of view, that setup is gold — you feel like you’re playing to two rooms at once.
One of our favorite parts of the afternoon was a couple who drifted over to this little corner lounge area just off to our side and a bit behind us. From the stage, that spot almost feels like backstage seating. They were grooving, hanging out, and applauding between songs.
Edison’s was packed on the patio from the first song, and it looked just as busy through the windows inside. A lot of folks stayed with us the whole three hours, which we don’t take for granted. Between sets and song changes we had a steady stream of conversations, requests, and people just coming up to say hi.
We’d been talking about this one for a while. The Kewanee Farmers Market decided to gamble on an evening version of their Wednesday market, and we got to help kick off the season. No fee, just us under a big shade tree, some lights, food trucks, and a whole lot of “let’s see if this actually works.”
Earlier in the week, we’d asked on social media if anyone had song requests. You all delivered. We had people specifically come up and ask, “Did you play ‘Garden Party’ yet?” Ricky Nelson’s “Garden Party” and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” both landed right where we hoped they would—recognizable from halfway across the street, but still quiet enough that you could hear someone next to you talk about which tomatoes looked best.
One of the best parts of nights like this is who you bump into. We got to talk with friends we’ve known for years and meet new folks who just happened to be walking through the market. Greg met Steve for the first time—a committee member for Hog Days—who had already hired us to play later this year. It was good to finally put a face to the emails and meet his wife as well.
