I have recently been blowing the dust off nearly 50 years of photos and ephemera from the many annual trips my wife and I took to Cape Cod. Thanks to Sue Keller, I can legitimately write about some of those experiences in this month’s column. Let me explain.
I followed Sue’s fifth annual Cape Cod Ragtime Festival happenings this year thanks to the Facebook postings of some of the performers. Sue’s husband, Harold Vigorita, provided YouTube videos, and a long telephone conversation with Sue and then with one of her guest performers, Sam Post, filled in details.
It all began when Sam mentioned his invitation to the festival and it really resonated when John Remmers posted his beautiful photo behind the National Seashore Visitors’ Center and Will Perkins FaceBook posted a great selfie of Sam and Dalton Ridenhour, with Will and McKenna at Nauset Beach.
They had a great time September 29 and 30 and, instead of hymns and anthems, syncopation filled the nave of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans, Massachusetts, and then floated out on the sea air over Pochet Sound to the sea. The Festival piano was a nine-foot Baldwin Grand at the Church, loaned by a parishioner. All attending agreed, the performances were superb.
Sue’s first ragtime festival on Cape Cod in 2014 featured her talents with Glen Jenks, Frank Livolsi, Dave Majchrzak, Jim Radloff, Mike Schwim
