January 23 Jon Bos Rocks

“He wear no shoe shine
He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
He shoot Coca-Cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come together, right now, over me”

The poetic and nonsensical lyrics of the song ‘Come Together’ by the Beatles is an appropriate song for the times. The musical rhymes stirred my soul and awoke my heart. Jon Bos sang the iconic song as he stood behind a glass panel on the stage at The Globe Café at Big White ski resort. We all searched for a sense of normalcy, a memory of the before times…

It was a fishbowl existence that my friend stood in, singing to the people that gathered behind glass barriers. Most places at Big White have taken extra precautions with barriers and distancing between tables. I felt safer watching the musical display than I do when I haunt the aisles of my local grocery store.

The Globe is supporting a friend in a time that musicians across the world are struggling to survive. Financially and emotionally the entire local entertainment industry is paying a devastating price.

The Globe has taken the safety of its patrons very seriously. They try hard to make sure people from their own residence are seated together. I don’t envy the staff that runs this tapas bar at Big White. How can they be responsible to decide who lives together when these people have chosen to sit together.

At least we can listen to live music Saturdays from 3:30 pm.

In all our lives some of us push the boundaries; I know my life would not be the same if I didn’t test the limits of my existence. As Jon played the music that soothed the soul. I wanted to join in on the song, no singing is allowed under the rules. So I put my mask on and joined in, singing the words I knew so well. I look forward to a day when we can all sing together; when we can sing loud and proud, when we can sing without masks.

Without fear.

With a vaccine being rolled out there is hope for a time in the near future when we can dance again. I anxiously look forward to the time when our starving artists and musicians can return and play again for the world.

Jon is one of the lucky ones. He has managed to survive and is able to connect with people in the way his gift has enabled him to for many years. The reward a musician gets from playing to a live audience, even an audience behind glass walls, is something that can’t be quantified. I could see it in Jon’s eyes, the look of satisfaction when he savoured the applause for the rhythms he performed. Jon played the Happy Valley day lodge for the past bunch of years, this year of course things are a bit different. 

Many other local starving musicians sit without any outlet for their muse. Depression and anxiety are real and rampant among all those people left behind in our world of covid. People like Papa Dawg who has for many years played music that comes from the soul, aches without an outlet.

The cost of the pandemic keeps rising as time moves on.

I want to send my love and support to all our musical performing brothers and sisters. They sit at home trapped with no way to share the gifts they possess.

Part of the health orders is we are not allowed to have events. Jon playing to an intimate group of people all nestled safely behind glass barricades doesn’t quite qualify as an event… That is our story and we are sticking to it.

It may not be an event, but everyone had a very good time. Can we admit we had fun? I know I had a blast, there is something about the energy of live music that cannot be emulated.

Our musical benefactor stayed late, connecting with the people around us. Even though there was a barrier between everyone in the room, the music filled the air and joined us in a way nothing else can.

I am grateful to have shared this moment in the coronaverse. I yearn for the day we can dance again. Until then I will dance in my head, my heart, and in my soul.