Picnic music: Jessica Kilroy

Wednesday I attended the weekly noontime Picnic in the Park concert. Today the musician was Jessica Kilroy. She is an Americana singer/songwriter. A female folk singer. Originally from Montana she now lives in Idaho.

If you follow her link to her myspace profile, she has some impressive friends in her friends list: Sarah McLachlin, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Neil Young among others.

Jessica was good and had a good a voice. She wrote many of her own songs, and overall I enjoyed her concert, but I was tired of her by the end. Her self penned songs were so earnest. They were typical of the female songwriter/singers of the late 1990s. You only can take so much of it at a time.

One song she wrote for her best friend's wedding was good, but so earnest and loaded with meaning it didn't feel like fun. It felt proper. It felt suffocating. It felt like one of those songs at a wedding you have to get through. And a bluegrass song she wrote felt more like a folk song than a bluegrass song; though I imagine it would have been more bluegrass if an actual bluegrass band was playing it. I must say in her defense her "Jesse James" song was good. And she picked good songs to cover as they seemed more lively and fun.

I was late to the concert. Just mentioning so you know nothing has changed with me.

It was sunny and warm, but still windy. That makes two days of wind now. In the shade it felt cold at times as the wind blew.

I saw Gary there and we chatted about potential hikes this weekend.

Several young men were moving about gathering signatures to get on the ballot a citizen petition to establish an individual provider program to provide assistance to the elderly and disabled to remain in their own home instead of having to go into a nursing home. I had already signed it.

Plenty of people were at the concert, though not as many as last night. While a group of old people appeared to be from a nursing home, and it was nice to see them have a chance to be out and about, I believe 3/4 of the people were women, and many of them had babies or young kids. Since the concert was from 11:30 to 1:30 pm, I assume most all these women were stay-at-home moms.

Lots of estrogen at this concert between the most female audience and the female folk songwriter/singer. At times it seemed to be too much for me.

With all the women I could not help but notice them. They appeared to mostly be in their 20s and 30s. Naturally I was attracted to some. How could I not as some were attractive and attractively dressed for summer. A woman wearing a tight jean miniskirt will always get my attention. She had a child but no ring on her left hand.

Still, all was not right. Why? Too much estrogen in the air? It wasn't till later that I realized what was making me uneasy. Often it was with relief when I spied a ring on the woman's left hand. All the kids didn't help, but I realized later that these women were all so serious. Many were with family or other female friends, but I wonder if they were having fun. I saw no laughter or animated conversations or gestures.

These women seemed to be more into socializing than listening to the music. Jessica was good but she didn't get a lot of applause. I think it was because all these women were not paying attention. Who wants to be attracted to women that are not fun? My head and heart were in conflict between my attraction and un-attraction, and that was making me unsettled.