This past Thursday and Friday (August 5 and 6) were the groundbreaking ceremonies the the new building for the Old Town School of Folk Music, where I teach young people to play the guitar.

It was an incredible couple of days. The Old Town School never stop amazing me.

It started on Thursday morning with the ceremony involving all the state and city representatives, funders, bankers and board members. The Young Stracke All-Stars were honored to open the ceremony with our version of Woody Guthrie's Bling Blang. Sarah, our senior member, and I were interviewed for Northwestern University television. Here is the finished report.

Friday was the big party for the groundbreaking, at it was weaved into the normal First Friday events at the school. It kicked off with pizza and beverages and then the Gather-All took off at 5:30. We played a few tunes and the headed outside to be part of the school-wide sing-a-long.

Then everyone hung around for a ton of dancing, drumming (this is a picture of Rick Neuhaus' drum circle), singing and playing. I finally left at 11:30 or so.

One of the highlights was the killer fandango hosted my Raul and the members of Son del Viento. I played and and danced with these guys for most of the evening.

It's hard to imagine, but there was more community spirit on this night, than anything I've ever been a part of at the Old Town School. And if you know me, you know how important that is to me.