Acker Night

Blurry pic of the Courthouse Square and a (much better) pic of J.T. doing his interview thing during the Pandemonium Steel Drum gig inside Country Bank.



I went with Andrew (the hubster) and J.T. to Acker last night - they were interviewing folks and recording bits of music for their radio show. And I had an amazing time.

What the hell is Acker, you ask? Well, the Acker Musical Showcase is sort of an enormous block party for the town of Prescott where most of the downtown merchants host musical acts in their stores, restaurants, bars, art galleries and even bank lobbies. This was the 18th year for the event, but my first year to attend (I know, I know, how lame is it that it's taken me this long to go?). The Acker organization is especially super cool & groovy because their whole focus is to provide scholarships to area performing arts students - especially those involved in music.

Anyway, from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., people gathered in the Courthouse Square/downtown district and wandered from storefront to storefront to listen to an incredible variety of local music. And when I say variety, I mean it. As in Bluegrass, Native American flute, jazz, string quartets, choirs, Celtic, Blues, rock, the Salvation Army brass band, a tuba duo, banjos, handbells, a jug band, barbershop (an all male group AND and all women group), steel drum band, and good grief I could go on and on and I know I'm missing something cool, but you get the idea. Basically you can choose from something like 80 different places to hear whatever your little heart desires.

And it's all free. That's right, Acker is free. While there are folks running around with donation drums, nobody is required to shell out a single penny if they don't want to. The point of Acker is to promote musical culture in the community. It's stuff like Acker that make me love Prescott. Whatever other stuff I don't like here, the fact that we have things like Tsunami on the Square and Acker Night serves to remind me what a great town I live in.

It was cold last night, but I didn't mind too much. With fresh roasted chestnuts and plenty of hot coffee (okay, I had to pay for that, but sheesh! not complaining!) and the sheer energy of a whole town showing up for a night out what's a little cold? Besides the music, I had fun watching Andrew & J.T. blather on into a microphone & interview people. Also, Andrew has started this bizarre thing (this was his 3rd year to cover Acker for his radio show) where he makes up a musical group and asks everyone if they've seen them. Ahem. For the record, The McGuffins exist in my husband's mind only. But don't tell him I told you. I'll just deny it.

So if you ever find yourself in Prescott, AZ on the second Friday in December, come and discover one of Arizona's coolest holiday events. I'll let ya'll know when the podcast version of Andrew's radio show is available so you can get a little taste of what I'm talking about.

Oh, and forgive the blurry-ass photo of the Courthouse. I didn't bring the tripod, and the photo came out a little on the crappy side.

For anothe view (and better photos) of Acker, check out Granny J's blog. She always has such beautiful photos!