Mrs. McNeil Music of Ithaca’s Top 5 ways to support local music:

5. Get the Door: If a musician walks past you carrying an amp/ drum/ bass-cabinet/harp grab the door for them. That stuff’s heavy, and it’s nice to know you care.

4. Get it Live: Planning a wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, graduation party? Hire live musicians. There is something truly magical about music being made especially for you in an unrepeatable, unique moment.

3. Get it direct:  Buy the album or tracks directly from the musician. If you give a musician $10 for an album they get $10. If you give it to that online company, the musician may get only pennies. Same goes for t-shirts, posters, and other assorted schwag.

2. Spread the Word: If you love that song/band/concert why not post/tweet/blog/Instagram so all your friends know the awesomeness? Better yet- carpool. Load all your friends into your car so you can elbow them during the show and say “I told you this would rock.” A packed house makes the performers feel great, builds excitement for the audience, and makes whoever books for the club say “I’ve got to get these guys back here!”

1. Listen: There is no better way to support local music than to show up and listen. Why do you think that band lives 5 months a year in a tour bus eating cold pizza? Why do they spend all those hours in the practice room or rehearsal space? Because they hope that if they pour all that love and sweat and hard work into it you will listen.

[Bonus points- afterward tell them what you heard. Musicians drink that up like water on a hot day]

This is Why

Note inside card given to me by the first and third same-gender couples ever to receive a marriage license in Bradford County PA at their joint wedding on Wednesday:

"Having our wedding ceremony in our church, performed by our minister is truly a blessing and a dream come true."

Thirty years each couple had been together before that fateful court decision a few days back.

During the round of toasts that followed the 9 of us present for the ceremony lifted a glass to Unitarian Universalism for being part of the struggle.

I lifted my class and told them a day like this is why you go to seminary in the first place.