Welcome Miriam Rose...Here, in your honor, is The Welcome Table

I'm not sure what Naomi Dalglish is doing in this picture (besides singing, which I'm pretty sure she might be doing), but I'm not surprised to see her decked out in repurposed boxes. She's the daughter of composer Malcolm Dalglish, whose The Welcome Table will be performed tonight at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington, Indiana. The show will feature original music and dance, followed by a parade on the the B-Line Trail to the Farmers' Market, where I'll be helping serve rhubarb, pumpkin, pecan and apple pies (by firelight), made by our bakers at Bloomingfoods. Here's more, with a picture by Sam Bartlett:

On Saturday night February 20th, a raucous and harmonious group of vocalists, percussive dancers, aerialists and bassoonists, with puppets by “Stuntologist” Sam Bartlett, will return Malcolm Dalglish’s The Welcome Table to the stage of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.  

First introduced during the 2004 Lotus Festival, The Welcome Table is an indoor-outdoor extravaganza combining performance with a post-concert party – a parade down the B-Line Trail to a bonfire where Bloomingfoods pie will be served, next to Dale Enochs’s sculpture “A Bloomington Banquet,” at the Farmers Market. 

“The whole idea of The Welcome Table is to create a memorable, thrilling winter event, like gathering around a fire singing with friends after ice skating together on a crisp cold winter night,” says Dalglish. 

Known both locally and internationally for choral works that celebrate the natural world, Dalglish is a virtuoso of hammered dulcimer, spoons, bones, and chin music. Working with long-time collaborators Moira Smiley (of VOCO and VIDA fame) and composer Joshua Stephen Kartes, Dalglish draws on musical traditions as diverse as old-time American fiddle and dance music, early American and European sacred music, and African and Balkan song and dance. The grand finale to this show is “Pie R Pie,” a flour-flinging doo-wopping demonstration of making pie from windfall apples. Performers and audience will spill into the street and onto the trail, accompanied by an Malcolm’s marching Ooolitic band. 

The bakers at Bloomingfoods East and Near West Side will be preparing dozens of pies for The Welcome Table, at the request of Dalglish. “When I think of pie in Bloomington, I think of those Bloomingfoods pies, laid out on the wooden deli table in the East store, or served from the case on the Near West Side,” he said. Dalglish met with pie-makers Jamee DeFord and Jay Record to present them with a pie of his own – a cast iron-baked super-deep dish apple pie with sliced almonds hidden under the rim of its crust. Almost as passionate about baking pies as he is of making music, Dalglish has several specialties, using cast iron skillets, pizza dishes, and cookie sheets to produce a variety of crusts, toppings, flavors and textures.

Naomi won't be there (though her sister Mia will). Naomi is at home in North Carolina with her husband Michael, welcoming new baby Miriam Rose. Here's a beautiful photo of mother and baby. I like the way Miriam's little piebird body seems to imitate the guy with the pie and megaphone (her Grandpa) in The Welcome Table artwork. Welcome, indeed, spirited little songbird!