That's the wife in the doorway of McGeary's in downtown Albany, where we went Monday to catch Skip Parsons' Riverboat Jazz Band, a lively bunch of good musicians including our friend the drummer Tim Coakley. The house on the left was home to the teen-age Herman Melville, before the family fell on harder times and they had to move to Lansingburgh. He was working then and attending school part-time, including Albany Academy up the hill (also still standing, and now the headquarters of the city school district in Academy Park, across from the state Capitol, Court of Appeals, and the county courthouse).
We arrived just after 7 to discover the dining room, where the band was playing, already full, so herself, Tess Collins, hospitably gave us her control perch to see and hear the show, along with a quick reference to Mother Judge and the history of it all. The food and ale were good, too. Skip's band has a regular gig there now on the second Monday of the month. Be there or be square.
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