tallest man

I saw The Tallest Man on Earth this weekend, who by some feat of modern engineering fit entirely inside the building. The Gardener would come on during the COVID years when I was busy in the garden, and I felt loops close to see it live and be in a crowd in Union Transfer again. The show itself was great, and the heavier emotionality in the music was undercut by a playful stage presence. I thought that if they played everything all mellow then we might get weepy and think about the bad times and that instead of organizing by the typical denominational lines we could group up by the type of hymn that gets us going. Every year we'd gather for a competition, calling our strongest singers to move the others to tears. Danny plays a moody mandolin tune about heartbreak and trees in autumn, Jessica sings a slow, soulful aria in a language I don't understand in some ways but do in others, Rebecca stands in silence for entire minutes, Jeremy's Jazzophonic Junkyard start with gospel and end with the blues, three choruses swell to an explosive ending each more explosive than the last, and a tent revival sponsored by a local tissue conglomerate fills the space between matches. A crew of 50 pull on ropes rolling out an organ 100' wide and taller than the captivated audience can see. At the console sits Gregor, who breaks the silence with one mighty pump of the bellows before his fingers fly across the keys, like a hummingbird his entire body pumping and playing strong and precise. By the tenth measure all in attendance are in a fervent froth, crying, screaming, and pulling at their hair. I overhear somebody make a comparison to his performance last year and look around at all the people listening and smiling and talking. I start to feel like a stranger in this story when suddenly the organist pulls out all the stops. Nobody remembers much of what happened after that but when they wake up the next day piled around the organ, lives and identities swapped between them, they know who to declare winner. During the award ceremony Gregor is about to give a speech when he's interrupted by the sound of honking and yelling. The ground beneath them was paved during the contest. It's rush hour now and I'm driving here!