There’s nothing like walking into the Oak Park Farmers’ Market on a Saturday morning and hearing the sounds of a banjo, fiddle, accordion player, and a harmonica to put you in a good mood. Almost since the market’s founding, there has been some form of music to accompany marketgoers’ shopping experience.
Early on, a group of local residents, including Dave Orr, Rick King, and Sheldon Liebman, dubbed the Walter Mitty Jazz Band, performed near the entrance to the market after it relocated to the Pilgrim Church parking lot, recalls Carla Lind, a co-founder of the market.
Some years later, Rich Harris, owner of Guitar Fun, put up a sandwich board near the entrance to the market to advertise his music school a few blocks away. He also invited a few of the school’s guitar teachers, including Mike Casey, to come over and play traditional American music, including fiddle tunes and country music.
In 1980, Geoff Tillotson was looking for a fiddle teacher. “I played banjo and wanted to play fiddle in addition,” Tillotson recalls. “Someone gave me the name of Mike Casey, who taught at Guitar Fun. I started taking lessons from him, and I mentioned I played banjo. He encouraged me to bring it to the farmers’ market. We played at the next farmers’ market and he said, ‘I’ll be darned. You really can play the banjo.’”
Tillotson has been performing at the market ever since. The band has grown in size, often with up to 30 musicians at a time, seated near the area where Pilgrim Church sells donuts and coffee on market day. The band’s participants have included a coal miner, physicians, lawyers, professors, journalists and a host of other professionals. Everyone is welcome, regardless of experience.
“Rich Harris and Mike Casey felt it was important to welcome people into the band,” says Tillotson. “So if someone wanted to play, they were welcome to sit in with us.”
The music has always focused on traditional American music, which might include bluegrass or country tunes. It lends a casual, down-home atmosphere to the market. On any given Saturday, you’ll find the musicians gathered at the end of an alley just north of the church, under a shade tree. Some arrive as early as 7 a.m., to greet the earliest shoppers who amble down the alley to buy a freshly made donut and cup of coffee at the church. The church puts out tables and chairs for market goers to sip their coffee, eat their donut and enjoy the music.
There are always parents with strollers and toddlers in tow who stop for a moment to listen to the music. The little ones are especially captivated and often sway back and forth to the music.
“On a beautiful fall day last October, a gentleman came up to me and said he had been listening to our playing throughout his years of growing up in Oak Park. He said, ‘I just want to thank you for continuing this tradition.’ I thanked him, but emphasized it really was the effort of all of us to keep the band going. We have talented musicians and we have something unique that is going on.”
Tillotson proudly remembers welcoming into the band some young people who were budding musicians and have now gone on to professional careers.
For Tillotson, as well as many musicians who have other day jobs, performing in the bluegrass band satisfies their hunger to perform with a group of individuals who like to make music.
“Performing in the band is a highlight of my week,” Tillotson says. “No matter how exhausting my week might be, performing at the farmers’ market will always make it better. The market and the band help lift everyone’s spirits. Sharing that with others has been a real joy.”