The Story Behind Summer Nights on Church and Main
Back in 2018, my dad was invited to play bass for a friend of ours at open mic at the Fairport Brewing Company, at the corner of Church and Main in Fairport. Shortly thereafter, I started going to support him. As I watched, I wondered if there was something I could do to perform. I sang in choir in middle and high school, but there weren’t any songs I particularly wanted to perform. However, I had just started writing poetry at the time, so I thought “I can read poetry”.
Jump ahead to July 29 2019. I’d written more poems, and people had just about come to expect me to read at open mic. And my friend Mike says “Ian, I have an idea for you for a poem. Summer Nights on Church and Main.”
The wheels started churning in my head. Glancing every now and then at the sign up sheet, I began to write. By the end of the night, I had a rough draft.
The next week, I read Summer Nights on Church and Main. I introduced it by saying what Mike had said to me, then saying to him “Mike, I have a poem for you. It’s called Summer Nights on Church and Main”.
Jump ahead to August 26. Bobby, Mike’s son and runner of open mic, was leaving soon for New York City. It was his last open mic, and before that, we’d been talking about putting music to the poem. For his last night, he performed it. One day, I’ll find the words to express how happy that made me.
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