Shining a light on: The Quirky Quarantine Quorum

Shining a light on: The Quirky Quarantine Quorum

“I am a long-time musician,” said Ken Harris. “I got started in Boise’s rock-n-roll scene back in ‘64, ‘65.” Harris said when his parents moved to Boise in 1960, “I told my mother I wanted to play the drums. My mom said, ‘why not play the accordion?’ It was popular in Boise because of the Basque community.”

That led Harris to playing the keyboards. And those two instruments are what he played in countless live music events over the decades. That is, until COVID-19 shut them all down.

“When the pandemic hit, all my gigs went kaput,” Harris said.

Frustrated and still wanting to play music, Harris got creative.

“I would take my stool and go out by the Pac Out (on Bogus Basin Road). There is a little island there — the perfect size for me to sit on my stool with my accordion and play.”

He began to develop a following. “People would wave and honk. Put it on Facebook.”

Pretty soon other musicians raised their hands to join in.

“The bass player I played with said, ‘hey, you want a bass player?’ People were getting out of their cars. Radio and TV wanted to do stories about us.”

They added a singer and a saxophone player “and so it blossomed out from there,” Harris said. “I called up some other musicians and it became an eight-piece band.”

And just like that, they had outgrown the island in front of the Pac Out.

“We needed to find a place where we could play in a socially-distanced way,” Harris said.

They settled on a regular spot at Fifth and State streets, where they set up and play in front of the food trucks there, for free, every Thursday during the lunch hour, weather and availability permitting. They’ve come up with a band name, too — the Quirky Quarantine Quorum — and they even have a CD out, available for purchase at the Record Exchange for $5.

Additionally, Harris said in an email he and his band are looking to add play dates to their calendar.

“We would be very interested in — for no charge — playing for any worthy charitable or community cause that you happen to come across,” he said.


Jeanne Huff is the community engagement editor for the Idaho Press. You can reach her at 208-465-8106 and follow her on Twitter @goodnewsgirl.