Peters Township Community Day welcomes the ‘DiSantomophone’

The temperature already had crept up toward 90 degrees on the morning of June 30 when the “DiSantomophone” swung into action.
When they heard the sounds it produced, some of the guests at Peters Township Community Day pulled out their cellphones to start chronicling the spectacle.
“It’s funny because they’re usually behind me,” Nick DiSanto said about the spur-of-the-moment photographers and videographers. “I’ll just see some pictures of me from behind online later. I don’t really notice when people are following me around.”
From behind, the front or the side, Nick tends to draw quite a bit of attention playing the DiSantomophone
“Any contraption I happen to be wearing gets that title,” he explained prior to marching through the heat of Peterswood Park toting an eye-popping array of sound-producing gizmos, most noticeably a guitar in his hands and a bass drum on his back.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Nick DiSanto makes his way around Peterswood Park.
Near his mouth are a kazoo, harmonica and some other odds and ends.
“This trumpet mouthpiece leads to a Gramophone horn in the back.”
When he blows into another tube, a cowbell sounds.
“I ran out of arms and legs to work with, so I started using mouth-powered percussion,” he explained. Ropes attached to his arms and legs lead to cymbals and drums, respectively.
Accompanying everything is the strumming of DiSanto’s guitar.
“I started out as a ukulele player before guitar,” he said, “so I have kind of a strange guitar-ukulele hybrid style of playing.”
Whatever the case, it all comes together impressively as he goes into motion, playing and singing “mostly stuff that’s recognizable to people, and then also just a few things I like that I threw in: a lot of old country, old blues, some show tunes and some folk standards.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Another side of Nick DiSanto
A Lancaster County resident, DiSanto traveled west last year to perform at Peters Township Community Day, and he has taken his show throughout the United States and to Canada and Japan.
“I started as a drummer,” he said. “I studied some sculpture, and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to build things or play music, which I wanted to take more seriously. So I kind of came up with this as a way to do both.”
At first, it was kind of simple.
“I just had one drum on my back, and played my guitar and my elbow tambourine,” DiSanto recalled. “And I kind of promised myself I wouldn’t become one of those silly one-man bands with all the horns and bells and whistles and stuff.
“But I don’t know. The challenge of finding a new spot to put something, a new body part to play it with, is just kind of irresistible.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harper Timney gets ready for one of the rides set up during Peters Township Community Day.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Isabella Nicholson, who was visiting with her family from Norway, gives the rock-climbing wall a try during Peters Township Community Day.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
The Almanac
Liam Timney, left, and Jake Grossman take a ride during Peters Township Community Day in 2018.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Talia Cavaco greets Peters Township Community Day guests at the Home Solutions LLC booth.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Gina O’Bryan greets Peters Township Community Day guests at the Malone Flowers booth.