68th Annual National Folk Festival

Saturday I wandered downtown to the 68th Annual National Folk Festival in downtown Richmond. Yes, I broke the diet and ate a funnel cake. But other than that, I had a great time and listened to many fine musicians, including several National Heritage Fellowship holders. The following were the highlights:

Arrived at noon. Admission, free. Parking, $5.

Was rushing to see Boston Edge, but got waylaid at the first of 5 stages by an interesting sound. Listened to Le Vent Du Nord, a canadian folk band of Irish tradition who sing in their native french language. Yep, traditional Irish music, sung in French. By some very dynamic (and fine looking) young men. I liked greatly.

Wandered around for awhile and caught the end of the Hula Halau O' Lilinoe. My only comments included "I didn't know the chip N Dale dancers would be here!" and "okay, I need to find a Hawaiian Man." The girls were good dancers. But the guys were good dancers in loin clothes. Yeah loin clothes!

Caught a little bit of Jamesie and the Allstars with Blinky McIntosh playing a bit of scratch music from St Croix.

Caught a little bit of New Ballards Branch Bogtrotters playing a bit of blue grass from Virginia.

Watched a discussion and demonstration by the accordian players present at the festival (4 of them). I now know a bit about how they are built and what a "wet" verses "dry" accordian sound sounds like. Very cool to see different styles: Irish, New Orlean jazz, Texas, and French-Irish. Way cool.

Enjoyed the accordians so much I decided to go to the Fiddle discussion and demonstration too. The finale was 8 fiddle players playing a bluegrass song with two Altai singers adding a great throat tone harmony. Chills. AMS called during it. I'm not sure it transferred over the phone, but it was massively cool.

Wish I had gotten to see AltaiKAI earlier in the day. Apparently these visitors from central asia were something to see.

I stuck around for a second performance of Le Vent Du Nord. I HAD missed the first 15 minutes of their first performance, but I also figured I might not get another chance to see and hear them. And the lead guy's cute. I ended up joining the dancing in front and did some chaining with a line of people. THEN I discovered that the polka is really really easy to dance-- my chaining partner paired off with me and we polka'd to the next song. Then the 10 of us turned and did a little bow to the audience and sat down. Yep, danced a dance I've never danced in front of a crowd of about 80 or so people. I was shaking when I got back to my seat but it was oh so fun!

I wondered around, experienced the portapotty, and basically wasted time waiting for the 7:30pm show by Boston Edge.

Well worth the wait, this group includes Joe Derrane (one of the National Heritage Fellowship holders and best accordian player in the Irish tradition here in America), Seamus Connolly (won the Irish fiddle contest 10 years in a row-- don't know if he's a relation, but one can dream), and finally John McGann (great guitar player). They were incredible. While they were playing a couple got up and did some great dances in front of the stage and the combination, along with the chilly night, was....lovely.

I walked out with a small crowd and landed up walking all the way to my car with a nice couple. Their car was next to mine. Coincidences are fun, aren't they?

All in all a great day. The weather was beautiful. The funnel cake was great. The music blew me away. And I know that accordians can come in one row and up, and have reeds inside them. Yes, accordians are reed instruments. I was so wired that by the time I got home I was up until 4 am. At 2 am I decided the night was just going to be an "up" one, so I read, then played on the internet, and finally popped a movie into my laptop and fell asleep with Harry Potter running on my bedside table.

Today, I did sqwat. I'm gonna go pay bills before heading to bed. I think I've got clean clothes for tomorrow. I've got to set up my ASHA trip. But not tonight. Bills, then wander into bed.

My camera died, but if any of the pictures came out clear I'll post. Especially those Hawaiian men. I hope that one came out.