Friday Ken and I headed out to the Folk Project Spring Festival, at a camp in northwestern New Jersey. The place is beautiful--a lake, woods, the Appalachian Trail nearby, just incredible. The festival is even better.
Ken and I got to know each other largely at these festivals, held in the spring and fall, so this was a pilgrimage as well as a reconnection with our folkie roots and our folkie friends. We waved hello to Scooter and one or two other Projectiles as we went in. The first person I really spoke with (and the first one I hugged--she's as big on hugs as I am) was Pam, who as usual was registration volunteer. I was so glad to see her again, to chat about each other's holiday letters (she was surprised and thrilled to hear about our marriage!) and catch up.
We settled into our cabin, managing to both snag bottom bunks that met at the corner so our heads could be close together. I had a window with a forest view.
While Ken and I waited for the Friday-night concert to begin, a young woman in the row behind us leaned forward and said, "Is that Pintsize on your sweatshirt?" "Yes!" I replied happily. "So, you read Questionable Content?" Turns out she did, and she and her brother are also into manga and anime. She started off with watching Evangelion when she was twelve, which warped her brain permanently.
The evening concert was excellent. Heather sang a wonderful song about community gardens in NY city, among other pieces, and then Tanglefoot, my absolute favorite band in the universe, came on. The emcee's description, "kick-ass Canadian Folk" doesn't even begin to describe this group. They have a new fiddler, Sandy, the first woman in the group--an excellent fiddler/violinist with the energy to match those guys. they recounted a story in which their British booking agent warned them that in a Yorkshire audience, the most effusive praise they were likely to get was "I've heard worse." That became the standard heckling phrase for the rest of the weekend. Claudia Schmidt was last and wow! you don't merely listen to this woman, you experience her. She is incredibly dynamic, can sing in a variety of styles from blues to ballad, and creates a wider variety of vocal tones and styles than I've ever heard.
Then it was Round Robin time, at least for me. There were only four of us for while so we chatted. Finally I volunteered to be the first to do a song, but just then guitarists came in so they started off. (I think the idea is to make sure they're in tune). I sang four verses of one of my favorite folk hymns, The Lone Wild Bird (2 original verses, 2 by Marty Haugen.) My favorite verse (words by Marty:)
O search me, God, my heart reveal
Renew my life, my spirit heal
For I am thine, I look to thee
Great Spirit, come and rest in me
Then came many, many songs and tunes as more people came in. Around 1:30 my turn came around again and I brought out, for the first time with anyone else, my edited-so-it-fits-the music English version of the closing song from the movie Spirited Away. I lost my breath a few times mid-line but was happy overall, especially considering the hour!
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