There are so many good singers and musicians, some quite renown, and some not at all at the Getaway. I hesitate to mention any one person. However, over the past few years I have fallen in love with the versatility of Rose Sheehan, not to mention her warmth. She alone, or with her son, sing beautiful trad ballads, and she can also belt out a blues, roots or swing tune in the finest manner! And she has found the perfect partner for some of those gutsy tunes in John Hicks.

Own aspect of the Getaway I appreciate beyond measure is so many people who are fine, accomplished musicians and vocalists appreciate being in the middle of a bunch of people there for the love of the music, and listen and encourage anyone else. Tain't about performing. Tis about joining together.

I found my voice again at the Getaway, starting 14 years ago, and while never was or would have been a great singer or musician, my voice developed, and I was motivated to develop it beyond what I knew or had the confidence was possible. I have since lost it again for unclear medical reasons and can barely croak out a song, and then only occasionally. But the magic of the space goes beyond any one voice or any one person's musicality. Even mouthing the words on a chorus in a whispered voice fills the heart and soul with gladness and a sense of belonging and sharing in our common humanity. Because I have been going so long, I think, I also occasionally will croak out something I know is hard to listen to, and feel respected for making the effort, and validated when people join in the chorus (if they can manage the basement key.)

The Getaway (meaning the collective presence of close to a couple of hundred people with common purpose to simply be joyfully together in celebration of what folk music brings to each of our lives empowers the music in every person's soul to be released and revealed. That is true magic.

Don't mean to be smarmy, but thank you to each and every person who shows up.