No, no, no--a hootenanny is a mythical creature resulting from the mating of a male owl and a female goat. There was even a poem written about it, which begins: "The Owl and the Nanny Goat went to see/What they could do in a boat."

There used to be something called an "Old-Fashioned Hootenanny" held monthly at the Swallow Hill Folk Music Center in Denver. I went to one in 2000...it was basically an open mike. Not quite a concert, but not a house party, either. But nobody told Harry Tuft he couldn't call it a hootenanny.

Aloha,
Mark