My wounded pride compels me to respond to this, CeltAddict:

"Watching and listening as Craig Edwards, the Festival director, who had every reason to be exhausted, sitting at midnight Sunday night giving a patient guitar lesson to a new player so she could accompany his fiddle and Ken Sweeney's squeezebox."

That was a terrific session Sunday night. I just have to protest that I'm not a new player, although I can see how it might have looked that way. I've been a guitar player for 20 years in a variety of styles. But I am new to accompanying traditional tunes on the guitar, which is a strict and demanding style that's very different from most folk guitar playing. Craig, Ken, and Carl T. spent some time teaching me a few new tunes and techniques that night so that they could have backup for their tunes.

I started learning to play tunes because there's a new Monday night session in Mystic for old-time players. It's into its third month and has been really successful and well recieved. There are usually a couple of fiddles (including Craig's), banjo, mandolin, and guitar; and on occasion, even the rub board, washtub bass, and ukelele have made their appearance.