Tom, I am amazed at the line-up this year for the Portsmouth Maritime Fest 2009! I first met Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebsaat at the annual sea music festival at Mystic Seaport. For those who don't know them, Jon and Rika sing ballads, shanties, and other traditional music from the Northwest. They're both good people and fun to be around. And at the sing-arounds Jon is astounding! With rafter-shaking enthusiasm, he brings out the best in all the singers in the room.   What fun! The Portsmouth singing is going to be right at the top of the good-time scale this year.

Also, I can only hope that we get to see the Finn and Haddie Trio debut. I'm already a fan of Barry and Neil. Neil has written some wonderful "traditional" songs, and Barry brings alive every song he sings. The buzz is that Ken is terrific.

Well, those are the acts at the top of my can't-wait-to-see list right now. And my favorite event happens Friday at the Press Room.

We will have a contingent from the Pickin', Singin' and Gatherin' folk club (Albany, NY) at the festival. Is anyone else camping at Wakeda that weekend? We could circle our wagons there.

Again, Tom: nice work – we can hardly wait…