This is really about keeping the music "Healthy" . Thats the word Jappanees folk craftsmen use on work that is honest and comes from a maker who is true to his meadium or material and the place he is from .. Getting to an honest place .
                      We have got to keep this form of gathering alive for a ton of reasons but most importantanly to me : for the over all health of traditional music (of all sorts ) . My next door neighbourgh remembers before and just after the second war that for the poorer familys in Litchfield County Connecticut this was the only form of fun they had having so little money to throw away . So kitchen parties are for the neiboughhood as well ..The neibouhood gives back to the whole thing so much!!! .
                  I played a gathering two weeks ago for a man who was brought home from the intensive care unit to say good by to his family and friends. They ahd been a family deep in the north esat dance world for 60 years.. They asked me and Dan Gardella to come play and Lui Rasato of New Milford who has played in square dance bands from the late 30's .Dan did a CD with Dwight Diller .. They were both great .. The history Lui brought to that gathering though and his guitar player was the guest of honors father, Ed munson ( playing great guitar at 88) .. It was the most powerful informal gathering I have ever played at . The guest of honor left the world a week to the hour of the kitchen party .. I will never be the same. It was that beautiful . Connecticut tunes; Marching Through Georgia... Golden Slippers... Grand Father's Clock   Rag time Annei Soldigers Joy   Station Island .....
                   Now Whitby that would be something to get to !!
                   I once played with a batch of Old Time fiddles at a pig killing in North Carolina ( 1970)   . This was a local gathering . New to me .... It was a morning's work and a days playing . Great great music and most tunes I didnt know.. All county vertions of things I did know but the local history of playing in a small town for generations gave the tunes so much DEPTH ..
                   Celabrating the local background to songs and tunes is something we can get from keeping the kitchen party going ... Anyway all the best to all here .. Guy