One of the reasons Beth and I so enjoy working as volunteers every August at the Sioux River Folk Festival (aside from seeing the concert free for 2 1/2 hours of work, the feeling of community, the cameraderie, camping near the concert area, etc.), is the impromptu jamboree that usually happens involving both concert attendees and paid musicians from the Fest, up by the forest observation tower that sits at the highest point of the Newton Hill State Park in South Dakota.

One year there was a fellow playing banjo there whose name I never did catch. At one point very late that night, he ripped into a bluegrass version of "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard," the words to which I've known since early childhood, so I jumped in on harmony and did just did my damndest to keep up with him. I don't think I could recreate even the feel of it to save my life, but that night it felt wonderful. It worked. It really worked.

I tend to tread all over musical boundaries, so I've done, either by myself or with coconspirators, more 'n a few non-folk songs in at least nominally "folk" settings:

Locomotive Breath (Tull, aforementioned)
Moondance (Van Morrison)
Here Comes a Regular (Replacements--my bro.-in-law and I used to do this one together)
Driver 8 (R.E.M.)
Many a Grateful Dead song
Helpless, Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Behind Blue Eyes (The Who)

To name a few....

Chris