Well, I've had my morning coffee and it's time to sift through some of the pleasant memories from yesterday.

One way to think of festivals such as NEFFA is as a series of personal encounters with people you expected to meet there but also with people you haven't seen in years. And that was certainly happening for me.

I spent some time touring the craft area, checking at Button Box to see what the prognosis was for my ailing concertina; it needs a minor operation at their hospital but should recover and be better than ever! I'm impressed at how well the performer's CD sales are handled, so much better on all counts than at Mystic. I ran into Carl Thornton there and we compared notes about this year's Mystic Festival program.

Than I got together with Mike Kennedy and Margaret McCandless to plan out the details of our C. Fox Smith workshop and we had a lot of fun trying out different songs, working up harmonies and instrumentation. It's really quite magical when there's a major break-through and you find something that works really well. At the same time you know it won't really be polished by workshop time but there's a preview of how well it should sound. We found a quiet corner in the performer's instrument check-in room to try everything out and the people there seemed to appreciate what we were doing.

Then we ventured down the hall to join Mark Ryer's Maritime with Chorus open session which proved a fine interactive experience. Mark introduced the session with "Bye, Bye Skipper" which was so short that we all insisted he do another song. Then I followed with my tribute to Fleetwood's derelict fishing fleet, "The Spectral Fishing Fleet" which is a haunting song but also has a rousing chorus. Someone else led "Superior Sperm" the sad ballad of the demise of the fresh-water whaling industry in the Great Lakes, a song cobbled together by Scott Alarick and Si Kahn which I first heard in the late 1970's at the Wheatland Festival in Michigan. There were about 7 or 8 others that managed to lead a song in the time allotted but we could easily have swapped songs for the rest of the afternoon.

I then shifted over to the the auditorium to attend John Roberts, Joanne and Peter Sauza's concert and they were very good as expected. Some of their song set included Jon Campbell's "Keep on Fishin'," "Rain" from Australia, "Bringing Nelson Home," "Nova Scotia Farewell," and "London Julie." David Diamond was seated behind me and we had a lot of fun collaborating on harmonies. Adding to the ambiance was the five year old girl who danced in front of the stage through much of the set, obviously enthralled with her new light-flashing shoes.

I then got together again with Mike and Margaret, I'm not sure how we managed to find one another, for more practice. This time we found space in the "emergency room;" the two security folks there appeared happy to have some live entertainment.

So when our C. Fox Smith workshop came up we were as prepared as we could be for people who don't play regularly with one another throughout the year. I taped up my big prints to the chalkboard of Cicely and the poems that we were planning to sing, handed out copies of the Songbook I'd put together, and after a few introductory remarks about Cicely the rest of the workshop involved our demonstration of how some poems could be adapted for singing.

Mike led off with a reading of "Retrospect" which I followed with "Mobile Bay" which does haved a strong chorus. Then Mike led "Messmates All" an military drinking song which I followed with "Farewell to ANZAC" a tribute to the Australian and New Zealand troops who fought and died at the disastrous Gallipole campaign. Margaret then led her version of "By the Pagoda Anchorage" a homage to the tea clippers. I then led "Old Fiddle" a haunting tribute to the twilight zone of the nautical junk shop. Then Mike led "The Jolly Bargeman" which described the narrowboats being mobilized during World War 1. Then Mike led the outward bound song "Raitlin Head" which Margaret and I are in love with. And I ended the set with "The Long Road Home" which describes a tall ship setting out from Vancouver, BC, on the way back to England, one of the last poems Cicely published in a Victoria, BC, newspaper before she departed from there in the fall of 1913.

We were a litle concerned whether we'd attract an audiance given that this was a final workshop on Sunday afternoon but we needn't have worried. The room was nearly full and everyone seemed to enjoy our presentation. We did cram a whole lot in and there was very little room for any questions.

Then we packed everything up, said our final good-byes, and sped off to our various corners of the world.

Next, we'll be doing another C. Fox Smith workshop at the Mystic Seausic Festival in June; included there will be Danny Spooner and other members of my band Roll & Go.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, adrift in Brooklyn