The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143697 Message #3317881
Posted By: Little Hawk
05-Mar-12 - 05:45 PM
Thread Name: Winter Folk Camp, a weekend in paradise!
Subject: BS: Winter Folk Camp, a weekend in paradise!
I just got back from the OCFF (Ontario Council of Folk Festivals) Winter Folk Camp up in Haliburton at Camp Wanakita, a conference and outdoor recreational centre in the boondocks of rural Haliburton.
INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!! Featured instructors were Eve Goldberg (Ukelele Orchestra), Terry Young (Finger Style Guitar), Ken Whiteley (Blues Guitar), Sandra Swannell (Fiddle), Teresa Doyle (Chorus), and.......the incomparable Lynn Miles (Songwriting)!!!!
I was in Lynn's songwriting course all weekend. She covered every significant angle of songwriting and voice and performing and did a superb job at it. There were about a dozen people in that class...and some great original songs were heard. One man wrote a song about a Canadian lake tragedy that killed 13 canoers (mostly young boys)...and what a stunning song it was...like the very best of Stan Rogers. A young woman from Toronto, named Shawna Caspi, did some totally unique stuff that she writes, simply wonderful material. And I got to be around my favorite songwriter in the whole world...Lynn Miles.
Ye Gods. It doesn't get much better than this!
The food was wonderful, the accomodations were comfortable, the human company was the very best.
Congrats to the Haliburton Folk Society for putting on an unforgettable weekend for us folkies in Ontario!!!!!!!
It was minus 24 this morning when I went out to start the car! It started. And I am now back home, happy as a clam...(so they say)...now I need to catch up on some sleep. Next year at Winter Folk Camp will be hard to resist.