The Amazing Harpgirl

Subject: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Paul G.
Date: 31 May 99 - 06:27 PM

I spent this last weekend at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs, and there made a point of attending one of the "Doneygals" performances, which was wonderful. Half of the Doneygals is our own Harpgirl, who turned out (not at all to my surprize) to be a wonderful instrumentalist, a fine vocalist, and a genuinely terrific human being. Nice job Harpgirl, very nice.

Paul

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Helen
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 06:20 AM

So, Harpgirl, just let me know when the Oz tour is on and I'll be there in the front row - cheering.

*BG*

Helen

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 01:37 PM

harpgirl, since you will probably be reading a thread with your name in it ('thought in the moonlight by firefly light)...
I was wondering if you might know a Florida folksinger that I've lost track of. I played music with when I lived in Sarasota in the mid-seventies. Her last name was Graham or Grahm, and her first name I think was Holly(?) She wrote a song about Florida that had a chorus something like:

Let's go down to the sunny south,
Bless your heart and hush my mouth,
mosquitos so big they'll carry you away.
Well the alligator is in the ditch
and the rattlesnakes are a sonofabitch
and the ..(?)... keep getting bigger all the time.

Is this somebody you know?

Bark Woof

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: sail
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 07:32 PM

Paul - so sorry to have missed you. I only got to go to the festival on Saturday. Was running a little late for your 11:25 performance, but tried to make it. Anyway, I've not been for several years, and they moved the Azalea Garden stage! Anyway, by the time I found it, you were long gone. Did not get to see Harpgirl either. One day is not enough!

I was disappointed in several things this year. One, I don't remember the sound at the main stage taking so long to set up. Is Everyman's Sound still doing it? And do you know anything about the Burr Oak Emsemble? What happened to them?

Penny (other Penny)

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: harpgirl
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 07:49 PM

thanks Paul, you are too kind...

Mark, That sounds like a Mindy Simmons song. Might that be to whom you refer? harp

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Paul G.
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 09:47 PM

Penny

Sorry to have missed you as well. No, the sound is no longer done by Evereyman. They awarded the contract to the low bidder -- and it showed. The amphitheatre sound was terrible this year, poor feedback management, poor mix. A shame, really.

I don't know about Bur Oak -- haven't heard of them around the state in at least the last 4 years.

Paul

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 09:54 PM

Is there a DoneyGals CD????
A DoneyGals Web site?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: harpgirl
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 10:21 PM

I hope not Joe!

Helen, If I ever cross all those oceans, I'll definitely make it known in Oz! Why do they call it Oz btw? harpgirl

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 10:29 PM

why, it is just a quaint way to pronounce "Aus"....and it is SO far away....not sure about the witches & Munchkins.. (I DO wonder how 'Oz' caught on...since I am from Kansas originally, I always figured Oz should be near Iowa, since that's where those tornados tend to blow everything from Kansas...;>)

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Helen
Date: 02 Jun 99 - 12:10 AM

Thanks, Bill, you're right that it comes from the pronunciation. It's one way we have of checking whether someone is a dinky-di Aussie. If they pronounce it as Oss-ie (with an "s" sound, and breaking it into 2 distinct syllables) then they are probably not from here, and are more than likely from America. We say it like "Ozzie" - with no break in the word.

Originally the term caught on in about the 70's when a couple of left-wing, lateral thinking, intellectual crazies (and I mean that in the nicest way) started a controversial magazine called Oz. It was sort of an antidote to the yobbo (i.e. redneck) characteristic which was attached to Australians overseas.

When I use the name Oz I tend to be saying it with a sort of wry, self deprecating humour (another characteristic of Oz - we never miss a chance to laugh at ourselves.)

Helen

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 02 Jun 99 - 10:12 AM

and I wish I had been there too!

Subject: RE: The Amazing Harpgirl
From: The Shambles
Date: 02 Jun 99 - 02:23 PM

"I don't think we are in Kansas anymore. Toto".

G'day, Dorothy.