Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend

Subject: RE: Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 07:45 PM

It'll be a great time. A good break from all the house crap that's been happening lately. Looking forward to hearing what Brian does with my guitar. I put new strings on it the other night, Brian.

Subject: RE: Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend
From: maeve
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 07:40 PM

It sounds wonderful! Have a great time, Brian & all.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend
From: Brian Peters
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 07:29 PM

Looking forward to it!

Subject: RE: Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend
From: CupOfTea
Date: 02 Sep 10 - 06:45 PM

Tonight I finish packing. tomorrow I head west for folksome frolics. I've downloaded the workshop & mainstage schedule, also my volunteer schedule. This is ONE place I don't mind driving around in a golf cart. Carrying banjo and autoharp players is so much nicer than ...er.. golfers.

Workshop choices... do I go to hear Judy Cook, Bryan Bowers & Bovee & Hell do Gospel,
or
Funny songs with Lou & Peter Berryman, Cindy Mangsen, Steve Gilette and Joel Mabus.

Love, Murder & Betrayal... or Songs of Love and Lust.
Tragic songs
or
Sacred Harp sing? (lot of mood overlap there)

Autoharp with Brian Bowers (will he do anything new and exciting, or have I heard it all before)
or
harmony singing? Dannnnng but there are hard choices to be made.

I'm stretching this weekend festival into a whole week in Chicagoland for my first vacation in decades. I'll be trading songs & staying with one of my favorite people with one of my favorite voices, Margaret Nelson. Wish you were going to be there, too Art, I'll send hugs with Judy (she's a GREAT hug - she can do it with just a smile, I swear!)

I was blathering about this festival this morning to my dentist. She's a famous locally as a folk music supporter and is will be in Chicago this weeknd. Her enthusiasm for the idea of taking a day off offspring housing construction to play with the music folks was a great joy to me. Dr. Anne and son-with-broken banjo meet Fox Valley, I can't wait! If any Mudcatters DO decide this is" just the ticket" ( so to speak) ask the folks at the record table to point me out and introduce yourself.

Joanne with suitcases packed in Cleveland till tomorrow

Subject: RE: Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Aug 10 - 05:46 PM

Joanne,

Hello from Illinois. If I was able to be there, please, everyone, just know that I would be there with you all. So many friends of ours are in the performers list you posted. Dennis and Judy Cook will be stopping here for a visit after the festival, and it will be a treat to hang out some. All of you there know that this was always one of my favorites. So sing one or two of my songs. Pass 'em on to the new generations of pickers---and show them the value of the old story songs that inform history so wondrously. Kids: "The past didn't go anywhere!"---Utah Phillips said that, and he was right. It is still there, all of it, waiting for you to find it--and cherish it--and sing it out!

Sincere love to you all!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend
From: CupOfTea
Date: 28 Aug 10 - 02:20 PM

bump!

egad! Ok, so it's not somewhere in the UK, but this is a FANTASTIC festival. I could show ya pictures of Art Theime and John Roberts, Peter Bellamy, Anne Hills, Peggy Seeger and DOZENS AND DOZENS of other folk luminaries who've performed at this festival over the years.

I'm not the only soul traveling from states away just to volunteer (and ok... I'm playing with Old Fezziwig's Band on Sunday, but I've been volunteering for 24 years before that) BUT this is likely THE best folkfestival of the summer of 2010 in the Midwest of the US. The combinations of people have been consistently amazing. I don't know what this year's "just amazing" workshop will be, but as an example I remember one in "British Music Hall Songs" that included Heather Wood (in a Valkyrie horned hat), John Roberts, & David Jones that had people on the ground. Months later, at a house concert, Claudia Schmidt was talking about what a good time that workshop was before presenting a poem it had inspired.

Don't say I didn't tell ya it would be great after you've missed it!
Joanne in Cleveland packing for Illinois

Subject: Fox Valley Folk Fest Labor Day Weekend
From: CupOfTea
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 11:05 AM

I'm starting get myself ready, lyrics at hand, instruments in fine fettle all to take the road trip to Illinois for the crowning jewel of my summer: The Fox Valley Folk Festival on gorgeous Island Park in the middle of the Fox River in Geneva, Illinois. This will be my 25th year as a volunteer, though this is the 34th (mostly) annual Festival. A few years ago, the Fox River flooded just before the festival and it was cancelled. This is an incredibly wonderful festival, with fascinating workshops, and a huge dedication to tradition. It's also the place I've passed the most time in the company of Art Thieme. (and someday I'll actually scan and send you those pictures from the 80s and 90s, Art!).

The information available on their website Fox Valley Folk (with live links for most of the perfomers ) includes:

--------------------------------- 2010 LINEUP: Subject To Change
MUSIC BY
Lou And Peter Berryman
Bob Bovee And Gail Heil
Bryan Bowers
Judy Cook
Cooper And Nelson
Jeff Davis
Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen
Tim Grimm
The Henhouse Prowlers
Joel Mabus
Larry Penn
Eric Noden & Joe Filisko
Ken Perlman
Brian Peters
Bill Robinson & Friends
Danny Santos
Matt Watroba
Dennis Stroughmatt et L'Esprit Creole
Welsh Dance With Old Fezziwig's Band and Fermilab International Folk Dancers
& Three More TBA!

PLUS STORIES BY
Priscilla Howe
Oba William King
Megan Wells
The Fox Valley Storytelling Guild
With More TBA
And Special Workshops & Showcases With:
CHICAGO SACRED HARP SINGERS
TWO WAY STREET FAVORITES

Plus
Area Organization Showcases Usually Including
Chicago Sacred Harp Singers
Chicago Songwriters Collective
Academy Of Irish Music
Fermilab International Folk Dancers
The Lake County Folk Club
Murphy Roche Irish Music Club
Hammer & Noted Dulcimer Soc
Northern IL. Bluegrass Assn.
Dulcimer Society of No. Illinois (DSNI)
& Much, Much More!
---------------------------------

Joanne in Cleveland who used to be "The voice of traditonal music in DeKalb" once upon a time.