2002 - So how was Camp Harmony?

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 06:02 PM

Damn! And there was me thinking that Dennis Norton, Julian Clarey and John Inman had formed a singing group...

Now there's a thought;-)

Glad you peeps enjoyed it anyway - We do a similar thing every February. Must be mad.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 09:52 AM

Nice to hear that my fowl-weather friends in the Bay area have been enjoying themselves.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, snowed in for the duration in Maine

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 02:53 AM

I heard it was a little chilly. You had to eat the chickens with a capon.

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: GUEST,sharyn
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 01:42 AM

Yes, Mark, it's me, Sharyn D., indeed. Hello yourself. I'll see Valentine tomorrow and will say hello if you like. And radriano you weren't there long enough to eat your quota of dead chickens -- we were served quarter chickens three times.

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: radriano
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 11:15 AM

Sorry, the next to the last line in my last post should have read:

"Damp toes forward and eat fowl food"

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: radriano
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 11:12 AM

Hey, ho, chicken on a raft
Hi, ho, chicken on a raft
Chicken on a raft in a soggy campout
Grab 'em by the neck and twist it quick
Damp toes forward and eat foul food
Doesn't help the chicken but it tastes real good

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 12:19 AM

Sharyn...not Sharyn D? Hello if it's you. The last time I saw Valentine was in 1984 at a festival in northern Connecticut. I'd just moved from Portland to Springfield, Mass., and didn't know she had also moved back East. Somebody on stage said, "I learned this song from Faith Petric in San Francisco" and I heard someone in the audience yell, "Yay, Faith!" I looked, and there was Valentine. She had been my introduction to the Bay Area folk scene when she and Ed Silberman came up to Portland to sing shanties. Glad she made it back to Harmony.

I'm happy I started this thread....it reminds me of all the wonderful times I've had at Harmony and rekindles the desire to try to make it back next year.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: sharyn
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 12:04 AM

Camp Harmony was lovely. There was excellent late-night acapella singing each night and very good energy -- it was a very mellow year, despite (or because of) the rain. Riggy brought his new CD (yay!) Valentine Doyle of Connecticut was there. Just wonderful. Too many chickens died though.

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: radriano
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 06:55 PM

Camp Harmony is held at a Boy Scout camp facility in the redwoods on Highway 9, just north of Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz mountains. Sleeping cabins hold about ten people and some cabins are replete with bathrooms and heat. Numerous workshop and arts spaces, a lare dining hall, a concert room and a wood-floored dance hall. Meals are prepared by Debby (Ma) McClatchey - I believe she said this was her 27th year as camp cook.

The concerts were indeed exceptionally fine this year. It was nice to hear many younger campers taking part as well. Saturday night's concert included two a cappella performances by teenagers (well, I'm not certain how old they actually were but they were very young). Tuesday evening's concert included a family of mom and her three sons (the boys ranged, I would say, from maybe ten to thirteen years old). The two younger boys played recorder and fiddle and the older boy was lead singer. Mom was the guitar player. They sang a wonderful song about radio-active frogs.

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 06:20 PM

Camp harmony? Isn't that a San Francisco barbershop quartet?

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: open mike
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 05:59 PM

this sounds like it was a great way to see the new year in..
where was it held? indoor camping-sounds cozy--like a big slumber
party?

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 05:52 PM

This is our 27th year at Camp Harmony and we generally concur with Radriano but somehow we managed to avoid most of the rain. It just turned out that way. We were in the shower (by popular demand) during the first big downpour and in the above mentioned workshop extravaganza during the second one (which is reported to have included some hail) so we were forced to just sit there and sing and drink ale until the rain stopped. During the third drenching we were singing a capella songs in a cozy room with a toasty fire going and were trapped there until after 2:00 AM. Damn!

It got a little (OK, a lot) muddy at times but we had a wonderful time. We're both a little hoarse and sleep-deprived but are well on our way to recovery.

The evening signup concerts were great. There's an amazing array of talent that attends this campout including about a half dozen choirs which assembled spontaneously at camp and learned one or two songs to perform, a mummers play, an accordian duet, and at least one hurdy-gurdy player.

Other 'catters present included Joe Offer, Riggy, (blessings) Barbara and EADGBE (Ray, that's not right, is it). Maybe we'll hear from them, too.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: radriano
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 11:28 AM

Hey, Mark! Greetings from San Francisco.

Camp Harmony was great. The weather sucked but the camp was great. It rained continuously - and I mean poured - the entire time except for about a half hour on Sunday afternoon. Luckily it's indoor camping so it couldn't dampen our spirits too much.

I always make it a point to go to the four hour extravaganza workshop slot which starts with the ever popular Ale Tasting run by Charlie Fenton. Charlie brings a supply of Anchor Christmas Ale. Every year's ale is a different recipe and he brought samples of the ale from, I think, 1987 through 2002. Next was the Pub Songs workshop run by Riggy followed by the Sea Shanty workshop led by Dick Holdstock.

I didn't make it to any other workshops but had great fun in impromtu sessions and catching up with old friends from various and sundry parts of the US who showed up this year. Not to mention, of course, all the new friends one makes at these events.

Radriano (Richard Adrianowicz)

Subject: So how was Camp Harmony?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 04:11 AM

Hope the weather wasn't too bad and that everybody had a wonderful time. I'm bound and determined to get back there one of these years...I really miss all you guys!

Aloha,
Mark

(Camp Harmony is the annual New Year's gathering of the San Francisco Folk Music Club, and an experience not to be missed.)