NEFFA 2004

Subject: NEFFA 2004
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 11:16 PM

The NEFFA website says the 2004 schedule will be posted at the end of February, which means by next Sunday. However, I have already taken a peek at one of the preliminary grids. I won't say what I saw, but maybe some of the performers would like to say "howdy" in advance of the official announcement, subject to change of course. Midchuck, are you out there?

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 25 Feb 04 - 06:50 AM

Howdy! Unless it's been changed, I'm morris dancing around noonish on Saturday and doing my group sing "Sing for Joy!" at 3 pm Sunday.
I enjoy NEFFA and look forward to seeing my friends this year more than ever!
Allison

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: KathWestra
Date: 25 Feb 04 - 12:58 PM

I'm doing a concert set bright and early (11:00 a.m.) on Saturday. It's called "The Heart's Reasons," and will be a collection of songs and ballads about love (of a person or a place) and lovers and things done in the name of love. A nice broad topic to sing some of my favorites. Hope some of you fellow 'Catters get up early enough to join in on the choruses so I don't feel like the only living morning person in Natick!

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 25 Feb 04 - 01:10 PM

WEll, Susan and I will be there, hawking CDs (and occasional books and videos) at the usual stand, right next to Folk-Legacy. Drop by and say hi.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Midchuck
Date: 25 Feb 04 - 01:34 PM

My beloved upped and hid our copy of the preliminary grid, but IIRC us Woodchucks are playing in a funny-ha-ha songs workshop with Agranoff and I forget who else, on Sunday morning at 11:00, and then we have a set of our own at 2:45 that afternoon, when everyone's tired out and leaving. Or maybe it's the other way around. I hope some people hang in there.

Dick, I'll be glad to come to your booth and sing "Tramps and Hawkers" (the Jim Ringer one), if it'll help your business image.

Peter.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Suffet
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 08:50 PM

Howdy!

The 2004 schedule is up on the NEFFA website. I'll be doing two events this year:

Songs of Scoundrels with Valentine Doyle: Friday 4/23/04, 8:00 to 8:55 PM in the Lyric Room.

Struggle and Protest Songs as part of MacDougal Street Rent Party: Saturday 4/24/04, 10:45 to 11:30 PM in the North Star Room. Heather Lev will be joining us. She is not listed on the all-festival grid, but she is listed on the single day grid for Saturday. April 24, by the way, is the 88th anniversary of the Easter Rising, so maybe I'll get the group to do a Rebel song.

I'll also likely be sitting in as a guest in one or two of my friends' events.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 02:18 AM

What's NEFFA?

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 05:53 AM

Click here to learn about the New England Folk Festival!

Allison

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 10:23 AM

Kellie Allen, Pete Peterson, Susan Sterngold, Mike Resnick will do the Carter Family workshop (been doing it 5-6 years now) at noon on Sunday. Not getting there till about midday Saturday due to commitments on Friday, but looking forward to NEFFA as always. Also looking forward to seeing the 'Chucks with pleasurable anticipation. HUGS

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Midchuck
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 10:47 AM

Oh, good. Pete and Kellie's set comes in between our two instead of conflicting as they usually do.

Note that WR is on at 1:45, not 2:45 as I thought when I posted above.

Pete, is Mike Resnick any relation to Robert Resnick who has the VPR folk show on Sunday?

Peter.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 10:58 AM

Looks like a load of fun, but I'm thinking of going to Augusta at the end of August for an intensive week of learning to write songs.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 12:06 PM

No conflict, WE- this is at the end of April, not August!

Allison

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 04:40 PM

I checked the schedule too-- we might actually get to hear you Woodchucks in performance this year! (I think Susan discussed the difficulties of an early time slot with NEFFA management and may have used the immortal words of David Bromberg "Ten o'clock? At ten o'clock my band is still throwing up!")
I don't think there is any close relation between Robert and Mike Resnick; Mike has one brother, Mark, and three kids none of whom bear that name. I'll ask him when I see him.
REALLY looking forward to jamming, seeing friends,great concerts, goulash and other treats!
see you there, we hope

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Anglo
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 08:12 PM

Robert Resnik is a Resnik not a Resnick. They may be related but you'd probably have to go back a few generations.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Suffet
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 11:36 PM

I just sang The South Coast at CB's 313 Gallery in New York City this past Sunday. It was the first time I ever performed the song in public, and it went really well, especially with Gina Tlamsa on fiddle and Jessica Feinbloom on back-up vocals. It may be a bit of a stretch, but the character Señor Lajano del Castro strikes me as enough of a rake for me to perform the song at my Songs of Scoundrels workshop at NEFFA next month.

By the way, you can make The South Coast incredibly effective by switching from a minor key to the relative major, for example from Am to C, for two verses: the one that begins "Her arms had to tighten around me..." and the next one that begins "We arrived at my cabin at twilight..." Then switch back to the minor. It's an old Kingston Trio trick. Come to my workshop and I'll show it to you!

--- Steve

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 07:15 PM

Refresh- it's coming soon!

Allison

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Songster Bob
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 02:00 AM

Jennifer and I, with my Sidekick Pete Kraemer, are about the last thing Sunday afternoon (4 PM?), doing "Songs of the Land," which we're interpreting freely (we won't be doing "the Farmer is the Man," for instance). I don't know if anyone will still be there by then, and we wouldn't be if we hadn't messed up in applying and not put a limit on how late we can be.

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Suffet
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 10:48 PM

The very last musical event, from 4:30 to 5:30 PM on Sunday, is the Closing Sing Around, led once again by the versatile Allen Hopkins. There are also three dance events this year that go to 5:30 Sunday afternoon.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 12:35 AM

I'll try to make it to NEFFA for Friday and Saturday this year, but on Sunday I will be at the March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C. I know how important the festival is to many Mudcatters, but for me it's not even a close call. Women's lives and the reproductive freedom of all Americans are infinitely more important than any folk festival. For information on the April 25th march, click here.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Apr 04 - 02:28 PM

Refresh - down to 5 or 6 days. It looks like Kris and I will only be there Sunday, but we'll make a long day of that day...

Peter

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Suffet
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 11:52 AM

Peter,

I have no scheduled events on Sunday, so I'll try to find you and Kris and say hello. Marilyn and I considered heading for Washington on Sunday, but my group, MacDougal Street Rent Party, has a set from 10:45 to 11:30 Saturday night. That's what you get for checking off the box that says any when they ask for your time preferences!

--- Steve

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 10:07 PM

I'll be dancing with Red Herring Morris at 10am on Sunday; happy to meet any Mudcatters there!

D.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 08:27 PM

Drat- I missed you, Desdemona! Sandy Paton said you were asking after me. I didn't see your post until now.
It was a fine time. I had more fun at NEFFA than I had expected, as it was my first since Byron died. But it's a place where I see old friends, make lots of music, and dance when I don't know what else to do. I had a few concertina adventures- John Roberts "baptized" my new-to-me 'tina with a tune and a song, and gave it his seal of approval... I played my first morris tune and then impetuously joined in on "Highland Mary" with 3 accordions... showed it to Ken Sweeney who squeezed a tune, too (why do they all complain about the tight hand straps? they fit me just fine!)... went to a workshop on West Gallery Music (from the time of Thomas Hardy) and turned out to be not only the only concertinist but the only instrumentalist in the alto section!
I didn't get to sing enough, but since I was leading one of the closing workshops it was good I saved my voice.
Didn't get to hear many other Mudcatters perform, but I collected hugs from Sandy and Caroline Paton, Karen K, Dick Greenhaus and Susan DT, the Woodchucks, Jeri, Anglo (who dances a delightful bouree, and I'm so fried right now I'm afraid I'll forget others- sorry if I do!

Now it's just 2 months to Old Songs....

Allison

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 09:20 PM

I'm sorry to have missed you as well, but happy to hear you enjoyed yourself...one day at a time, as they say.

Unfortunately, I was only able to spend one day at NEFFA this year, and so didn't do/see as much as I'd have liked, but had splendid fun overall in the limited time I had (and it was my first NEFFA dancing; happy to have survived & enjoyed myself into the bargain!).

I'll look forward to seeing you another time; take good care!

D.

BTW, "Highland Mary" is perhaps my very most favouritest morris tune---I'm totally impressed!

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Songster Bob
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 01:30 AM

Well, our set (not officially the last one, but the last for our room, anyway) went off pretty well, despite that I was an hour and a half on the way when I realized I'd left two instruments behind. I was able to borrow a uke from Evy Mayer (ukelady on eBay) and a mandolin from Mike Holmes (of Mugwumps and Banjo Camp North, and also my best man when I married Jennifer). I had an offer of a mandolin loan from one of the Woodchucks and from Charlie Bean, but it worked out better to borrow from Mike, because we ended up going to dinner with Mike and Rebecca and their daughter, Stacy, and catching up on old times.

So with the borrowed instruments for three numbers, we pulled it off just fine. We did:

Penney's Farm (gtr & bjo)
Sweet Forget-Me-Not (gtr & uke)
Last Trip Home (two gtrs)
Dust Bowl Refugee (gtr & mdo)
Diamond Joe (gtr & mdo)
Canyon del Perro (two gtrs)
Home, Lads, Home (a.k.a. Horses) (a cappella)
and Cowboy's Life (one of mine) (two gtrs)

We had "Farmer's Boy" (a cappella) on the list but decided not to do it.

We saw a few of the many sets, more on Sunday than on Saturday, as it turned out.

Pete and I liked the Carter Family workshop
I liked the Stephens and Lamarca set, and Jennifer thought Westra's set was tops, too.
We didn't get to either Woodchuck performance, though I think Jennifer caught part of the funny songs workshop as she picked up the uke from Evy for me.
We didn't do any dancing, but heard lots of dance tunes and saw lots of "glowing" dancers (men sweat, but ladies 'glow') having a wonderful time.

This year's festival seemed a little less crowded than last year's, but that is good, 'cause the halls are bad enough with a smaller crowd, and impossible with a big 'un. The weather cooperated, except for the drive back part, when it rained all day (Monday).

Any other reports?

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2004
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 07:12 AM

I was only there for Saturday, but what a long day it was. I started off with breakfast as soon as the doors opened at 9:30 in the morning and I didn't leave until the last session was over at 11:30 at night. Pleasant surprises included:

Ralph Bodington doing Old Time Banjo Tunes. I never heard Ralph before, and I must say his easy going style is truly masterful. He sang a few times, even though this was a "tunes" workshop. He has such a wonderfully rich voice that I wish this had been a "tunes and songs" performance instead.

Takako Nagumo singing Japanese Folk Songs. This is the real thing, a Japanese ex-patriate who came to L.A. when she was seven and sings the songs she learned at home from her mother. Takako has a crystal clear voice, but when she is not singing or speaking Japanese her Val Gal accent comes through. What a charmer!

Dan and Molly Lynn Watts, Tony Saletan, and Sylvia Miskoe in Spanish Civil War Songs and Letter. Dan and Molly read letters written between Dan's parents while his father served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Tony and Sylvia provided musical interludes with songs of that era, such as Venga Jaleo and Freiheit, on which they invited the audience to sing along. Absolutely wonderful!

Fisken and Groves doing Work and Out of Work. These are a couple of my favorite festival circuit folkies, so maybe I shouldn't list them as pleasant surprises. But they did an exceptionally fine set, and their on-stage patter makes me think of them as the Son and Cher of folkdom.

MacDougal Street Rent Party and Heather Lev closing out the night with a sing-along session of Struggle and Protest Songs. These were old favorites like Carry It On and Hold the Line interspersed with some newer songs, mostly from or about the labor and civil rights movements. And in true movement fashion they improvised great harmonies,such as on their rendition of Pat Humphries' Never Turning Back. The really big surprise was to see that Takako Nagumo is part of their group.