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09 Dec 98 - 12:49 AM (#48653) Subject: Long Gone Fests From: Dan Keding After reading some of the great stories on the Fox Hollow thread I started thinking of some of the other great festivals that are now memories. I remember The North Country Folk Festival up in the Upper Penninsula. I played there a couple times and have memories of great audiences, super singing, wonderful after hours parties, a softball game between performers and volunteers, and sometimes bizarre, sometimes super accomadations. I also remember the Clayville Music & Storytelling Festival here in Springfield. Il. Anyone else have some great festival memories from the old days?? |
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09 Dec 98 - 01:10 AM (#48655) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Sandy Hi, Dan! Festivals long gone, eh? Well, Bob Zentz put on some dandies down at Old Dominion in Norfolk, VA. Folk-Legacy itself did five small festivals in Hartford, CT, (with all the hard work being done by the Domlers of the Sounding Board) at which the singing of the audiences was absolutely wonderful! Art Thieme referred to one of those when he talked in the F-L thread about my Laskin guitar. But how about some festival horror stories, too? I was told of one very recent one at which John Robert and Tony Barrand were expected to present a traditional set while the crew was dragging chairs out of the room to make room for dancing to the Ska band that was to be the next act. Then there was the one up in New Hampshire (Waterville?) on a blistering summer day. They had brilliantly set up the stage under corrugated metal, creating a perfect solar oven. My wife, Caroline, and Joan Sprung nearly collapsed. I'd enjoy reading of others -- good and bad. Sandy |
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11 Dec 98 - 12:37 PM (#49021) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Tim Jaques tjaques@netcom.ca The Atlantic Folk Festival, in Hardwoodlands, Nova Scotia. It ceased operation in about 1981. It was quite a celebration. |
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11 Dec 98 - 02:46 PM (#49045) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Liam's Brother Back in the early '80s, Cilla Fisher & Artie Trezise and I used to have the same agent, Ed MacIntosh. As a result, we did a lot of gigs together and came to know each other well. Ed booked us at the first and only Queens Festival. (Queens is best known as the homeland of Archie Bunker.) It was in August, I believe. We played in the afternoon. I sang with Charlie O'Hegarty (of The Starboard List) and a couple of other guys. The temperature was 104F as we set off. Artie had a rented car and I had my own. I slowed down as we came up to the park where the festival was to be held. There were no parking spaces. Artie pulled up alonside and asked whether this was the place. I said yes but we'd have to look for parking. Artie suggested we drive up to the stage. Living in NYC, the thought of driving my car down a narrow path crowded with elderly people had never occurred to me. Artie looked me cooly in the eye and said, "Frank Sinantra dinnie walk to his gigs, Dan." I've never forgotten those words of wisdom. |
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11 Dec 98 - 07:08 PM (#49071) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Chet W. I miss a lot of the festivals of the 70's and early 80's, those that ceased and those that became the new age equivalent of Martha Stewart. One of my favorites was the Black Mountain Festival (in Black Mountain, NC) which continues under that name. I had some of the best musical times of my life there. I met my wife there. But somehow it switched from being fun to being eco-kitsch and sometimes downright nasty. Where you could once dance all night without worrying about your technique too much, now if you're not up to snuff they throw elbows like a crazed Charles Barkley. I tried to take a lesson from this, but I'm not sure what it is except we all have more in common than we thought. It's like what Garrison Kiellor once said about his ancestors, that they came to America to enjoy religious persecution beyond what the law allowed in their home countries. Alas, here I go being controversial again, but I keep hoping I'm not alone in missing the pure Fun of music, dancing, fraternizing, and frolicking all night, before orthodoxies stepped in and turned the guillotine on us all. If anyone wants to start a "retro" old-time music fest, count me in. Meekly, Chet |
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11 Dec 98 - 08:53 PM (#49097) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Art Thieme Sandy, I'll never forget about 30 people sleeping all over the furniture in a large room in that church in Hartford where the Folk Legacy Festival was held. A certain "neurotic, arrogant blind guy", who should have his own thread with that as the title (Tales of that blind, neurotic, arrogant blind guy) woke up early one morning in that room. Being blind, he didn't realize the room was filled with people. He stood up and removed all his clothing and started yelling about a wallet being stolen! Half the room woke up and stared unbelieving at him parading around nude and agitated. Several of us told him to SHUT UP AND GO BACK TO SLEEP !! We knew he'd pulled that "stolen wallet scam" at too many other festivals to take him seriously. Those other festivals had taken up a collection for him based on him being blind and broke. But we weren't gonna go for that one yet again! Later, I felt sorry for him and drove him into the large Eastern metropolis where he lived. All I can say is that being guided to that huge city by a blind man was an experience I'll NEVER FORGET!!! We took Broadway ALL THE WAY FROM HARTFORD!!!!! Ah, nostalgia!?! Tales on the road as a folksinger?!? (There's a whole other thread!) Art |
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11 Dec 98 - 10:43 PM (#49111) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Sandy Paton Right you are, Art. He deserves a thread of his own. Some of his problems make it hard for many of us to see his good points. And there are several. Back to fonder memories: Those first couple of doozies at the U. of Chicago! Frank Warner bringing Frank Proffitt up from North Carolina. Richard Chase coming up on the bus with Horton Barker. Uncle Dick got a free bus trip out of that one by being Barker's guide (Horton Barker was blind, folks). Frank Proffitt told me later that he watched the Stanley Brothers on the stage, with their fancy white hats and big resonator banjos, and wondered if he ought to try to put in a few extra-fancy licks on his old, home-made fretless banjer. Wisely, he decided: "No, I'll just go out there and do what I do. If they don't like me, well, I can always just go back home and say nothin' about it. I didn't tell anybody back home where I was goin', anyway." Another favorite Frank Proffitt story: One evening, up in the little cabin on the hill behind his home there in "Pick-Britches Valley," I asked him what he thought about "Scruggs picking" on the banjo. He thought about it for a long, quiet moment. Then he replied, "Well, I'd like to be able to do it, and then not do it. He was an amazing mountain man. Gone too early. Sandy (old nostalgia himself) |
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12 Dec 98 - 05:55 PM (#49200) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Duane D. There was a fine folk fest run for quite a few years in New Jersey, called the Middletown Folk Festival, run by the Levine family. I have many good memories of song collecting and the workshops. Dan Smith was somewhat of a regular there. The last one I attended was probably around 1975. I attended what I believe was the first Champlain Valley Folk Music Festival, held in a park near Vergennes, Vermont, some years back. I camped with a bunch of fellow folkies from NJ in Button Bay State Park nearby. This fest seemed to have quite an expansive list of performers for the admission price. I remember seeing and hearing Gordon Bok (solo), Margarite McArthur and family, Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis, and lots more folks. I got a flier for the following year's fest, which seemed greatly scaled down and then I never heard anything further of this fest. Does anyone out there know if it's still in existence? Regards, Duane D. |
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12 Dec 98 - 08:54 PM (#49211) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Bill D The Middletown festival was one of the first festivals I went to on the east coast of the USA after leaving Kansas...(and I was only there one time,,,did the 'sleeping on the floor' bit..(Wally MacNow of Camsco music slept in the corner opposite me). I met Maggie Pierce there...*grin*..it was easy...I was standing by a tree and she *whooshed* up behind me and took my arm, saying that she was having a workshop in 10 minutes, and didn't I want to come to it? Well, I sort of allowed myself to be escorted along ...and was delighted. (Alistair Anderson was there that year, too...not a bad introduction to concertinas for a boy from Kansas) But my REAL memory was the guy who sold records from a big van with shelves! I was record hungry in those days, and he had EVERYTHING...Leader & Trailer, Folk-Legacy...stuff I had never heard of...I started picking...and the pile grew larger...and he went & got me a box...then a 2nd box..and as I picked more, he lowered the price per record, so I counted my cash and picked some more!! I think I ended up getting 30-35 records at a bit over $4 each! And I even sold one for him when someone asked if he knew of a recording of a certain song, I mentioned it was on the Sara Grey w/Ed Trickett Folk-Legacy disc..!!Boy, did I increase my knowlege & music database that year! (1978, I guess) |
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12 Dec 98 - 09:16 PM (#49214) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Barry Finn Duane, the Champlain Valley Folk Fest. is going geat. Went to only one, a yr 1/2 ago. It seemed like the best kept secret in New England. It seemed that half the audience were performers themselves come for some R&R & great music. Barry |
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12 Dec 98 - 11:09 PM (#49222) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Sandy Paton Darn! I've lost this message twice, trying to get back to Joe's instructions on how to create a hot link for you. So I'll just plunge ahead in my beginner's way. The Champlain Festival is still alive, but not drawing the audiences it should. I can't tell you why, since it's certainly one of the very best festivals in New England, if not in the country. Lots of great fiddling, etc. They have a web site at www.cvfest.together.com. Check 'em out.(Sorry, I can't make that a hot link for you yet. I'm still learning, slowly.) Another excellent festival, perhaps even better for lovers of traditional songs who want many opportunities to "sing along," is the Old Songs festival at the Altamont Fair Grounds near Albany. Bill and Andy Spence put that on, and it's almost a continuation of Fox Hollow. They have a web site, too. You know, you can reach a slew of festivals via the links page on the Folk-Legacy web site (www.folklegacy.com). Go to the bottom of any of our pages and click on "links." You'll find more hot links than you'll ever want to explore! Sandy (Folk-Legacy's resident folk fogey) |
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13 Dec 98 - 08:22 AM (#49241) Subject: RE: Long Gone Fests From: Susan of DT The Champlain Valley Festival is great and is now on the campus of U Vermont in Burlington, not far from the lake site. I wish it were still at the lake! It was absolutely beautiful on the shores of the lake. We go every year since the lineup of performers is always wonderful. The Levines no longer run the Middletown (NJ) folk festival, but they still organize "hoots" every month or so. |