Where did I put that essay?

After writing about my grand time at the Central Ohio Folk Festival, I had every intent to detail the rest of the festivals: "What I did on my summer vacation." Welp, here it is, the end of November and I haven't done that, NOR detailed the fabulousness of my Fall vacation either!

Bad Blogger, no cookie.

This summer I went to more folk festivals and did more folk music oriented things than I've done in years. Waiting so long to document it, without programs in hand, means I'm likely to forget more than I remember, So I'll start with the highlights, and backfill with specifics later.

Dulci-More Festival, Memorial Weekend
I've known about this festival for about as long as its been going on, but never attended till this year. This required investing in a new tent, as it'd been about a decade since my last camping, and that tent had been a garage sale give away last year, all sorta gooey and sticking together. The draw this year was again having some headliners who were friends: Sally Rogers and Doofus. I've known Sally for decades, since first meeting her at Northern Illinois University's New Prairie Cafe, where she appeared with Claudia Schmidt, and among lovely songs and witty repartee, gave a demonstration of the proper way to blow your nose complete with a spitton like vase to put the ...er... products... into. Most impressed that she could sing that well while obviously harboring a snottycold. In later years I saw Sally when we'd present her in Cleveland, or at Folk Alliances. I knew she was a beader & I decided to clean up some of my karma by FINALLY fixing a necklace she'd gotten from me at FA in Washington DC, that I'd promised to fix when a strand came loose. I had quite a bit of a chance to spend time just chatting and catching up with Sally. We shared our sadness at Mary's death and the sorrows of the Paton family. In her mainstage set, Sally dedicated a song to Mary and another friend of hers who had also died recently. With Sally's own recorder, I digitized? (wanted to say taped, but that wouldn 't be accurate anymore, would it?) - recorded her set, so David could hear it. I also went home with some of Howie's wine for myself and for David.

Along with my camping, I'd talked Betsy into going along, with her larger car hauling the EZup canopy and some of the grilling equipment. When I got to the camp in central Ohio, it was an incredibly hilly place, and looking to hike up that hill a couple times a day was a bit daunting with bad knees. The new tent went up very nicely, just like the instructions said. Betsy arrived after I'd gotten it up and things inside, and just BARELY got her tent up when the booming I'd taken to be someone shooting in the distance turned out to be thunder and a frogstrangler storm coming in from the east (a direction weather goes TO up where I live, not where it comes FROM!). I was dry and comfortable in my tent - light to see, book to read, air mattress cushy below me. What was NOT so great was how I'd sited the tent. I'd forgotten to look very carefully at the land, and what I ended up with was a dry tent proper, but this big new thing came with a sort of screened in porch room on the front, with mesh gutters along the inside edges. THAT was ankle deep in water that never came in the tent. The weather cleared up, mostly, the festival was a blast. Doofus, made up of two couples I know from somewhat different contexts weren't only fantastic on stage, but they gave incredibly good workshops in group playing and autoharp. Betsy, with lap dulcimer and fiddle was on a different track entirely through the workshops, and had praise for much of what she attended, as well. (who could NOT find Sally to be wonderful?)

Some of the other "stars" were wonderful folks unknown to me before this festival. A mulitinstrumentalist named Timothy Seaman was camped just the other side of Betsy. We breakfasted with him and vastly enjoyed his company and playing. In one of the song circle sessions he'd brought his flue and improvised around the melody as we sang. At the request of one of the dulcimer players, we did a reprise of Shenandoah, with just voices and his flute - magic! Susan Trump was also a revelation. Turns out she's buddies with Phil & Margaret and I delighted in her performances.

Ohio Scottish Games
A regular June event, and my first time ever making it. Made the most of it, too. Saw Alasdair Frasier for the first time & totally blown away. Attended a session where he taught a tune for a couple hours and watched Betsy get up on stage and boogie to it, as she'd not brought her fiddle. A roup of sisters who'd played at Dulci-more, were a great band, with two harps, whistles and concertina and an age range from 8 to 20something. Got to be audience for Tim Wallace, who was running one stage. Saw some pipers I know march by, kilted up. Lovely time

Raccoon County Folk Festival
Held in a historical village museum setting, this was the first time I'd been to this long running festival, and a number of friends have played it in previous years. There was some wonderful oldtime music coming from some delightfully young performers. The Akron Ceili band was a bit of fun, and I very much liked their attitude of encouraging anyone to come to their weekly ceili sessions. I resolved to take them up in this invitation. Even though it rained a bit through much of the festival, folks put up umbrellas and stayed. Got to see people I've not seen 'round for awhile. Lovely time.

Music in the Valley
Always a good time to be had at the annual Hale Farm event. This year, Mud in Yer Eye didn't have a place set up so much as many band members joining a jam session with old time players. I wanted to find some folks to sing with, and sat off by myself, with a few friends coming by now and then. Had a chance to do some autoharp playing with some folks I know from the extended MIYE family, including singing. Then off to Paul & Laura's bash where I saw MORE folks I hadn't seen in ages. Seeing folks whose kids were about the age THEY were when I first met them had me feeling powerful old. Actually getting out an instrument there and playing it for the first time, incredibly liberating. I went with Ruth to this second part of the day, and had flashbacks to all the wonderful "girl trips" we'd taken in the past.

Cleveland's Irish Cultural Festival
July. HOT. very hot. Mike was MCing the gazebo stage again, and spent some time hanging out with him. I got to gag at the Irish Sopranos (could NOT get out fast enough when they started into Danny Boy) I'd plunked meself down at the wrong stage with my lunch! gaaaah! Did get to see some lovely music before the skies opened up - and they did. Wicked nasty gray sky, rolled in over the hot hot hot in the sun and just DUMPED water. I dashed to the canopy behind the stage and helped get instruments and instrument cases under cover and stood chatting with the dancers who'd been there to dance to Cherish the Ladies. Glad I went, but left before the evening could get rainier.

more.. definitely more to the summer... I threaten to edit this to be more complete. Sue me if I don't, eh?