I spent the weekend at the New Bedford Folk Festival. Saturday started early; Mike picked me up at 6 AM. Sure I did that to work the election and when I volunteer at WFUV, but my body will always object. We talked about stopping at the Dunkin’ Donuts at my house so I didn’t even have coffee. I forgot about that as soon as I was in the car. I had a good excuse; I hadn’t had coffee yet. We were making great time until we picked up Bob near Providence. We missed the exit and through a series of unfortunate events lost about 45 minutes. Instead of getting to the Festival 45 minutes early we arrived just before the start. We then had to walk to Zeiterion where the first workshop we wanted to go to was and also where we got our wristbands.
As I feared there were issues with my getting mine. I was told I’d be on the guest list, but I wasn’t on the list at the box office. The person there told me to go to performer check-in. I thought that odd, but I was a festival comp, so it was not totally unreasonable. I then had to find that. Luckily, I ran into Crys Matthews, who IS a performer, and she was looking for the same place. A volunteer led her and therefore me to the musician check-in. Crys checked in but I couldn’t. I was told to go back to the box office. While waiting there another volunteer saw I was having problems and talked to me. I showed her my email from the person that books the festival she went inside to check. When she came back, she told me to just show the email to the box office person. This time I was just given a wrist band. Organizing these things is difficult and everyone is a volunteer. This is why I get anxious until I’m in.
I ended up missing the first two songs of the workshop, one by RUNA and one by Dansmall. I was there for the first song by The Kennedys who always lead the first workshop. The workshops at New Bedford are the specialty. It’s not just artists in the round, a format I’m not partial too. The artists are encouraged to play with each other. The Kennedys are not just great entertainers but great musicians and are masters of this skill. Jamming is a separate skill. Everyone on that stage has it. RUNA is the band I was most looking forward to seeing at the festival. I am the one that came up with the name for their fans, RUNAtics. I was a fan before they even had the name, I saw them at one of Cheryl Prashker’s All About the Drums shows. They were the last band I saw put on a full show before COVID-19 hit but this was my first time seeing them since. I’ve seen the Kennedys. They play New York often. Dansmall was new to me, they are a British duo, fiddle and guitar. They do mainly trad songs and covers and they do them very well.
Then I was off to meet Emily, Maggie, and Cate for lunch, my first food of the day. We had our usual pizza at Brick, that’s our place. We were joined by Emily’s friend and her two kids. I am a terrible person, I have known and liked them for years, they camp with us at Falcon Ridge, and I’m totally blanking on their names though I know exactly who they are. This is why I remind people I’m an idiot, so people know it’s not personal.
After lunch I was off to see the band, I most wanted to check out, E.T.E. They are a Quebecois band. Quebec is always well-represented at New Bedford. They did not disappoint. I wrote and asked them to send me music to play on Gord’s Gold. They were joined by one of my big favorites, Emerald Rae, and McClane and VanNorstrand. The last were two thirds of a duo, the third member, Cummings tested positive for COVID-19. The festival was snake-bit. Several other artists had to cancel because of COVID-19 and Bourque Émissaires were stopped at the border because one page of Benoit Bourque’s passport was torn. Benoit and the Kennedys are the two institutions at the festival. The Kennedys always open it, and Benoit leads the Celtic extravaganza that closes it. COVID-19 was the gift that kept on giving as Cheryl Prashker tested positive on Sunday morning and had to go home. I had of course hugged her. I’ve been testing every day since then, I’m negative and symptomless. Despite all this the Festival wasn’t good, it was fantastic.
After that I went to Dunkin’ in search of coffee. On the way there I approached the Purchase Street Stage from behind. I heard amazing singing in French. I wondered who this fantastic Quebecois band was. When I got to where I could see I saw it wasn’t a Quebecois band, it was RUNA singing in French. The amazing singer was Shannon Lambert-Ryan. After my coffee I went back to catch the rest of the workshop they were doing with two other favorites, Bruce Molsky and Tony Trischka. They are New Yorkers that I see often. Both are very much in my social circle but somehow don’t know them personally. I introduced myself after the set.
back to the Zeiterion to see Cheryl Wheeler followed by The Great American Songbook: What’s in it, what should be in it workshop with The Kennedys, Susan Werner, and Dori Rubbicco. The latter proved to be a highlight even though it was all covers. Why? The performances were amazing. I watched that with Joe and and … and, …, and, once again I’m an idiot, Joe and his girlfriend who I know well. My brain refuses to cooperate. If you wanted to design a workshop for Joe and me, it would feature the Kennedys and Susan Werner. They were musically great, they were funny, they were charming, they were entertaining. Dori is a local and she held her own.
I stayed at the Z for RUNA. When I first saw them, I wanted to follow them around in a psychedelic VW microbus. I still want to do that. The core of the band is Shannon Lambert-Ryan on lead vocals, bodhran, and step dancing, Fionán de Barra on guitar and vocals, and Cheryl Prashker on Drums. The current lineup has Jake James on fiddle and step dancing, and Caleb Edwards on mando and vocals. For the festival fiddler Maggie White subbed for Caleb. Maggie used to be in the band. I was surprised to see her that first set.
I stayed at the Z for the final workshop with John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, Susan Werner, Garnet Rogers, and Catie Curtis. Then Mike, Bob, and I went off in search of dinner. We wanted Portuguese, New Bedford has a large Portuguese population and that’s a cuisine we don’t have much of in New York. Most places were closed but with the help of Google we found exactly what we were looking for, an excellent neighborhood restaurant not geared towards the tourists. The prices were reasonable and the food great.
I didn’t mean to write this much. I’ll have to write a separate entry about Sunday. Then I have to write about the Cyclones game I went to yesterday. This is what happens when you fall behind. I was going to go out tonight for classical music but I’m going to stay home and see if I can write more.
Wise Madness 