Today has been a torture of allergens. My eyes are reddened and tired, and my head is full of the cushioning, gurgling feeling of mucus, and my voice is nasal and pathetic. Benadryl, my Lovely saviour, replaces the off-balance feeling I get from having my ears stuffed up with drug-induced drowsiness. It’s a bad day to be my nose. I have a penis joke I was sort of thinking of putting here, but my internal censor is working for the moment.
We’ve done so much over the past weekend, starting with going to see Sense of Wonder. Saturday we got up early and headed over to the Takoma Park Folk Festival.
Takoma Park is such a strange place – fantastic houses with surprising sprays of ivy and heavily leaded glass, and a very Green Party kind of population. A place where I can take an evil glee by turning on Rush Limbaugh, turning up the radio, and driving through with my windows down, just to see the whole place erupt in riotous chaos. However, I would not dare slow for stoplights. The place is open-minded to a fault… about open-mindedness, the ideal place for a folk festival – and at 28 years, one of the longest-running ones there is.
Anywho, a perfect day for it – not too hot, sunny (allergy Hell) and the world came to Takoma Park to see music. We were scheduled as part of a Showcase competition: Out of all the entrants, we and nine other acts were chosen to compete for a highlighted hour-long spot in next year’s festival. We were in a line-up including really fantastic acts, including Bill Mulroney and his new “Second Wind Band”, Mark Sylvester (Sense of Wonder’s bass player), Richard Broadbent (a wonderful storytelling songwriter that we keep running across) and Gregory Lygon (he was the ideal artist to follow us – percussive, but relaxed, clean – a strong player, I was pretty transfixed by his first tune). It was some pretty strong competition, and I must admit, I wasn’t expecting much of a response, as I tend to have pretty strong opinions on what a panel of judges will want at a folk festival… I was pretty surprised to win! So surprised that I wasn’t even paying attention when they announced the awards. Heather had to yell for me through the PA… sigh.
I didn’t get to see as many of the other performers as I would’ve liked – after our slot I made sure to catch Tinsmith, but other than that, pretty much lost track of time. I realized that the food in the hospitality room seemed to change pretty regularly, and where once there was pizza and salad and cookies, there was then pasta and bread and brownies, and later still, wraps and baklava and blondies. It was hot outside, and I sort of lost track of time just seeing what they’d bring out next. Plus there was a pick up Irish jam, and that weird Washington Post dog… so there was entertainment enough inside.
Tinsmith was on form, full of tuning and bad jokes – and incredible music, of course. I really like the addition of Avril, and despite the unending sound difficulties, I still got enough out of it to assure myself that she’s still one of the best players on the planet.
Later still, I got a chance to see the unspellable Lisa Moscatiello. I’ve heard her name often enough, and I think I’ve met her a couple of times, but I’ve never seen her play – I would’ve remembered. Dave Chappell, her guitarist, was everything that I Love in an electric guitarist – subtle, with incredible tone, very Mark Knopfler… (flashback of nifflers). I sat transfixed.
So, exhausted from a sunny day of audio and visual input, we made our way out to Arlington, where Firedean had asked us to join him for a couple of songs. I don’t know that I would’ve said yes (knowing that we’d be coming from a festival) except that Austin Stahl’s “Private Eleanor” was going to be opening.
I’ve long admired Austin’s music, and would still argue that the hand-crafted “Deciduous” is one of the finest creations of the audio world – but I’ve long feared the full band, as I know Austin has a sort of pop aesthetic that I don’t get along with. And sure enough, the first couple of songs seemed to confirm my fears…
But then he fell into it – and it was amazing. So much passion, so much etheric energy… I was really impressed by the whole thing. A perfect mix – just a little bit punk… but as always – his vocals were too quiet. Sigh.
