It’s NERFA – what can I say? This time around neither Heather or I are feeling it. Actually, we’ve got a lot of friends that aren’t feeling it. A lot of people are coming directly from gigs and racing up to attend the North Eastern Regional Folk Alliance conference, and I’m beginning to debate the strategy there.
For the last two years we’ve come up to the NERFA conference, met great people, performed marvelous shows. The first year was a DJ showcase and a couple of guerillas. Last year was a main stage “formal” showcase and a good number of guerillas. And this year, nothing official, but five guerilla showcases over the course of 2 nights. I believe it had originally been six, but we had a gig on the Thursday night. It sounds like a LOT of people had a gig on Thursday night.
And Thursday, despite being the night where the whole thing kicks off, doesn’t generally have too much to it. But it’s very clearly the run-up day. We figured we were old hat professionals by now and didn’t need that run-up time. Hoooow wrong we were!
After a very late gig, after a very long drive, an hour shy of the Hudson Valley Resort & Spa we encountered almost completely stopped traffic. We didn’t have a way around it, we sat and sat. Slowly we crept up to the flashing lights and encountered one of the worst single-car accidents I’ve ever seen. An SUV (?) that had shot off the almost-perfectly straight highway into the grassy median, perhaps over a hundred feet, clearly rolling the whole way. The ground was torn up in a straight path and the car had been rolled up like dough. Plenty of police officers, milling around. A lot of DOT types peering through tripod-mounted ocular devices. A single ambulance just hanging out. When there’s no hurry amongst the first-responders you know things are grim.
Jake introduces us to a new friend. Within moments of posting this picture on Facebook we’d aquired a bottle for ourselves remotely. And of course there was at least one comment on how it’s not strong enough. Yes random citizen, we’re all impressed, you’re very manly… now… back to things with fun flavours…. NERFA time = catching up with Pesky J Nixon time! Here’s Heather and Jake Bush at NERFA at the Hudson Vallery Resort and Spa in Kerhonkson, NY.
It looked like the vehicle had been peeled like an orange to get people out, but it didn’t look like there’d been any space left for people to occupy. It really threw a pall over my mood and I couldn’t get it out of my head for the rest of the night.
We finally rolled into NERFA around 7 or so, just in time to catch the formals – except I’d gotten us a hotel about 20 minutes away and wanted to check in before we were done for the night (4am or so) – so Heather stuck around and soaked in the scene while I drove to the hotel and back. *I* finally made it to NERFA at a little after 8pm, checked in with the friendly table guy (none other than fabulous singer/songwriter Dave Dersham) and immediately realized I wasn’t completely in the mood for meeting new people.
One of my other favourites – and another band that just really impressed me with their consumate skill, energy and slightly METAL sound… Harpeth Rising. The Sultans of String playing a quad showcase at NERFA. They were an interesting mix of stuff, very trancey. It was the first time I’d ever seen a Blackbird in the wild – that’s the interestingly shaped guitar the guy’s playing. This was the second-in-place when I was hoping to find a carbon fiber guitar that I liked the sound of. The only thing that put me to CA rather than Blackbird was the sound chamber in the nexk of the latter made their necks hard to bend. Now their ukuleles though… they’re AMAAAAZING.
Fortunately, there were plenty of old friends – and uncharacteristically – I remembered a lot of names! I ended up missing all the final showcases for the night, hanging out with tons of other people, settling in, thinking and photographing, listening to people jamming in the lobby (actually, a very strict no-no but I figured since they were there I’d listen). I ran across Bob Gramann and Jake Bush and Ethan Baird and the Spuyten Duyvillains… Greg Klyma was in the mix, the Lovely Bethel Steele… more than I can mention or remember. But even this influx of friends didn’t make me feel ready for NERFA… it just made me feel like gathering them all around me and hanging out.
I think I was really feeling legitimately homesick for these friends – and didn’t want to have to ruin it with business. It’s something to think about.
In any case, over the course of the next many hours, Heather and I played four different showcases. Many, many thanks to the Pie and Whiskey Peeps, and the RIDE Room and the Buffalo Room. They made us feel welcome, we rocked out for them, good times and tunes were perpetrated. I played the Hell out of my guitar (or at least the tuning) and we jangled on into the night.
Note to self : D’Addario EXPs are STILL the best strings. Dean Markley Helixes, though well-reviewed and my favourite brand as a budding bass player, stretch forEVER and then break.
By 2.30am we’d played a lot of music, seen a lot of music, and were exhausted enough to head back to the hotel. I still couldn’t sleep – I was up till about 5 – but we were able to take it really easy today. Got up, ate a pear over the bathroom sink and we went for a little walk. I had to get some superglue and put my ebow back together. Heather did some work on her Martin. Slowly we got ourselves into NERFA gear and made our way back to the conference.
Time for music! We saw amazing people. Let me just shoot down the list of people that I saw and Loved – it’s by no means complete: Comas (holy crap, one of the more bad ass Celtic groups I’ve ever seen), Natalia Zuckerman (have known about her for years, but she’s amazing in person), the Boxcar Lilies (always wonderful), Sultans of String, Louise Mosrie (still have to fight autocorrect), Harpeth Rising (stunning string band), Darryl Purpose, Connor Garvey, Rorie Kelly, Roy Book Binder, Amanda Pearcy, Matt Harlan…. The list could just meander on forever.
Matt Harlan’s special – we ran across him one of the first times we were out to Texas. I think we found him at a bar in Houston (Cosmic Bar?) and then again playing together at a showcase in Austin at SXSW. We have a song from him on a minimally produced CD about surviving Katrina and it’s a real stunner of a tune. His voice is gravelly and beautiful and far wiser than his age would imply, reminding me heavily of Jeffrey Foucault. We haven’t seen him since and HE was at NERFA this year. We caught up with him in a showcase of Texas singer/songwriters. He was playing in the round with three other performers and as luck would have it he was last in line. We were tight on time and worried we wouldn’t catch him, and ALSO knew that we’d only be able to catch one tune… waiting through the other performers built up the tension… but when he opened his mouth his voice hadn’t changed and it was gritty and beautiful once again.
It’s a huge community, but a small, small world.
