September 8th, 2024. A Good Week + Takoma Park Folk Festival.
Started off this week with a truly marvelous open mic at Morsbergers. One of my favourite not-so-new-to-me artists Mike G (who apparently had come out to Teavolve years ago, but I didn’t remember from back then) rocking out with a new-to-performing drummer, Charlie. They fit one another really well giving Mike’s kinda Soul Coughing vibe the groove he really needed. It was a good night. Monday we played on Summer’s Farm for their Sunflower Festival. When the weather’s foul we wonder why the Hell we do this to ourselves, but this week the weather was PERFECT and we had a Lovely little crowd and a wonderful time jumping on stuff and jumping off stuff and occasionally even playing our instruments.
It’s a bright sunshiney morning, threatening perfect weather for the 40-somethingth Takoma Park Folk Festival. I’m tired, didn’t sleep well, but I’m up. The cat is clearly eager for the day, up for scroffling and breakfast, basking in sunbeams and ready to go back to bed, but alas – we’ve got to leap into action soon.
This past week has been a long one. Last Sunday running my open mic, it was a HUGE night with a lot of great performances and a house drummer. Monday the Sunflower Festival. Tuesday was Takoma SPARK, Wednesday Hank Dietle’s. Thursday we had off but Friday was Worman’s Mill and last night Monocacy Brewing – two back-to-back nights of perfect weather and great audiences – but that’s 6 days of the last 7 performing, gearing up for today’s short performance on a long day.
Squeeeze the pumpkin. Till the juice runs down my… oh. Ahem. I mean. Here’s the pumpkin behind the stage at Summer’s Farm in Middletown, MD.
It’s sort of what it’s SUPPOSED to feel like, right?
And it DOES feel pretty normal. My fingers don’t feel abused like they would over the summer. My throat doesn’t feel tired. It’s good to feel sort of… in shape? Well – performance-wise if not body-wise.
Prince is staring at me as if there’s any chance I’m going to put my computer and my coffee down to return to his attentions, and … you know what?
A fabulous list at the Takoma Spark on Tuesday. Three gigs down. Three more to go… and then we get to TODAY!
…
The beast was right. I needed to spend some time cat scroffling because the REST of the day was destined to be non-stop.
Though I have long-since laid down the reins of the Takoma Park Folk Festival, Kristen is coveted by all, and it was HER turn to require that we get our asses to the festival by 10.30am. Rolling in, things seemed to be running smoothly, especially with parking being dealt with by legit veterans rather than the usual cadre of Boy Scouts. Entry, check-in, wandering – signage was good, volunteers were clearly able to give detailed information… once Kristen found HER place to be I settled into my old role of documenter and wanderer and just started making circuits to see how my old festival was doing under the regime of our friends Robin and Debby.
Wednesday night Annette Wasilik hosted me and two other singer/songwriters at her Local Cream Showcase in Rockville, MD.Hosted at Hank Dietle’s Tavern in Rockville, MD – it was a really cool night. I feel like I threw down with the best of them, and I was on stage with some pretty heavy-hitters. L-r : Bill Baker, Mary Battia, me and Annette Wasilik played to a wonderful crowd, many of which are some pretty amazing singer/songwriters themselves. I was flattered by our audience.Hush. We’ll get to festival pics in a sec, but first – Friday morning picking up Heather from her place – she had to finish her daily assault on her Chinese lantern fly infestation first. Tis an admirable effort.
And it is doing WELL. The weather is perfect. The sound at each stage is solid (though I think the stage we were scheduled to be on stood out as simply vastly superior – which is as it should be AND was not a surprise as it was being run by our friend Dan Skeen who is… a stunning sound engineer).
I settled in to begin the day at the newly-inaugurated Tom Prasada-Rao Stage. Tom died the day Kristen and I flew to Belgium and it broke my heart a little to be away for all of the memorial services. I was glad to be able to see Senator Kagan and Tom’s sister dedicate the new stage, and even happier to see Annette Wasilik break it in with a song dedicated to Tom.
It feels right for the first performance of the day to pull tears…
Friday’s stage – the absolutely wonderful gazebo at Worman’s Mill in Frederick, MD. We played to a great 360 degree crowd and I made good use of my wireless making sure that all were seen. It was Kristen’s first time to the venue and I’m hoping they’ll continue to up the budget to bring her out because I think she was incredibly well-received.We were nervous at first. We rolled up and there was a pretty decent crowd at Monocacy, and then they all got on this fucking BUS and LEFT!!! But then the place rapidly filled again….Website kerfuffles on behalf of Monocacy Brewing perhaps led to a smaller crowd than we might’ve had, but if that’d come to pass, I don’t know where we would’ve put them. Saturday night was ANOTHER night of absolutely perfect weather (after a hideously grey and rainy morning) and we played to a very, very full courtyard at Monocacy Brewing. I credit it all to my lucky Tardigrade and Betty Boop socks.Senator Cheryl Kagan officially dedicating the new Tom Prasada-Rao stage at the Takoma Park Folk Festival in Takoma Park, MD – Sunday, September 8th, 2024.Annette Wasilik playing the first song.Cheryl welcoming Tom’s sister Patty to the stage to say a few words.Festival Chair Robin Stearn making it all OFFICIAL.The honour of the first full set at the TPR Stage goes to Steven Gellman with our friend and Lair veteran Seth Kibel on flute!Ardmore on the Abbott Stage.Our friend Peter, of the Refuge, running the Jordan Court Stage.Cody Summit playing with a really amazing harmonica player (sounded like he was playing clarinet!) and the incredible Ben Tufts!David Eisner at the House of Musical Traditions booth lamenting the fact that I have grunk on my lens and I won’t find out about it for another 24 hours… Gabriel Koempel came out to my open mic a couple of months ago and really blew our minds with their instrumental pop covers. Gorgeous playing, students of School of Musical Traditions and the departed Rob Nicholson.Ha. I like seeing my handwriting’s still around!rOM veterans Collide Duo on the Crossroads Stage.Washington Balalaika Society Orchestra.This is the former “World Stage”. We’d been arguing about changing the name for years because I felt that it ‘othered’ international music – which still has to be performed by local performers! Well, apparently the battle was eventually won but I feel that renaming it the “Silk Road” stage didn’t get us very far! If anything it others AND limits the stage both at the same time! (not my festival anymore, not my festival, not my festival…)My favourite new-to-me act of the day : Ammonite. I unfortunately had set my good camera down for their set in prep for our own, but damn – cool, grungy tones with three-part harmonies and sludgy rhythms.SURPRISE! Joey’s back from tour early and can join us! And… SURPRISE… he brought his CAT!!!This is why I can’t take my own selfies.w Kristen and Eryn Michel and Debby St Charles.Kimberly Shires introducing Lea Holz on the Crossroads Stage.Lea Holz and I were probably the most wind-swept performers of the day. I don’t think anyone caught MY Medusa-like locks on the writhe, but writhe they did!Rebecca Berlin on the Tom Prasada-Rao stage.almost-accompanied by the ever enigmatic Juels Bland.Lulu’s Fate on the Abbott Stage.Karen Collins and the Backyard Band.The unstoppable Morris Dancers.Cello World.This trio was intriguing. I couldn’t listen long as I ran from place to place but Happy Lime was covering…Mmm Bop as I wandered by?Amoreena … …and Acacia Sears….were a particularly good pairing. Big Sky QuartetJuels BlandGroovadelicsDoes it tho?Hoping that some decent ilyAIMY pictures fall out of the sky at some point. We had a particularly tight, awesome set and the biggest crowd of the day. Again, many thanks to Dan Skeen who is an absolutely epic sound engineer, who made the 15 minute changeover possible! Not everyone … almost NO-ONE can do that with ilyAIMY – and he did it with confidence and grace, in addition to it sounding awesome.
