There simply wasn’t time to write at SERFA – and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We weren’t able to attend the FULL conference but did a great time of maximizing our time there – and frankly I don’t like staying in one place for too long in any case – I think it was close to the perfect SERFAsperiance.
We left Wednesday morning, driving through off and on again rain and crashing in Durham, NC to get the lions’ share of the driving out of the way. Thursday we braved further storms on to Black Mountain, NC where we had gotten a cheap hotel a little ways away from where the conference was taking place – checked in – were kind of disgusted by the interior but enamoured with the interior but didn’t have time to complain and rolled on to SERFA, getting in with plenty of time to attend workshops and get to sound checks and play and watch and listen. Friday was longer, exhausting physically and mentally but rewarding. This morning we got up a lot more leisurely, walked across the creek for really good Mexican food, SERFAed till we were done and then said our good byes as much as we were able before getting in the car and getting out of Montreat, NC… headed for the highway.
Today’s been a long drive, and still has a long drive yet to go. But I wanted to get down some impressions while I was thinking about them, even though I’m not REALLY focused enough to do them justice.
- Montreat and Black Mountain, NC are beautiful towns. Nestled into what pass for mountains on our end of the country – the constant thunderstorms passing through give us contrasts of light and dark and intense reflecting, depths of shadow and vibrantly, LIVING green. All the rivers are high when we get there. They are higher when we leave – like we’ve brought spring or are leaving before the encroaching END.
- Montreat Conference Center is like a sprawling, labyrinthine mini-Hogwarts with beautiful stone work and strange corners and huge fireplaces. You can easily get locked out, but it’s worth doing so because a walk in the rain is as good as coffee when you’ve been up for too long. Fill it with musicians and that feeling of nascent magic is subsumed by half-caught songs, and the trading of smiles and licks and hugs and hurried hellos. Also – they make good food and kept us well-watered.
- Stuart and his sound crew were perfect. Over the course of the formal showcases I noticed one mistake and one mix that I’d have changed – and since I’m highly, highly critical AND they even ran sound for US – this is a high compliment. Big, thick sound – not too loud but none of the brittle frailness that is so often an artifact of folk-scene sound. Present tone with rich bass and precise clarity and every once in a while, when it was appropriate, the reverb crept in, but always gone by the time the artist was ready to chat. They were friendly and professional and made me sound like I wanted to sound, and made everyone else sound how I wanted to hear them.
Styka Gingham Ruffle is going to be… well I don’t know WHAT it’s gonna be – a punk band? A snack food? I don’t even know – but the fact that we BOTH independently went to Wrath of Khan’s Ceti eel larva kind of speaks volumes… of some sort…
One of the many jams happening at SERFA.
In addition to being a marvelous writer with a great voice, Gina Holsopple makes cute hats.
- I’m reminded again of an article I read years ago, obvious in hindsight, that had partially inspired the choice of wording with my song “Speaking Louder Now” – that the effects of sleep deprivation were almost identical to that of inebriation, and by Friday everyone is showing the influence of having stayed up all night and having gotten up early – with rare exception everyone’s got stories of having cried, of feeling raw, there’s an uptick in hugs. I imagine there are a fair number of hookups tonight even and I don’t begrudge them a moment of it. The insane weather, all of us crammed together, all of us baring our souls with our music and our hopes and our dreams – I find myself tearing up talking about my own experiences and while listening about the life of Tete Fere – a woman that I realize I’ve read about in the past..
