notes from Edmonton folk fest: Saturday
w00t! Today was packed with fun. :D
I should have brought my Burning Man sun hat. Why did this not occur to me?
Apparent rule: If you're the female lead in a folk song, and your name is Maggie, you're in trouble. Both Shawn Mullins and Colin Hay did songs involving Maggies who end up dead. Sorry, hope I didn't just spoil that for anyone.
Dar Williams -- fabulous, as always. I saw her twice today, once leading a session whose theme was "Writing What You Know" -- though that theme turned out to be pretty irrelevant to many of the song choices (one of which was about murdering an aforementioned Maggie) -- and once in her own concert session. I think I've seen Dar more than anyone else except Girlyman in concert (at least twice in California, at least once in MA, and then here) -- though possibly TMBG is tied. Yay, Dar! Favorites that she played today: "As Cool As I Am", "The Babysitter's Here", "Spring Street", "The Ocean", "The Christians And The Pagans", "When I Was A Boy."
The other people in Dar's first session seemed unfamiliar with this Pink Floyd band of which Dar spoke. Okay, that's possibly untrue, but when she tried to lead them all in a cover of "Comfortably Numb", a bunch of them had no idea how the song went and had to ask her for the chords and watch her for chord change cues. How can you be in music and not know that song?
Colin Hay is the guy from Men at Work ("Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under"), which I remembered, but I hadn't realized he also did "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" on the Garden State soundtrack, which I really liked. Good performer, but his wife is awful (she makes these hideous singing (?) noises and is just generally obnoxious and distracting onstage).
Folk fest Thai food: yummy. That I would try the Thai food: predictable.
My cousin took a bunch of pictures of me and instructed me to make lots of silly faces. I'll have to post some when I get copies. We also danced a bunch. She stayed until the last act -- I was impressed with her stamina! (She's 5.)
I showed up around 1 PM and stayed until after midnight. I totally got music overload around 8 PM, and Ryan Shaw and Joan Osborne are very fuzzy in my head. I'm frankly surprised I lasted that long. I can't really absorb very much new music at once, and listening to music is kind of like going to a party for me -- I'm a music introvert, and exposure to new music is draining even when it's enjoyable.
Huddling under a tarp in the middle of an intense thunderstorm while listening to music -- fun! Especially if it doesn't last long.
Dancing on a big hill under the now-visible stars, watching the lightning snake sideways across the sky as the lingering bits of thunderstorm move across the horizon, moving along with music that is good for dancing (Michael Franti and Spearhead -- hip hop/reggae/whiny folk protest -- not my type of music, but definitely more fun live & great for making me want to move, which was important because it was cold out): completely terrific and refreshing and awe-inspiring.
Getting up at 6 AM to go line up for front row seats tomorrow: not going to happen. Some of my friends are doing that, and I applaud them. I prefer to spend my morning sleeping in and relaxing, and then hopefully being able to enjoy a lot more music before feeling overloaded again.
B. just told me they're about to play Rock Band. I said I'd been rocking out for 12 hours in a more observer type way -- and maybe I should get Rock Audience. it could measure whether I was clapping and dancing and waving my lighter at the right times.
I should have brought my Burning Man sun hat. Why did this not occur to me?
Apparent rule: If you're the female lead in a folk song, and your name is Maggie, you're in trouble. Both Shawn Mullins and Colin Hay did songs involving Maggies who end up dead. Sorry, hope I didn't just spoil that for anyone.
Dar Williams -- fabulous, as always. I saw her twice today, once leading a session whose theme was "Writing What You Know" -- though that theme turned out to be pretty irrelevant to many of the song choices (one of which was about murdering an aforementioned Maggie) -- and once in her own concert session. I think I've seen Dar more than anyone else except Girlyman in concert (at least twice in California, at least once in MA, and then here) -- though possibly TMBG is tied. Yay, Dar! Favorites that she played today: "As Cool As I Am", "The Babysitter's Here", "Spring Street", "The Ocean", "The Christians And The Pagans", "When I Was A Boy."
The other people in Dar's first session seemed unfamiliar with this Pink Floyd band of which Dar spoke. Okay, that's possibly untrue, but when she tried to lead them all in a cover of "Comfortably Numb", a bunch of them had no idea how the song went and had to ask her for the chords and watch her for chord change cues. How can you be in music and not know that song?
Colin Hay is the guy from Men at Work ("Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under"), which I remembered, but I hadn't realized he also did "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" on the Garden State soundtrack, which I really liked. Good performer, but his wife is awful (she makes these hideous singing (?) noises and is just generally obnoxious and distracting onstage).
Folk fest Thai food: yummy. That I would try the Thai food: predictable.
My cousin took a bunch of pictures of me and instructed me to make lots of silly faces. I'll have to post some when I get copies. We also danced a bunch. She stayed until the last act -- I was impressed with her stamina! (She's 5.)
I showed up around 1 PM and stayed until after midnight. I totally got music overload around 8 PM, and Ryan Shaw and Joan Osborne are very fuzzy in my head. I'm frankly surprised I lasted that long. I can't really absorb very much new music at once, and listening to music is kind of like going to a party for me -- I'm a music introvert, and exposure to new music is draining even when it's enjoyable.
Huddling under a tarp in the middle of an intense thunderstorm while listening to music -- fun! Especially if it doesn't last long.
Dancing on a big hill under the now-visible stars, watching the lightning snake sideways across the sky as the lingering bits of thunderstorm move across the horizon, moving along with music that is good for dancing (Michael Franti and Spearhead -- hip hop/reggae/whiny folk protest -- not my type of music, but definitely more fun live & great for making me want to move, which was important because it was cold out): completely terrific and refreshing and awe-inspiring.
Getting up at 6 AM to go line up for front row seats tomorrow: not going to happen. Some of my friends are doing that, and I applaud them. I prefer to spend my morning sleeping in and relaxing, and then hopefully being able to enjoy a lot more music before feeling overloaded again.
B. just told me they're about to play Rock Band. I said I'd been rocking out for 12 hours in a more observer type way -- and maybe I should get Rock Audience. it could measure whether I was clapping and dancing and waving my lighter at the right times.