| AtlanticFest 2006 |
| Saturday, August 12th The day dawned foggy in St. John's today. Or I suppose it did. I certainly wasn't up at dawn! LOL! Went to bed shortly after the Festival ended and woke up about 11 AM feeling quite rested, thank you! I had my Signal Hill fix and spent some time talking to Heather, a Parks guide, who had been working there in the summer for three years while in University. She had graduated but would not be staying in Newfoundland because she couldn't get a Master's Degree in her field - SIgn Language Interpretation. We talked about Galaudet University in the USA, but she said she was going to Toronto to study as there wasn't much call for her services in Newfoundland. |
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| Can't see Fort Amherst today! |
| Or Shea Heights for that matter |
| When everyone got finished laughing, he added, "But it's all good and lots of fun!" and launched into his song, Old Friend. This song always brings me back to Darrell's days with Great Big Sea. It's about touring all over the country and meeting up with someone from home, both far away from home, catching up on each other's lives. This is the part that gets to me these days: "I knew you'd be a family man!" "Well, I knew you'd be in a traveling band." And now the 'traveling band' man is a family man! He sang a bluesy song last, called She Loves Me. I swear he sounded just like Elvis, sitting up there on his stool! ANd then told everyone gathered at the Fat Cat about all the other great performers they would see that night. And with that, he was off to Bridie Malloy's for "20 minutes onstage, 10 minutes off..." |
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| But all the fog didn't keep the tourists from coming up on Signal Hill. The parking lot was full and Heather had her hands full answering questions. The fog NEVER keeps me form coming up to Signal Hill. I love that spot in St. John's despite wind, rain, snow, sleet or fog and I have been there in each of them. I must have been a fisherman's or Captain's wife here in a former life, waiting at Ladies' Lookout for my Captain. |
| It rained for most of the day but cleared up as evening fell, a good sign for the last night of the Festival. I was missing Vic as Jim was putting the finishing touches on Jackie's Oceans Wide recording in the control room. I sat at the kitchen table and listened as tears ran down my face. If her fiance doesn't realize what a gem he has in her, he should be shot! Some excerpts: Somedays the nights are long, Somedays we are so strong We find a way to make it thru each day Never fall asleep without the chance to say, 'I love you'... Over Oceans Wide, I am always beside you We will be all right, Love will survive, Over Oceans Wide... *sigh* If I had that one on a CD, I'd have worn a hole in it already. She HAS to record that for the general public soon! Candace and I had volunteer duties at the Fat Cat for the last night of the Festival. I had never been in the Fat Cat till our all night celebration after the first night of the festival. It was normally a blues bar, not one of my kinds of places. Scott Goudie is a regular here though, and maybe I need to change my mind about coming to listen. I sure do like what he plays! It was the last night of the festival and all the performers seemed pumped! Darrell arrived early and began singing early so he could sing more songs. He wasn't the only performer to do that this night. We heard some new ones from Darrell tonight. He didn't sing the same setlist any night. It's nice to know he has that reserve to draw on now! He opened with It Can Rain If It WantsTo, my first time hearing it and it was good. His next was Push, about driving a friend to rehab in Grand Falls. Devil At Your Door was a slower song than I've heard him do this time around. It prompted Candace to turn to me and say mournfully, "I didn't realize till now how much I've missed Darrell." |
| When he sang the next song (I didn't get the title), he may have forgotten the words, although we wouldn't have known! LOL! He stopped and said, "I'm not used to singing this song and I'm sitting up here thinking about the words I always forget in the third verse while I'm on the first verse. I guess I figured I might as well sing them and get them over with!!" Then he broke into a very fast version of a funny song that I was not familiar with. "Sorry - a Guinness flashback," he grinned. When Johnny Came Back From the War sounded particularly good tonight. "Sometimes it takes forever to write a song," he explained, "I wrote that in about 10 minutes." |
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| He joked about the concept of playing all the venues everynight and launched into a rapid-fire explanation of his evening "Yes it's 20 minutes on stage and a 10 minute break, rush over to the next venue down the street where it's 20 minutes onstage and a 10 minute break, rush across the street where it's 20 minutes onstage, sing sing sing, and a 10 minute break, run down the street to Erin's out of breath where it's 20 minutes sing sing sing and a 10 minute break but run run run back to George Street where it's 20 minutes onstage and you're done! And then the next night...(repeat the above a little faster!). And tonight it'll be...(repeat even faster yet!)" The photo captured the frantic pace of his explanation! |
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| Last night was the best night! |
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| Can't see Cabot Tower either! |
| Right now, I have to be content looking at the sea and hoping my Captain is sending love to me thru the waters of the Delaware River. |