nf2006z22

Another Night in Terra Nova

By the time we got back to the cabin, it was definitely getting cooler. We had peanut butter sanwiches for supper and got ready for the evening. Good night for long sleeves and keeping mosquitos away. Jim was offered a much longer set later in the evening. We dropped off a bunch of CDs at the entrance and I settled in for the rest of the festival. When we got there, the camp activities people were entertaining the 300+ people gathered there.

Jim Bragg was up next. I had never heard of him, but he was great! He was originally from Pouch Cove but living in Gander now. He opened with West Country Lady, one of my favorite songs, and continued with another favorite, Fisherman's Blues. I thought he started a bit high for that song, but he managed to get thru it. Then - surprise! - Rita MacNeil's version of Come By the Hills. He followed that with The Islander, well done, and then Black Velvet Band, with everyone singing along. He ended with the Loss of the Marion, and we got ready for Jim to come out.

The young lady in costume was a moose. They joked about her being Mrs. Dress-Up. She was very popular with the kids in the Park. They had plenty of audience participation when they sang Tell Me Ma, All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir, and a song to the tune of the Quartermaster Store - called In Terra Nova National Park.

"There were squirrels dancing in the Park, in the Park, there were squirrels, squirrels dancing in the Park, in Terra Nova National Park!

...bees with little knobby knees,
...bear wearing underwear, ...fox wearing socks, ...campers wearing dirty Pampers."

The kids responded by singing and dancing and generally having a grand time.

As I waited, I examined the Festival logo more closely. It hit me that it was the epitome of what I had seen in the past two days - the beauty of the trees, mountains and water. That one logo wrapped up the whole weekend perfectly!

Wearing his AtlanticFest2006 t-shirt, Jim opened with Curra Road, the quintessential summer song. As a group of kids sat near the stage, Jim explained that it was a song Ger Wolfe had written for his kids one winter. He was a little vocally shaky for the first verse, but rapidly regained the vocal quality I'm used to. The crowd was ready for him this evening. They cheered, clapped, hooted and stomped after each song, obviously glad he was there. He played Rising of the Moon, Rhythm of the Goat, and Downtown Girl in rapid order. Everyone was clapping during Downtown Girl and it was a pleasure to hear some singing along, too. The man is a MASTER of the guitar. He made that one guitar sound like a whole orchestra with his picking. Incredible!

Jim told the story of writing Song for Newfoundland as he retuned his guitar to sing it. He mostly uses a variation of DADGAD tuning, but this one is written in standard tuning for some reason. He dedicated it "for Newfoundlanders here, for Newfoundlanders away who will come back to stay and for those from away (CFAs) who will become Newfoundlanders By Choice (NBCs).

Song For Newfoundland
by Jim Fidler

No coming messiah, no worldy power from above, could ever relieve us.
No prophesied failure, will take us from who and what we love, you'd better believe us.

'Cause we've been told that we're just not good enough, so long, so long.
And we've been told that we're just not strong enough, so wrong, so wrong.

We're a builder of nations; let us build on the rock and not on sand, in the land of our fathers.
In desolate places, we know we have always found our bread, in the love of our mothers.

And we've been told that we're just not loud enough, so long so long.
And we've been told that we're just not proud enough, so wrong, so wrong,so wrong.

No coming Messiah, no worldy power from above, could ever relieve us.

No matter what their circumstances, everyone in the audience appreciated the song and gave Jim quite an ovation at the end of his set. He deserved it, too. I heard afterwards he sold a slew of CDs too. Good for him! Perhaps one day I will be an NBC.

Dave Penney closes the Festival