| GBS at the Fest |
| The person I had come to see, Janis Ian, performed next and her self-confident introduction of her song, The Last Train, was a contrast to Nicole Reynolds almost-terrified-but-endearing presentation. The song writing was prompted by witnessing a scene between an older woman crying at a train station and the conductor of the train. Janis commented on how the Vietnam War had really changed many lives and made up the reason why the woman was crying for her song. My best line was “Sometime they don’t come back, they board the last train and go home.” And with the current situation with Afghanistan and Iraq, perhaps it hasnt been more true since the 60's. There was no doubt about where her political views lie. |
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| It turned out that the most interesting person the stage for me was 85-year-old Jean Ritchie. Growing up in a family of 14 children in 1922, life was hard. No movies, TV, records, concerts, just “home music.” She reminded me a lot of Odetta, who had once opened for GBS at Lincoln Center in New York. Jean's first song was taken from everyday Appalachian life, about churning butter. It started out slow and sped up towards the end, because that’s how the rhythm of the churning had to go. She also sang a song about putting kids to bed during a square dance “She won’t go to sleep-ee-o.” She played the mountain dulcimer with “picks” culled from a Philadelphia Cream Cheese container and a Planters Peanuts jar. She sang acapella or played dulcimer while her son harmonized and/or played the banjo. As I learned later, she is also a folklorist and author, specializing in the Appalachian influence. As far as I was concerned, she was the best, even though I was drawn to the workshop by the presence of Janis Ian. |
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| Both Nicole and Janis are gay, so songs about gay issues abounded on the stage. I guess there is still so much prejudice against gay and lesbian folk, that homosexuality and the war(s) have become the issues of the day in the current protest-song folk world. Janis had told a sad/funny story about coming back into the US after having been married to her partner in Canada. But I got the impression that Jean didn't know what to do with all that information, so she just did the traditional Kentucky folksongs/stories which were fascinating to me. I guess being involved with the Little Kids Rock program, where the kids write their own songs about life, sharpened my appreciation of this genre. All in all, I was really glad I came to this workshop. I discovered new artists whose music I will check out. |
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| During the workshop, Howard and Nancy wandered over and joined Lynda and I. Howard shared the news that Chris Trapper was going to be opening for GBS in Edgartown and Dewey Beach this week. Good news! I do enjoy Chris Trapper and anticipate more songs cowritten by him and the GBS b'ys to come out of the arrangement. We found out we could stake out our spaces early in the reserved seat area and Howard and Lynda went over to the reserved seat area to put some of our stuff down on some chairs. We had seen others go in and asked and the festival person told us to go ahead and save some seats! Unfortunately, Howard’s stadium chair was stolen from his seat and he had to go back to his car and get another. Vic had packed a couple chairs in the van before we had to leave and I was so grateful for that. He had also included full rain gear. THAT cinched it – it would not rain today! In fact, it was very sunny and getting hotter by the minute. Several times, people in the audience went out for water or other beverages. After the women's session, I went back to talk to Nicole Reynolds about a song of hers and eyed Alan Doyle getting his guitar out of the distinctive baby-blue case. We nodded at each other and I went back to sit down after talking to Nicole. Alan's group was up next. When I turned around to check out the audience, I discovered it had tripled or quadrupled during the women's session. They must have been pleased. |
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