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Musical Notes
Utah Phillips
Passes
The great folksinger and proponent of the common man passed
away in his sleep the night of May 23rd after a long bout
with heart disease.
Coming back
war-wracked from the Korean conflict of the 50s, he ended up
destitute in a homeless shelter here he met social reformers who
influenced him philosophically, and he forged a new purpose in life
to help other people understand their lives through the framework of
folk songs and stories. He was well-read and literate, but the
influence in his songs from writers like Thomas Wolfe was reworded
into styles that spoke to his audience, never above them. His love
of and respect for the power of old traditional songs is aptly
phrased in his own words
I have a
good friend in the East. A good singer, and a good folksinger, a
good song collector, who comes and listens to my shows and says,
"You sing a lot about the past. You always sing about the past; you
can't live in the past, you know." And I say to him, “I can go
outside and pick up a rock that's older than the oldest song you
know and bring it back here and drop it on your foot." Now, the
past didn't go anywhere, did it? It's right here, right now – I
always thought that anybody who told me I couldn't live in the past
was trying to get me to forget something that if I remembered it
would get 'em in serious trouble.
No, it's not
that - that "that's Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, Nineties" – that
whole idea of decade packages. Things don't happen that way... No,
that, that packaging of time is a journalistic convenience that they
use to trivialize and to dismiss important events and important
ideas. I defy that. Time is an enormous, long river, and I'm
standing in it, just as you're standing in it. My elders are the
tributaries, and everything they thought and every struggle they
went through and everything they gave their lives to, and every song
they created, and every poem that they laid down flows down to me -
and if I take the time to ask, and if I take the time to see, and if
I take the time to reach out, I can build that bridge between my
world and theirs. I can reach down into that river and take out
what I need to get through this world
Utah Phillips has passed, but not into the past.
Mountain
Dulcimer Week – July 6-11, 2008
Mark your calendars for this event co-directed by Folk Club
members Ralph Lee Smith and Maddie MacNeil. For more
info, contact Ralph, 703-435-7420, or email him at
ralphleesmith@comcast.net . You can also visit Ralph or
Maddie’s websites:
www.ralphleesmith.com and
www.madelinemacneil.com
DCBU Bluegrass
Camp, July 13th-18th
DCBU, in cooperation with Common Ground on the Hill, is holding
their Bluegrass camp at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD.
Beginners to advanced players are welcome. For more info check the
website at
www.dcbu.org.
FloydFest 2008
– July 24th-27th
FloydFest 7 (dubbed ‘Family Affair’) once again offers a
superlative lineup of artists to fill the schedule of this 4-day
musical smorgasbord. Music lovers will find something to please
every musical appetite. Featured performers this year include
Rusted Root, the David Grisman Quintet, Amos Lee, Tony
Trischka, Donna the Buffalo, and too many others to
name. Floydfest is now produced by Across-the-Way Productions
(based in Floyd, VA). Check out all the details of the festival on
their new website at:
http://atwproductions.com/index.php?pr=ffhome
Braddock Nights
Concert Series 2008
Info for this perennial and popular series of free concerts
in Northern Virginia is now available online. Friday evening shows
are held at Lake Accotink Park in Springfield and at Royal Lake Park
in Fairfax. On Thursdays, a variety of cultural heritage
celebrations are held at the renovated Ossian Hall Park in
Annandale.
For a complete schedule, check the web site at:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/performances/braddock-nights.htm
Braddock Nights
is part of the larger Fairfax County Summer Entertainment Series,
which can be found at:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/performances/
Avalon Fest ‘08
There is now a complete online schedule of performers for the Aug
08-Aug 10, 2008 festival at the Avalon Resort near Paw Paw, WV.
Included are Small Potatoes, Taxi Chain, Jack
Williams, The Hula Monsters, David LaFleur, and
many others. For a complete schedule, along with other info go to
their website at:
http://www.avalon-resort.info/site/Avalon
Fest.aspx
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