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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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© The Folk Club of Reston/Herndon, 2005
Created by Armen Karimian