Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention

/>Mt. Airy fiddlers convention. There’s nothing quite like it. It has just the right proportions, the old southern old-timers, young spirited punks, greasy fair food, the constant hum of the key of A, and good storytelling red necks and dancin’ grannies. Sean and I left New York Thurs morning and drove 9 hours with windshield wipers on high, semi laughing at the fact that we are bout to go for a long weekend of camping in the woods and it was relentlessly dumping rain. We showed up in Mt. Airy and like always I never really know how to get to the festival so we called James Ruchala who now is a proud resident of North Carolina. James just had the unfortunate experience of his brakes going out in his car going out on some mountain pass, everyone’s nightmare but james made it sound like …just one of those things. We met up and made way to his cute little house had a lovely dinner, cooked with nice things from his garden..We optimistically thought the rain would stop while we had dinner but it didn’t so we made our way over to the festival.


We got there in the thick of the rain, didn’t set up the tent just made our way out to see the happening ran into dan from the cankickers and some friendly folks plopped ourselves and played a bunch of tunes tried to avoid the rain that was dripping form the tent and the pools of water all collected in the middle of the meadow. I love playing music with new folks where I have to figure out their groove it’s a fun little puzzle to try to get in sync. Fell asleep that night in james tent both me and sean, it was a sweet little slumber party. Woke up the next morning and found bob Willoughby, he’s my most favorite buddy at fiddler’s conventions I sat with him for basically the rest of that day playing lopey tunes, shootin the shit a lot of the time just having a good hang. He is a great soul.



Made my way down to the field to check out the competition scene. There was a new dance floor this year, solid wood floor for all the flat footers and cloggers. It was a beautiful scene. I went over to get a picture and there was the one old man that stood out. He had a shiny red jacket, brilliant blue eyes and did some crazy moves with his white sneakers was no younger than 70’s. He caught my eye and held out his hand and said ”oh would you dance with me” I really couldn’t say no , though I was wearing big clumsy rubber boots and really have no idea how to flat foot. He was thrilled no matter what my skills where, he said all those old ladies he wears out and they have to sit down, he’s been dancing for the past 8 hours. So sweet.

Made my way to the back of the stage where all the musicians where lined up for the competition. Everyone was practicing up their tune doe the competition, passing a bottle around, standing in a lot of mud, laughing and having a good old time. Half the competition fun is the line you wait in before you play.



The rest of that night was hanging with my next favorite buddy Steve Fagan. His crazy red neck stories always delight me. Like the one about the “English immigrant” who came to the festival one year and played Old Joe Clark for 6 hours straight. Steve got an idea of how to stop this old joe clark playing machine, he decided to torch him with WD40 and a lighter. Apparently the flame length is like 5 feet or something crazy like that. It doesn’t just end there Robbie Roberson felt like the dude that brought the “English immigrant” should be punished as well for bringing such a guy so he shot the 5 foot flame towards the other dude too. Yeah, charming if you heard it coming from their mouth.


The next day was much of the same, steak and egg diner for breakfast, corn dog and French fries for dinner, lots of tune playing and the weather getting warmer and dryer all the time. Saturday was the best day. There was a wedding, a civil war lesson and a renegade square dance. Jamie, John Herman’s son got married. I think it was suppose to just be an engagement party with cocktails and old-time music. But Paul Brown came and said some sweet words of encouragement and the John Herman said “we should just do it now, do you wanna do it NOW?” They giggled, nodded and then the wedding began and at the end they were smootchin and dancin’ in less than 10 minutes. I cried it was sweet.



Later found my self sitting in the forest section of the hill with 3 fiddles and banjo we played fiddle tunes, ballads and then for a moment the mt. airy festival dissolved into the background and we were completely engrossed in a heavy conversation of the civil war, slavery, abolitionist. These guys were civil war re-enactors and historians. I love old-time musicians! Then it was off to the renegade square dance. It was the square dancing I have ever done. The dances were great and both the callers and the musicians rotated so was always fresh.



Then it was getting on 5 am and I headed up the hill to tuck myself in for the last night in Mt. airy. The moon was bright and full and shone over the meadow and fiddles where still going and part of me thought I probably could stay up till the sun came up but I just stood and listened for a while then crawled into my tent and fell asleep and that was Mt. Airy fiddlers convention for me.

Lumii's at folk college

This has been an amazing experience. Yesterday we taught a workshop named "putting the unusual in your sound". At first we said what on earth do they mean by this??? and then we realized that this is exactly what we do the best and above all other workshops that we have ever taught this one sorta suits us best. We pieced together each part that each of us play then built it section by section and for us it was even so fascinating to see what everyone plays individually. I think i felt a reflection of wow i'm so proud of what we do. Anyway, we got them playing hip hop beats and playing one note like you mean it. It was really great fun. Then benjy and i taught our class Ilan's Tune as we call it. Sax, 3 violins, mandolin and dulcimer. It's a rockin band they came up with ideas for arranging, which included ending the tune with vocal percussion sounds and walking off stage. Such professionals. called themselves Vlad and the impalers.

Sxip and Rima did a workshop on pushing boundaries, they did cluck old hen with guida, mandolin, fiddle and guitar. This fiddler was awesome she rocked like rima, literally came up with lines that rima would have played, a little fiddle rima coming up.





But dang this experience was amazing, the people that put this on and come to it are music enthusiasts and they are into learning new stuff, they don't have those confidence things and can't do something new. they are funny people they laugh alot. The other teachers there were truly inspiring too. Joel Macabeus who is a singer-songwriter played amazing charming funny songs, then songs with a cause and songs with a story, really moving. Then this awesome oldtime band called orpheus Supertones, made really excited to get down to mt. Airy fiddlers convention.
This camp has a lot of work to do on the food situation,i ate chocolate coffee floats 3x's a day, wait...ok that wasn't the bad part. Nevermind, i was happy with coffee floats 3 times a day.



A pretty funny moment was walking up campus sidewalk and hearing "you are my sunshine" sung by over 100 people holding their instruments and posing for group photo. funny and sweet.

And to top it all it's perfect springtime weather. On friday i walked by the peonie patch and they were tight little blossoms on sunday they were in full bloom releasing all their infectious scent. It was such a flashback from my childhood. I remember waiting for the bus at the end of the lane and watching the same progression. For a few days the peonies would be covered with ants crawling all around over the tight buds then one day magically they would burst and it was one of my most favorite smells, right after the honey locust smell that came out of the 4 trees in our front yard. Ahhhh, springtime.

Luminescent tour

Lumii's are at a folk college for the weekend. I just got back less than a week ago from a tour in central america with hoppin john for an entire month and jumped in the van to go out with lumii's to do a weekend of workshops in middle pennsylvania. It was great driving here, we stopped to get crappy food at a gas station and were happily surprised that in front of this gas station the Lion's Club had set up 5 pits for BBQ chicken. A full chicken, potato and applesauce meal for 7 bucks served by some lovely grannies and grandpa's. Was so happy that those kind of experiences can still happen in America, it's not alllll conform corporate bullshit.



We arrived at this sweet little campus where the lilacs are in full bloom and the smell is of fresh green grass. It's really relaxing and beautiful. Folks here are average age of 45. We arrived late and just walked straight into the first workshop we were greeted by 20 students ready to learn gypsy fiddle. There was a dulcimer, mandolins, fiddles, guitars, flutes, penny whistle and auto harp all ready to learn. What a trip. Then we were ushered to our dorm room, they were actually quite clean and nice, this is definitely not some crazy party school. Anyway, at some cafeteria food and then performed a 40 minute set. Sooooo nice to play with lumii's again. I am so deeply connected to this band i can't even explain it. It feels good to be back in it again and have a fresh new perspective. Afterward we did a jam, doing random world music music, led by us. It sounds like it would be a terrible experience but it actually was nice.

Coban, Guatemala

Coban is my favorite town. It's totally a working class town, people running around with large objects on their head, buses driving like maniacs through the streets, tamales and coffee sold by the dozen on the street corners, people are busy here. There is a huge mayan population here, sean and i went to the indigenous market and it was the feeling of being in chinatown but even a step above that craziness, if you can imagine. Mayans are much friendlier and open than the chinese. Their was plantains, and corn being roasted, tons of vegetables and fruit, raw meat just sitting out in the open, flies where all over it!, traditional clothes, cd's, shoes, live turkey's tied together, 50 lb bags of beans, spices, candles, mayan accessories. Part of the market was under a barn like structure that contained hundreds of booths of merchants, children were running around everywhere, smelled of animals, BO, children, spices and life. Sean played his bones throughout the market it made all the girls giggle and be in awe of this large white gringo in a cowboy hat. The electricity was out all day so once the sun started going down we could hardly see what was happening. We walked out to the street and found this family band playing ranchero music. Which when i heard it i thought it was mexican but i was corrected, the country of guatemala was a larger area and encompassed southern mexico and this is where the ranchero music was born. This family was so beautiful, and was lovely to see women getting to sing and play instruments, this isn't always the case.







It was a rainy day, it's rainy season in guatemala. We got caught in one downpour but were blessed with meeting this lovely mayan women who was selling some beautiful handmade textiles. We ducked into a tienda with her and was amazed with all her beautiful work. Guatemala has the most amazing handmade crafts that i have ever seen. No country compares to the weaving, the pottery, and embroidery.



We started this day at a university with a workshop, we were suppose to have a concert as well but that got cancelled due to the swine flu. It was the first time the university has ever made efforts to connect with the US. There has been a lot of tensions here because of the years of US backed politics in this region that has led to a lot of fighting and death. So it was big day in history. Juan Jose Guerrero Perez runs this school and is quite amazing. He is not only the director of this school of 1400 kids but also is a surgeon and a writer. He wrote a book on the history of this region, from the perspective of the people. He took us on a tour of the catholic church in town called Templo El Calvario. This church is special because it has excepted both the catholic religion and the indigenous mayan religion. As we walked up the 136 steps to the church there were mayan offerings with the catholic offerings. in the church there was a back room with 2 crosses decorated with feathers glued to the cross with wax. it was a dark grey room unadorned but there was writing with chalk. The front of the church thee were some saints and jesus with tons of candles and corn as offerings. It felt really good to be in there. Outside was a fire circle where the mayans hold their rituals. It smelled of incense and fire. THere was a man named Fray Bartolome de las casas.He was a very important man in helping save the indigenous people from slavery and death. By converting the Indians it gave him a place to argue against the Spanish idea that native people were inferior and should be pacified forcefully. And of course many people wanted to kill La Casas for these ideals and they started riots but he was successful in the passage of the New Laws (1542) abolishing the encomiendas. La Casa's was a child when Christopher Columbus began the practice of capturing and sending natives back to Spain as slaves in order to repay the funding for his expeditions. Christopher Columbus is the one who started the Encomiendas which was to give land to spanish colonist along with native slaves to work the land. He was a great and smart fighter against the mistreatment and genocide of the natives by the Spainish.
The Catholic Church has really helped the poor and indigenious people in Central America and still does fight for the rights of these people. Most of what we hear is how many bishops and priest were killed and the reason is because they were trying to help the poor groups of poeple. I never knew how vocal and political the catholic church was and is. Just as a side note i was watching CNN and in Chicago there are a lot of young black men getting killed like 200 or so in the past few years. The catholic church hung the american flag upside down as a symbol and frustration that the police are not taking this matter seriously and more needs to be done to help the black communities that are suffering. He was a white priest. I'm pretty enlightened by all of this information.

Salama, Guatemala

Ladies of the Marimba of Salama, Guatemala, originally uploaded by fiddlesarah.

Our opener for us at the lions club in Salama, was this amazing marimba band. So sweet.

Antigua

Antigua,
Wow, antigua is beautiful. Unlike any other city or town we have been in Central America. It's nestled between 3 volcanoes and have streets that look like we could be in some quaint town in western europe. So clean and manicured. We had a show and workshop at Nuestros Ahigjados which is a NGO that does a lot of community projects just outside of Antigua. I started feeling really sick here and went to the clinic to find out that i have a bacteria infection in my ear. Which this is not a huge surprise because.....in the El Salvadorian airport the checked my temperature in my ear, after checking hundreds of other ears with out proper cleaning. So no swine flu for me but an ear infection. Anyway, now i have antiboitics and within an hour of taking them i started feeling better. Drugs are good. And the pharmacies here have pure ecucalpts oil and salt that was 2 dollars. So i was ready to go out to Cafe No Se by 8 pm after my drugs and bath. Cafe No Se is a really cool bar Alicia have been to for many years playing and hanging out. So it was like a little homecoming for her. When people mention the Cafe No Se they speak with such love and appreciation. Reminded me of the Square and Compass tha lumii's played in Dorset, England. Really lovely. Our hotel was the savior of hotels. It was an old historic hotel that when i walked in had a whole marimba band playing and 3 string bass and drums. The room felt like i was in my grandmothers house, that old smell and simplicity. Felt good to be comforted by a grandmother vibe.

On the way to the highlands today. Before we left we had breakfast at the hotel where they made homemade tortillas, here''s a little clip..

I woke up at 4:15. So annoyed with being stuck in a hotel i went out on a walk to take pictures of the city. The bus system is amazing here. First they are decked out old school buses, with flames and names and colorful paint jobs. They speed down the street like the Caribbean vans in flatbush honking their horns and crossing 3 lanes of traffic with a dude or multiple dudes hang out the door with his arm signaling to get over and shouting something to the walkers on the street. The light was horrible and they moved to fast to get any good pictures.



Then i walked around this area, kinda on guard because folks say guatemala has a very rising crime rate. But i figured the criminals weren't awake yet. So i walked around and honestly i was more freaked out by all the security guards with their big guns that looked scary enough to blow up a small town. Yeah. Anyway, the street culture is alive and well here. Everyone out selling coffee in plastic barrels and eggs and roast chicken and beans in a plasic tub, pastries in a wicker basket. There is a shoe shine on every block. It's full life.