With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
August 02, 2007 - 1:37 p.m.
It is Friday and I think I'll finally finish writing about FRFF today. By the time I'm done I think I'll have written more about this Festival than any three previous ones combined and I haven't even started on the pictures. So forget about this being the last entry on FRFF. There are more to come.
This was the most successful The Budgiedome sessions ever. We drew the biggest crowds, had the greatest diversity in music, and the best buzz we ever generated. People kept coming up to us and telling us that we were better than the official festival. Musicians told us that we were now "The coolest camp on the hill" and the "King of the late night music camps." Needless to say we lapped that up.
Many Budgiedome regulars couldn't make it this year and even though we love them it proved a good thing; the dome's music had a fresh sound. I deliberately tried to widen the musical styles represented. I had faith that our audience would be open-minded about it and I was right. Here is our lineup.
We started off with an experiment, a Thursday afternoon session. While it worked artistically it was not well attended until the final act. I am not giving up on it. Next year we'll have to publicize it better. So lets get right down to the music.
Thursday Afternoon:
For the most part these were lesser known artists and either friends of mine or friends of friends of mine. Mark is the husband of Carolanne Solebello . Phil was recommended to me by Mike Kornfeld from AcousticMusicScene.com. Carey wasn't originally scheduled but she was in the audience and after Phil finished his set we still had time before the Strangelings arrived and I asked her to sit in. We might not have had a big audience but the music was great.
The Strangelings were of course magical. They added a new member on the way up to play the GFP and the Budgiedome, Eric Lee, who was camping on the hill. His fiddle added a new dimension to their sound and he has become a permanent member of the band. You simply must see the Strangelings. Even people that don't like the Kennedys thought they were great. One quote from an unnamed musician was, "I'm not supposed to like this stuff but I love them!" How nice is that a band that had such a full schedule at the Festival and was the closing act Saturday night would agree to play the camps?
Thursday Night:
We started the evening with another experiment. Instead of waiting 20 minutes after the Main Stage set was over then having our first headline act go on we had an opening act begin immediately after the Man Sage set ended. This worked out very well. Randall started with a small crowd and got to play as the crowd for the headliners grew. Having somebody play of attracted more people so this worked out well for everyone. This is a new permanent feature of Budgiedome shows.
We started off with two Budgiedome newcomers but fixtures of the Folk Scene, David Massengill and Jack Hardy. I have been fans of them for ages. I first saw Jack back in the 80s. Even if you have never heard of Jack you have felt his influence. He started the Fast Folk Musical Cooperative, the nurturing ground for such artists as Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Christine Lavin, Michelle Shocked and Lyle Lovett. He still runs his songwriting group. Jack's theory is that a songwriter needs to write at least one song a week, good, bad, or indifferent. There must be something to this considering the talent he has fostered.
Jack is usually something of a recluse at Falconridge. How did I get him to play? Easy, I didn't. I knew David on a personal level through Christine Lavin. I ran into him a few weeks ago when he did an upstairs session for Kelly Flint and asked him to play the Budgiedome, an offer he graciously accepted. Then in an email he asked me if Jack could play. I couldn't say yes fast enough.
Jack and David play songs in a far more traditional style than the usual Budgiedome fare but the crowd seemed to love them. They also brought in people who would not usually visit us. They are great songwriters and performers. If you hear David play Orphan Train you'll cry. I love that David plays the dulcimer, a break from all the guitars that dominate folk festivals.
Iain played the Budgiedome last year and was still a hit his second time around. We met him last year at SMAF and has quickly worked his way into being one of my favorite performers and a friend.
Iain brought up Joe Jenks to back him up and when Iain finished Joe went on and we began the open mic portion of the evening. Usually we finish pretty early on Thursdays. This year we went on to 3:30 AM. There was still a crowd at the very end.
I'm going to write about Friday and Saturday tomorrow. Yes this entry keeps getting spread out. I'm on page three already and I want to write about the last few days too.
Yes life has continued since Falcon Ridge. On a personal note we have an offer on the house. I might have to be out of here in as little as 30 days. Needless to say I'm a bit nervous about all this. I asked Carey and I can stay with him if I haven't found a place to live by then.
Now on to more fun music: On Tuesday night I went to see Mia Dyson at Mo Pitkins. I had discovered her on Sunday at a workshop. I didn't catch her main stage set. She blew me away and I wanted to see her perform a full set. Mo Pitkins is really easy for me to get to and I was able to park right in front. I got there about 50 minutes before show time. I thought I'd be able to go in and grab a seat but there was another act before her set and I had to wait in the lounge. When I walked in I saw her sitting there and said "hi." I had met her at the Chief Martindale Diner after the festival. We were introduced by Cheryl Prashker who was in the workshop with her. That is where I heard about the show. When I walked in I was impressed because she remembered my name. I felt lucky I remembered hers and I was there to hear her sing. The having to wait in the lounge worked out great as I got to hang out with her, her band, and her manager Tony Quinn. Yes he is named after the actor Anthony Quinn. I bonded enough with them that Tony is going to send me a copy of the their new CD when it comes out in Australia next week. Did I mention that they from Down Under?
There was not a big crowd for the show, I think I was the only one there without an Aussie accent. That was too bad as they put on an amazing show. Think of a combination of Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams except far more rock than either of them. How can you not love a band whose drummer is named Angus? I was head banging during the raucous numbers and listening intently to the ballads. Check out their schedule. If they are playing near you don't miss them. I am officially a groupie. If they come back to FRFF next year and they can play acoustic they'll play the Budgiedome next year.
On Wednesday afternoon I went to see my girls, Red Molly at Battery Park Plaza. There was a lot of construction going on so I had trouble finding them but still got there well before the show. Chris was already there setting up the merch. This was a really different show. It was in front of an office building in downtown Manhattan. The crowd was people on their lunch break and people grabbing a smoke. As I said there was construction going on across the street. It was very noisy with the sounds of jackhammers and heavy equipment. They stopped for lunch at noon. That helped as the show started at 12: 30. At 1:00 it started again so they had to compete with the construction. I found that I totally filtered it out and only heard them. A few of my friends showed up, one of whom was at Falcon Ridge but missed Red Molly. Carey caught the last song. The location information at the website was not given very well. My camera's batteries went dead so I used Chris's. He was cameraed out after taking 2400 pics at Falcon Ridge. I got some nice ones. I concentrated on the setting and the crowd, not the band. As Red Molly says; they know what they look like.
Tomorrow I'll try and finish up writing about Falcon Ridge. I'll be looking at apartments in the morning so I don't know when I'll get to it.
The Batnoses are in First Place by 3.5 points!
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile August 02, 2007
