Takoma Park Folk Festival

I had no idea I'd not posted anything since May. I guess it's been a busier summer than I had thought.

Be that as it may, I performed yesterday at the TPFF at a songwriter's showcase with three other songwriters in a round robin. We each got to sing 4 songs (except for Jeanne Bayou who arrived late). David Alberding lives in Hagarstown these days. He's a big burly guy and a great storyteller. His guitar playing reminds me a little of David Wilcox. He has to be doing some alternate tunings to get some of the sounds he does out of the guitar. Austin Ellis is a younger guy and has a Zen-like demeanor and had his long (I think) brown hair in a funky little bun. You can imagine him being a massage therapist or something like that. His music reminds me very much of Jason Mraz, mellow and jazzy with a little bit of rap thrown in. Jeanne performed with Ron Goad on percussion. Her songs were a little more in the traditional folk vein with Ron's percussion providing a little bit of edge and drive.

I performed my songs Thorns that Guard the Rose, Juliet's on Fire, Never Too Late (a new sequel to Ginger & Fred), and I had a Dream Last Night. For some reason I felt a little bit of nerves or butterflies and so I tried to keep the guitar playing simple. I had also had to change my strings on Saturday and I think I prefer my strings a little on the deader side. New strings often sound a little "tinny" to me. For the most part I think that I did pretty well, though I'm not sure (especially after listening to a couple of other groups at the same stage) that the sound on the monitor and the sound going out to the crowd were even remotely the same.

It was a warm, sunny afternoon. After so much rain this past week that was a nice change. The shaded grounds around our stage were still muddy from the deluge. Hopefully, a good time was had by all.