One of the premiere advocates for harp guitar is Stephen Bennett , who served as host and MC for the concert. He had inherited one of these instruments from his grandfather, and taught himself how to play it. Early in his career, he performed with this guitar. Eventually, he hired a luthier to build an exact replica.
The harp guitar was very popular in the 1920s. The most common construction is to have 8-10 strings strung from a harp-like arch just above a standard guitar neck. The skilled performer will play these strings as an additional bass line. But even if one doesn't even touch these strings, they will resonate sympathetically as the player strikes the regular guitar strings.
The group I camp with ("Grenola") had a new member this year. Dianne works for the same company as Mary, and they have been friends for some time. This was Dianne's first year to attend the festival, making her a "Winfield Virgin" in the common parlance.
Mary encouraged Dianne to go with me to the harp guitar concert, and she did. She had never seen or heard a harp guitar before. It was nice to share the concert with a new friend.
For the finale, all four guitarists came on stage and played "The Water is Wide", one of my top five favorite songs. Naturally, when we got back to camp, I just had to pull out my normal guitar and play my own version of this song.
Now one guy with one dreadnaught-style guitar is not very loud, especially in a space like the campgrounds. Plus, I was trying to sing relatively softly. But Dianne heard me, and came over to listen. It didn't take much encouragement for me to perform most of my catalogue.
Dianne seemed to be quite pleased and flattered to receive what she referred to as a "private concert". With her permission (nay, encouragement), I performed an original song, "I Get the Blues": "I get the blues / goin' home to empty rooms. / I get the blues, it's nothing new. / When I have to face that empty space / Oh, I get the blues."
As a recently divorced person living in a 1700 sq ft house, she definitely identified.
Dianne was the second person to ask if I perform professionally.
As I mentioned prior to leaving, I had set myself the goal of seeing musical groups I had not seen before. As it turned out, I saw a mix of old and new. New acts included Bluestem, a cowboy group similar to Sons of the Pioneers; Still on the Hill, a folky-type due (I was unimpressed); Nick Charles; and Chris Jones and the Night Drivers. This last act I saw because Chris was the instructor for the Bluegrass Vocal workshop.
A highlight was Nick Charles. The festival puts out a daily newsletter, WV News, on a two-sided legal-sized sheet. In addition to a copy of that day's schedule and the previous day's contest winners, this newsletter has feature articles about sights and sounds in the campgrounds. The Wednesday edition of the WV News mentioned a campground which had created its own Internet radio station, Front Porch Radio.
A man and his wife set up this radio station. They both went through the campgrounds and invited camp pickers to come perform. They also invited professionals to perform. These performances - camp pickers and pros - were streamed live on the internet and will soon be archived and available at any time.
The only day Nick Charles was playing the festival was on Thursday. I had not planned to see him, due to guilt by association. Nick has been touring with fellow Aussie Tommy Emmanual, and I am not a Tommy fan.
I maintain that everyone should hear Tommy at least once, because he is an energetic and charismatic performer, plus he does things with the guitar most people wouldn't dream of. He's technically proficient (I picture him working on the scale every available minute), but he is not musical.
So - guilt by association - I assumed Nick Charles was the same type of player.
It just so happened that, when I found the location of the radio station, Nick Charles was the next scheduled performer. He proceeded to do a 30 minute set which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I almost made a point to catch old favorites, like Small Potatoes and John McCutcheon. A new favorite (from last year) is The Greencards, who play their own unique high-energy version of "New Grass".
A couple of final high points: Misty River performed before one of the acts I wanted to see, and since I came early, I got to hear their act as well. Misty River is comprised of four women who sing a mix of traditional, bluegrass, and folk tunes. The last time I saw them, I was not impressed; but this time they seemed much better.
For the final song of their set, they sang "God Bless America" a cappella. They mentioned they had sung it in 2001, a couple of days after 9/11, and someone had requested they sing it again.
The crowd stood up, as if this were the National Anthem. I normally avoid this sort of seeming jingoism, but I stood up as well.
The artist I had come for was John McCutcheon, who immediately followed Misty River. The last song of his set was "Not in My Name", which is an anti-war response to 9/11 and the events following. About 2/3 of the crowd stood up this time. And most sang the chorus (same as the title).
Next: ambience and final thoughts
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