Welcome to the pond

This was an odd weekend. The weather was sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy, but mostly it was COLD! Cold enough I had to wear my sweatshirt in my room, and I hate that. The good part about this weekend was that the Willamette Valley Folk Festival was held, as usual, right behind our building. So I went out to watch some of the acts, and I was very pleased with what I heard. On Friday, I first caught a band called "Orange" with a guy on bass, a guy on guitar, and another guy on keyboards. Slower, ballad-style songs as far as I can recall. The second act I saw on Friday was called "Taarka." They are from Portland and they feature a gal on violin, a guy on mandolin/guitar and a guy on djembe and other hand percussion. They were REALLY good and had some faster paced songs mixed with some slower, jazzier sounds. I really enjoyed them, they were pretty funky.

On Saturday I ventured out in the afternoon and first caught the tail end of a set by a YOUNG bluesman from Eugene named David Jacobs-Strain. He was very good, playing guitar and adding a slide to it sometimes. He has a very deep, loud bluesy voice and got the crowd pretty worked up. I can still remember the chorus to one of his songs, one he played with a guy on mandolin and another on, yes, djembe. The djembe the guy played was actually made from a fallen tree on the University campus, very interesting. The second act I caught was "Strung Out," a bluegrass outfit from Santa Cruz, Ca. of all places. Mandolin, guitar (and a very GOOD guitar player playing it!), upright bass and banjo. They REALLY got us worked up, as any good bluegrass band should. All the hippies had a blast dancing to those American mountain sounds.

The third act I saw that day was an Irish/Celtic group called "Toad in the Hole." They were quite amazing!! They featured a guy on Bodhran (Irish goatskin drum), a guy playing a weird looking bass, a gal on tin whistle, a really . . . IRISH looking singer wearing a very turn of the century-looking workers' hat (I don't know what else to call it!), a gal on violin, and a guy on guitar. The guitar was quite a good touch, and the singing really made the experience over the top. Most of the songs they did had to do with drinking, no surprise there. They even brought out a chick on Highland pipes a few times!! Always a treat to hear the pipes. To show you how IRISH these people were, they were selling shot glasses with their logo on it over by the stage. These guys got the crowd very worked up and happy, and we DEMANDED to hear one more song after their set was nearing a close. We got our extra song, by God!! After that, I went to dinner a very happy music lover. It was so good to hear and SEE these great acts. They are regular people just like me, they don't earn a whole lot of money playing the music, if any. They just love to perform, and that's what music is all about. You don't have to pay hundreds of dollars to see good music, not when you can go to free or cheap festivals like the Willamette Valley festival, and see good music performed by good people.

School is coming to a close. The weeks are passing by and finals are getting closer and closer. And I'm not nearly as nervous or sad as I thought I'd be. Somehow I don't think it's hit me that I'm not coming back here in fall. When I say goodbye to the dorms, it's gonna be forever. It's been fun, that's for sure, and I'm gonna try to squeeze as much fun out of this as I still can.