Topic: Port Townsend 2009

[uncle bud]

Highlights for me:
-Weenie housing!  I made it through the whole week without hearing "Got My Mojo Workin'!" (until about 5 am this morning...)

LOL. Wish I could have made it to do a bunch of playing with you Mike, but alas some home renovations got the better of me. Next year. I hope that Alvin and Dom Flemons are back in 2010.

Jed, workshop interruptus again? And what's the new guitar?

UB

[lindy]

Personal highlight--and a selfish one--was on Tuesday evening. When I slipped out the information that it was my birthday, Cheick Hamala's first word's were "Where is a guitar?" and he, along with Mousa Konate, played a song that is played for all celebratory events in West Africa. Best gift ever.

Due to the smaller number of participants, I sensed a less intense feeling to the workshop this year than in recent years past, and I think for the better. Those who came were treated to lessons from some of the best on a 6-to-1, 5-to-1, or smaller basis. That set the stage for strong teacher-student connections.

Then there were the individual moments to take home. John Dee Holeman and Phil Wiggins fronted a band on Wednesday night, and along the right-hand side of the stage were all of the New Orleanian and some other monster musicians, absorbed in watching the band do the electric blues as it should be done.

We remembered John Cephas in a low-key but powerful memorial in which an emotional Steve James held up his mando to the sky, offering it to John wherever he might be. Followed by a joyful second line parade to celebrate John's life.

I had a very strong image in my mind of Jarron Paxton and Dom Flemons at the 2059 Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop, as the old guys showing the young 'uns how to play Blind Blake and Gus Cannon.

For the current generation, Corey Harris and Alvin Youngblood Hart proved themselves to be inspiring players. They play the melodies that we're all familiar with, but they have the talent and insight to make each song his own. Simultaneous creativity and preservation. 

This workshop had lots of qualities of transition, a word that some people find much easier to swallow than "change." Congratulations and thanks to Corey and Peter for their vision and for putting it all together.

Lindy

[Mike Brosnan]

Highlights for me:
-Weenie housing!  I made it through the whole week without hearing "Got My Mojo Workin'!" (until about 5 am this morning...)

LOL. Wish I could have made it to do a bunch of playing with you Mike, but alas some home renovations got the better of me. Next year. I hope that Alvin and Dom Flemons are back in 2010.

Jed, workshop interruptus again? And what's the new guitar?

UB

Yeah, you were missed UB.  You too Wax.  I was able to steal a bunch from Alex, but I hope I can steal from y'all next year too.    
Ditto on Alvin and Dom returning.  As well as "that Ari guy".
Since I'm here, I'll answer for Jed...  He just got a sweet little parlor sized Republic resonator (The Resolian).  First Republic I've played and I was definitely impressed.  I also got to play a Republic Tricone which was equally impressive.  I'm thinkin' a lil' more seriously about a Republic uke...

Jed-
Re: Saturday after midnight...
The aluminum foil hat scene was in the kitchen, along with most of the Moonlighters, Cleome, Hook and Lauren's daughter (Zoey?).  I was in the living room recording Jerron, George Rezendez (sp?), Dom, et al.  Personally, I think Friday night was the more lively musical scene (at least in the living room), but there were some great moments on Saturday as well.  George, Jerron and Dom together is a beautiful thing.  

One more personal highlight:  Watching the joy on Cheick Hamala's face as he discovered the kazoo.  Someone joked "I think we've just changed the face of world music as we know it."

[Cleoma]

Well as others have said, it was another great week.  My own experience was unfortunately strongly adversely affected by the news I heard right before I came to Blues Week, that Mike Seeger's health had taken a turn for the worse.  On Wed. early AM of Blues Week, Mike's wife Alexia emailed me to say that they were leaving the hospital to go home to hospice care.  They are home now, with Mike's sibs and children, waiting.

I was so strongly affected by this, I really have no words to express it. I apologize for being so bummed out all week. Mike has been a mentor and a friend to me since I was 16 years old, and my husband Eric also (since Eric was 16 which was about 10 years before me).  We've spent a lot of time with Mike over the years, at his house and at ours. I have just spent much of the past 2 years working on a documentary film about the New Lost City Ramblers (of which Mike was a member) and one of my many jobs was finding archival photos and footage. (the film is done now, website is http://www.alwaysbeenarambler.org I spent a lot of time looking at Mike, listening to MIke, talking with Mike on the phone, emailing Mike, etc.  Anyway I am sorry but I just did not feel like doing a lot of partying, I couldn't really get over my shock and grief.  I hope I'll get to come back again and if that happens I promise to let my inner party animal loose.

There was so much great music this week.  I loved hearing the African musicians, esp. the balophone.  And John Dee Holman, that guy is living proof that major groove knows no age.  He has a totally amazing right hand.  I loved hearing him jamming.  Playing music with Del Rey and Steve James is always a joy and it's something I don't get to do very often.  There was much more too but I won't go on and on. 

Oh - one more thing -- I hung out a little bit with John McElvee, the new Executive Director of Centrum, and was mightily impressed with his thoughtfulness and smarts.  At first glance he doesn't seem like he would be super adventurous but I think there is more there than meets the eye.  I have a connection with him, he and my younger brother were dorm-mates at school, and he knows my sister Jane too.  I've met him before, but had never really sat down and talked with him.  We should give him as much support as we can --- he has a hard row to hoe in these bad economic times, but I believe that he totally "gets" the mission of Centrum and of Blues Week.  He is a bass player who has played classical and jazz and I'm hoping next year we'll see him jamming in 204; right now I think he's kind of overwhelmed with the new job.

 If anyone reading this came to one of my fiddle classes, and wants the MP3s of the source material, send me your email address --- don't message me here, just email me:  suzy@ericandsuzy.com

Thank you Weenies for your super contributions to Blues Week!!
Suzy Thompson