Life, Family and the Celtic Music Festival

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My life has been on hold.

My family declared me missing.

Why?

Well, because this last weekend and part of last week was the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival.  This year, Dan was the stage manager. Oh boy… What this translates into is that he had to make sure things got done. Mostly to do with sound and lights. This year’s theme was “From the Appalachians to the Rockies”. This festival was also special in that our daughter Morgan got a scholarship to attend the entire festival. The caveat is that she has to write a scholarly paper about the music/culture as it migrated from Scotland and Ireland to Appalachia.

Things started winding up on Wednesday. (ie, things got busy!) Dan was hunting equipment and doing his best to be in three places at once. Thursday afternoon, we had to be in Cuchara at the Dog Bar by 1pm for a “Ceilidh at the Dog Bar”. It was a smattering of the musicians giving everyone a sample of what was to come. Funny part is that one of the bands called the Old Blind Dogs got lost. So, we were making jokes about the Blind Dogs needing a seeing eye dog (guide) to get to the Dog Bar.

Then it was down to Gardner for  a “Taste of things to Come”. This was a ceilidh with the musicians playing teasers. The best part of this event is always Jack Yule. He and his wife Barbara are the reason we have this lovely event. His dry Scots sense of humor makes us all giggle. Lovely time! Of course, I baked two carob mayonnaise cakes for the potluck performers dinner. 🙂 The concert was great and we got home late. On the way back, a car ahead of us looked ‘wrong’. There were no tail lights. Brakes, but no tail lights. So, we followed them all the way back (27 miles) to make sure that no one hit them from behind. When we got to the junction, we pulled up beside them and told them why we had followed them. They were very grateful. Later on, I found out that she was one of the festival harp teachers, Nancy Bick Clark. She was very sweet and so happy that we’d done that. How could we not. Taking care of people is one of those things we do during the festival.

Friday… Free picnic at Uptop. We had a ceilidh which was fantastic. When we got there a piper was playing. I thought it would be our friend Jim Conley. No, it was a young man dressed in 1800’s cowboy gear with full claymore, plaid, knife and sixshooter. Wow! Later on, we found that this young man could dance a jig…with spurs on and sing. Wow!

The concert was great, but… we had to pack up all the gear and get to La Veta for a performance called Wickedly Funny Songs and Tales. We were a little late, but it went fine. Once we pulled our equipment for the second time that day, we had to head to Walsenburg for the big evening concert. “Scotland Meets Appalachia”. This was the Old Blind Dogs and David Coe. The Dogs had a new fiddler with them named Claire Mann. She was great. Dan ran the lights for this concert and it went very well.  Once again, we got home Very late. (see Jaye, Dan and Morgan. see Jaye, Dan and Morgan fall asleep 5 minutes after they got home…)

Saturday was crazy in it’s own way. We spent most of it running around La Veta making sure that sound was available wherever it was needed. Our biggest afternoon event was a concert and demonstration of harp and fiddle. David Coe played fiddle and Aine Minogue played harp. We were at the Methodist church in La Veta. It was called, “They met Here: Irish Harp and Appalachian Fiddle”. I knew that they had played together once before about three years ago, but honestly worried that the mix would be like chalk and cheese. That fear lasted about 6 notes. It was a beautiful concert and discussion.

The concert that night at the Fox in Walsenburg was “From County Clare to Appalachia”, with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill performing. I’d heard them twice on Thursday and was really looking forward to this performance. It started out with two Appalachian fiddlers, Cleek Schrey  and Stephanie Coleman. Cleek does the flat foot dancing or clogging. Really cool. They play so well. Then… Oh My Gods!!! How do you describe a fiddle that starts out slow and then works to a beat so rapidly that you can barely tap your foot that fast? Take the time to look up Martin and Dennis on YouTube. Amazing. Simply Amazing. The crowd wept, shouted, clapped and acted more like a rock concert audience than a bunch of Celtic music lovers. Three or four standing ovations. After they played, the four of them played. It was magical. Simply magical. Afterwards, home, bed and ZZZ’s. Oh, and we remembered to eat dinner!

Sunday. Sunday was “How many places can we be at once day”. We split the sound system three different directions at one point. We had a Dulcimer class with Wilson and McKee. Then we had a demonstration/talk/performance on Gailic Songs by Margaret Bennett. Once again in the Methodist church. I got to run the sound for that one as Dan had to set up for the ceilidh in the park. A bit nervous, but I’ve been learning to run the sound board. Margaret is amazing. Another one worth hearing. Her voice… oh my. Once that was finished, I headed to the park where the last concert of the festival was being held in the park.

Now, David Enke, who usually does a lot of the sound work for the festival had another engagement, so Dan got to run the concert. David’s equipment and Dan’s brain. 🙂 It started out with Roger Landis and David Coe. Everything was going well and then there was a change over. All the fiddlers got up on stage, joining Roger and David.  Martin, Claire, Cleek, Stephanie, Arlene Patterson and then Dennis and the rest of the Old Blind Dogs. Of course everyone was trying to plug in or find a mike and all the careful layout that David and Dan had done went away. Dan was now flying/mixing by the seat of his pants. Then there was another break and all the singers from the festival got up on stage. Ed Miller, Jennie McAvoy, Robbie O’Connell, Margaret Bennett and a choir of singers who’d been learning songs for the last three days joined in. Add to that a couple of fiddlers and I think there were nearly 30 people on stage. And yes, they too were looking for mikes or pick ups. Aieee!!!! Dan was sweating! Yes, he had no idea of who was where. However, he managed. He managed beautifully! 🙂 The sound for the whole concert was great! And no, it isn’t just my opinion. Loads of people commented on how well it went and he even had someone buy him a beer. 🙂

After that concert we packed all of David’s stuff up and stowed it and then went to the after festival ceilidh. Dan got his beer, we relaxed and after an hour or so, we packed the last of our equipment up and went home. By now it was nearly 8pm. We ate dinner and were in bed by 9:15pm. Gad it had been a long weekend of 14-16 hour days. Lots of wonderful music. Tons of things to do and lots of friends to visit with or meet. It was a great festival.

Now to get back to ‘normal’. Yawn… Still exhausted.

Oh, and Chas, In answer to your question… Yes. I went to the festival. Did you?

Heatwave!!!!!

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It was nearly 65 today!!!! It was soooo nice to open doors and let the air flow through the house. I did a bit of housework and general tidy up. It really needed it. I had to restack the wood pile too. Why? Because I needed to get to the cat carriers.

A friend of Morgan’s lives on a ranch up in Gardner. Liz and her grandparents wanted some barn cats. Now, I know that it helps when you can send a mom and kittens. I had been looking for someone who’d be willing to take seven cats. Then Spike, Daniel’s pit bull which lives with us started targeting Five, our cat. This meant that we had two choices. Confine Five to a life on the front porch, or find him a new home. Liz’s grandma said that they would take all 8 cats. So, today we drove up with them to Gardner. It seems odd not to have the cats and kittens in the den, but there are the two little tomcats that come to the door each morning for breakfast. I will just get my cat fix with them.

I’m plugging away at two classes this session. Personal Finances and Principles of Business. The most frustrating thing is that most of this stuff is aimed at the 18-25yr olds. sigh….Trying not to get bored or cheezed off with the class.

The rest of life is quiet. Dan is working on our website for LoboSavvy. I probably ought to read or do some knitting. Just feel a bit at loose ends at the moment.

And the Brides wore Red and Black!!!

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This event deserved it’s own post.

A friend of mine named Jessie and her significant other Tiffany got married today. I’ve known Jessie for years, and she fell head over heels for Tiffany a few years ago. They decided to hell with the rest of the world and have a pagan handfasting.

So, the wedding was today in Gardner. We were suppose to be there by 4pm, when the wedding/handfasting was suppose to start. However, you have to understand that Gardner runs on something called Gardner time. Sort of like Pagan time. John, Beth and I got there at 3:55pm. Everyone was running around like stoned chickens. 🙂 This was a B.Y.O.B. party. Now, I am not sure whether that was bring your own bottle or bong.  Some of the people there were spliffy enough to give you a contact high just saying hello. 🙂 It was interesting in that I knew more people than either John or Beth. Sort of fun to play the social butterfly. Ginny was there with Nadia, so I got to play with my granddaughter. An hour later, the handfasting started.

Jessie wore a red gothy dress complete with hoop skirt and black lace at the bottom. Black tennies with sparkly red laces. B&W tights with skulls on them. Her hair was bright burgandy and spiky. Very nice. Tiffany had most of her head shaved except for a thin mohawk straight down the center, also dyed red. She had on red “bondage pants.” The kind that have buckles, straps and chains all over them and the legs are about 2ft wide. Her shirt was black and the tie was red. Over it all, she had this fantastic frock coat. Also covered in buckles and chains to immitate lace. The tails were a good 3ft longer than she was tall. Really cool that the “groom” had the train and not the bride.

The priestess used a standard Wiccan ritual. She wrapped their hands in various colored cords and then pronounced them handfasted. Very sweet and you could tell that Jessie and Tiffany were over the moon. This was followed by lots of food and a cake. The decoration on top of the cake was a gate in the tradition of the Adamms Family. Complete with bats on top. Black and red roses, etc. Very goth. Very J&T.  They had the first dance complete with everyone at the party and then we had to head home as it had started to snow.

What a change from Monica and George’s wedding in the Catholic church a year ago. We certainly wouldn’t have had to explain any of this to Morgan had she been with us! Nice to wear the pentacles out too. Nadia had lots of fun playing with mine. In and out of my shirt, giggling away. She’s only 18 months old.

Home by 7pm. I came over to 520 to check on the dogs and Dan was already in bed. He had been up all night. So, I’ll find out how his job interview went tomorrow.