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Friday, July 25, 2003 Des Concerts Lots of concerts. Sometimes it seems as though my guitar decided to die on me just when I would need it more (granted, this was a few months ago, but the point still stands--I think I borrow guitars now to play shows more than I ever used my own... or maybe it just seems that way since this is much more inconvenient). At any rate, I'm playing tonight at the Plymouth Coffee Bean, opening for Penumbrae, and I played this past weekend at Mennofolk, which bears a little review. First of all, Mennofolk is a Mennonite folk festival. Yeah, I didn't know they existed either. Anna Draper, who's playing the fiddle with me tonight, needed a guitarist for the show and through a contorted list of connections ended up asking me to play (by the way, I think that was the first time anyone's ever asked me to play with them solely for my guitar skills). So we practiced with three singers (there's a story on how we got that many singers too) and a cellist for a week--another interesting turn of events since I'm used to playing my own music, Anna and the cellist are used to playing together, and the singers are used to singing with each other... it was like having three groups perform under one name--and played the festival. Perhaps a bit surprisingly, it went quite well (it helps that there are some incredible musicians in that group), even though I know I screwed up some stuff, never having tried to play anything remotely bluegrass-sounding before. Anyway, the festival featured musicians ranging from Latin to bluegrass to pop, and though I was sick of hearing twang by the end of the day there were some amazing groups there. The twang-less ones I thought were worth checking out: Brad Yoder: Hilarious. And he has some incredibly well-crafted songs, especially in terms of wordplay. Andi and I: I can still sing you the chorus of "I am Leaving You," even though I only heard it once. Ben Regier: I never thought a solo hammer dulcimer could sound that good. Radiant: Their singer has great presence and the music is fun, flavored with Latin styles. Well, it's off to practice for tonight. Hopefully I'll see you there! ^ Top | 4:02 PM | | | 
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