NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE
Seattle, Washington
Memorial Day Weekend, 2001
as noted in "MCFS News" Summer 2001

A couple weeks ago The Sacred Cow Harmogenizers in Seattle sent out a general e-mail for shape note singers in the area to join them at NW Folklife, so I decided to take my kids and go. We arrived at about 11:30 on Saturday morning, found a program which indicated 18 official events going on at one time, and sat down on the grass to watch Trejdksnitis, a Seattle Latvian dance group backed by a local drummer and two musicians from Denver. We watched Russian singers, an Irish dance band and a Scottish storyteller. My kids, hot and bored with the music, ran around in the huge fountain. I went to see my singer/mouthbow friend John Palmes from Juneau at the "North of the Border" show hidden down in a basement theatre. Then we practiced in a parking garage, and, moving to an auditorium, my second grade daughter and I "performed" with The Sacred Cow on risers as if we were a choral group...Sacred Harp is always done as participatory music in four facing sections, so the historical point of what we were doing would be missed by the audience...and I was surprised by so many people out there listening!

I took the kids back to the hotel and a TV set and returned as it was starting to get dark, standing to watch the rough young audience for Spinnaveders, three men at turntables with the Hip Hop show. Then, giving up on the scheduled performances, I took photos of street musicians...a man playing metal junk tied to his chest, breakdancers, African percussion, a mandolin player. It was too dark to see so I went inside and listened to the Northwest Pelimannit and danced in an overcrowded chaos humppa mixer. Sunday we went back, but it was hard to compete with the space needle and the computers at the childrens museum. I heard Israeli dance music from the museum, but was able to break my kids loose to see Morris dancers, a steel band, and a Polish dance group.

There is a totally wonderful wealth of music at NW Folklife, and a lot of local people go through who would not otherwise hear it. It is a great opportunity for the mostly regional musicians to see each other, though John was the only person I knew. For myself, I was frustrated at spending so much time in The Dalles relatively isolated from live international music, and then find so much of it in one place at one time that it was impossible for me to see even the European performances!

gennett at gorge dot net

The Columbia Gypsy