The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes 2008, Day Three

I can't believe I am this tired. What did I do at Fiddle Tunes today? Sit on my heinie and play music, most of the time? Walk back and forth to different buildings, not so far apart? Okay, I did dance for an hour at a contradance workshop with my 15-year-old son T-Dawg.

I missed the 9:30 class this morning, but managed to get T-Dawg up and fed and over to the fort to dance by 11:15 a.m. for David Kaynor's contradance workshop for new dancers. I have been feeling guilty about the lack of dancing in his education, and felt this might be my last chance to initiate him into the mysteries. I was overjoyed that he finally consented. T-Dawg likes to spend time with the ladies, and I think it's important for him to have a way to enjoy their company without just milling about and....well, you know. He did very well in the dancing. After all, he is an athlete, and not without grace. I did my best not to....well, hover.

David is a very talented teacher who is warm and friendly and smiles a lot. He has a wonderful vocabulary to describe and explain what contradancing is all about, and makes you laugh and feel comfortable doing something you've never done before, or in my case, not for a long, LONG time (like the Dark Ages). He plays fiddle WHILE calling the dance, and he never overdoes the talking part. We all felt comfortable the whole time learning the ins and outs of the dance, and were never overwhelmed by details. David stressed that a lot of these details will just be picked up as we go along, and so he taught us very basic ways of doing things that are as natural as walking. In fact, that's how we began the workshop--walking to music. And by the end, we were happily dancing and swinging and changing direction. Thank you, David! (And I'm sorry, readers, you don't get a photo here; we were too busy having fun!)

I bought T-Dawg lunch afterwards at the Fort Worden Commons, which is run cafeteria-style. He and I must eat gluten-free, so we had to ask questions about the food. The Commons chefs are knowledgeable about different dietary needs, and there is always something we can eat. Though the servers seem to be in the dark about what is in the food, and must go ask. T-Dawg had the roasted chicken, salad from the salad bar, and ice cream; I chose the cream of asparagus soup and a salad. Beverages are included in the cost of a full meal, or soup and salad meal. I stored my fiddle in a coat room off the foyer. I had a dream last week that my fiddle was stolen, so I am kind of paranoid this week about leaving it places, and had to go get it to put it next to me, after we chose our food and headed to the dining room.

After lunch, T-Dawg headed off to see if he was needed in the Fiddle Tunes store. We agreed to get together at 3:00 so I could drive him to a dentist appointment. I rested on the grass for a while before my Cajun band lab. It felt so good to stretch out in the sun!

Before the Cajun band lab split up again to practice our different instrumental parts, some of us learned the words to our song, "Valse a Eunice." I think I'm going to give it a try. Cedric led the fiddlers again today, and we got to learn the melody to the tune (yesterday we learned the chords and two ways to bow them). He divided us into three groups and we took turns playing the different parts. Cedric is a fine young teacher. He takes his role seriously, and he got a big smile on his face when he finally got us all playing together well. Later on the guitar players and a drummer came into the group again, and we worked on putting it all together. Here we are, just breaking up for the day....



(above) The Cajun jam room, upstairs in the 205 building

Unfortunately, since I was quite immersed in the music, I completely forgot about T-Dawg's dentist appointment, and so did he! He called me at about 3:30 and I had to call the office to see if it was too late to get in. Too bad, he missed it! Oh, no, we are in deep doo-doo with the dental office now. Oh well.

I headed over to the 204 building for a 4:00 p.m. "Unplanned Band" with David Kaynor. I apparently missed this group on Monday. We worked on a jig and some cool Scandinavian tunes (I admit, I e-mailed him ahead of time to ask if he would please teach some of these). Would you believe I last heard him play in the early 80's at NEFFA, the New England Folk Festival? When we were both young and dumb (well, at least I was). New England is only a one-day drive from Michigan, where I lived at the time. That festival was my first introduction to live Scandinavian music. I heard David play with his brother (I think), heard Jane McBride play, and I also played in the halls quite a bit with Matt Fichtenbaum and friends. I learned how to dance a Swedish hambo by watching people's feet in the Natick High School gym. I finally took the initiative and asked someone to dance, and I could actually do it, sort of!

Enough, already. I am at the end of my day. I had planned to go back and dance some more tonight, but it's not going to happen, I'm too tired, and I don't want to miss Cedric's Cajun workshop in the morning. I hope to learn more than one Cajun tune this week. And here's where I'll leave you today, between the 204 building and the Commons, the next stop for most of the participants....