Dear Ian and the List,
I have the good fortune of living in Seattle, where HG players are NOT
few and far between. May I encourage you to come to the Northwest
Folklife festival this year? This is a place where hurdy gurdy players
join to jam for the four days and, grab this, there's more than one jam
going at a time!
The Northwest Folklife festival is an annual festival held in Seattle
on Memorial Day weekend. It's free to those who need it to be free, and a
suggested $10 daily donation (or more) to those who can afford that. There
are about 19 stages going full time from Friday noon to Monday at 9 pm.
There're workshops, participatory dancing, presentation dancing, singers,
songwriters, narrative word stages. I can't begin to list the range. Lots
of food. Lots of crafts. Thousands of nice people. Don't take my word for
it; go to the website.
As you live relatively close by, you might find this a feasible plan.
Write your friends in Seattle now and book a bed or a spot on the floor.
If you'd like to attend the festival in luxe, there are many hotels near
Seattle Center.
Also, do consider coming to the Over the Water Hurdy Gurdy festival in
late September. You'll find lots of us hurdy gurdy players, and we are
VERY close to Portland (and some of us love to travel...)
Yours,
Chris Wright
On Jan 13, 2008 2:03 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> So those of us who play the Hurdy-Gurdy are few and far between. Probably
> the farther you get from France, the harder it is to find another HG player.
> From what I gather, the HG in France is often in ensembles with the
> Cornemuse, accordion, perhaps the fiddle. With the exception of the fiddle,
> these instruments can also be quite rare, or if the instrument isn't rare,
> then knowledge of the tunes and playing style is.
>
> How have those of you other lone HG players built ensembles given this
> problem? What I'm particularly interested in is what specific instruments
> and in what keys you found to be well suited to playing with the HG? I was
> thinking the B-flat penny whistle would be good for accompanying the HG on
> C-minor tunes (That way, you could find an Irish whistle player, give them a
> B flat whistle and away you go). What key of diatonic accordion would work
> best? Where would you suggest your guitar player capo to best work with the
> HG?
>
> Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
>
> -Ian Clemons
> Portland, Oregon
>
