Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Our first weekend at FLaRF...

Hey all...
So it all began Saturday morning.  The rains passed over in the night and drifted along (after wetting everything for the past week) and the skies cleared slowly.  It was a fun beginning-the 'Occasionally Baroquen Consort' or "Ein Klein Morgenmuzik" group assembled on stage for our first 10 am morning jam session! A few times the band hit a groove and it was truly magical!
Our instrumentation?  2 Harps, 3 violins, viola da gamba, vielle, upright bass, tenor and soprano recorders, guitar and some singing as well! 
It is a thrill for me to be part of such a musically talented group...from the sounds of us tuning on stage to the applause at the end of songs it is just uplifting and fun.

All the day was filled with reunions with good friends...people we only see at this faire...for the next 4 weekends...thus far, it seems that 2012 is treating people pretty well-ourselves included.  ; )
I would be hard-pressed to choose a 'favorite moment' of the day on either Saturday or Sunday as they were both filled with special moments of music and camraderie. 
Musically speaking-we begin our day with the Consort and end it with the new 'Musician's Revels' or Pubsing...with everyone on stage and jamming together on songs!  It is a great feeling to be sharing a stage with everyone...it is an excellent way to end the day!

Saturday night we went out to Duffy's Sports Bar with Rob & Deb & Star & Mikal...I went light on dinner so I could treat myself to some fried cheesecake.  Yum! 

Yesterday was student day at FLaRF and it began on a fun note...there was nothing on the schedule at the Half Clef stage until 11...so members of the Consort got together and decided we would have our morning Renaissance music jam...then while we were getting ready to play, Misha (of Wolgamot) started singing "You are my Sunshine"...and Erik of Iron Hill Vagabonds JUMPED right in with lyrics and fiddle...and 2 bars later ALL OF US were playing and singing-5 verses of a decidedly BLUEGRASS version of it!  It was pretty @$&^ impressive I have to say that we all found the right key right away and sounded polished!!!  It was just too much fun!

The general consensus yesterday was that the kids were much better behaved this year-and very inquisitive-I did get a few good questions from some of them...and most were polite. 
I did have a definite low point to my Monday...I went to pick up my Psaltery case after our last set and knocked into Charry's quatro...which fell to the stage and smashed.  AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
For those of you wondering-a quatro is a four stringed instrument in the guitar family...

Yes, it was an accident...a horrible accident...it KILLED me that I broke his instrument.  I told him in no uncertain terms that I would replace it or have it fixed (which may or may not be possible-the body is pretty cracked)...and he was very sweet about it but I still feel horrible.  Jay found a Sam Ash music store nearby that said they had a quatro-we picked it up and ran it over to Charry after faire only to find that no, it was more of a tenor uke and the sound from the broken quatro was still better than this replacement...bleah.
The clerks at Sam Ash were very understanding and we returned the quatro without a problem...Charry found one on line that he said would do so when we got back to Star's I ordered it...
I hope, hope, hope that it will turn out to be what he needs. 
I also never ever want to break another instrument...ever.  No, not even the Erhu that Jay has even though it sounds like a dying cat.

Today has gotten off to a limping start...phone calls and bookkeeping...next comes laundry...and cleaning and organizing garb in our room-it does tend to get everywhere during weekends-or as I like to call them-work days.  I also have a pile of music to rehearse and get into my head.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.
Abby

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