A sexless post-festival

Because of the Great Lakes Folk Festival, I can't have sex. I also can't have oxen or fox. You can see how that would be a problem.

Somewhere in Valley Court Park on Saturday, I lost the "x" from my Scrabble game. (If you found it, please let me know. I can identify it, to prove it's mine.)

I mention this mainly because that was one of the few things that went wrong during the festival. Here are a few of my comments about it; please attach yours:

1) Best acts at the festival: Grupo Fantasma and Balfa Toujours. Here are two groups that create big, vibrant sounds. Grupo promised a four-piece horn section and delivered a five-piece, filled with zest and joy; it had two percussion players, one of them doubling as lead singer. Balfa Toujours has the essentials of a great Cajun band -- a fine fiddler and accordionist, with strong side men. Even on steamy days, they had people leaping around the dance floor zealously. Sweat glistened; people cheered. This was the festival at its best.

2) A catch: Grupo Fantasma needed the longest sound-check time in festival history. Other acts had 15 minutes, Grupo had a half-hour and sometimes took 40 minutes. It's great to have a big sound, but not if it takes a big time.

3) Almost the best act: Dominique Dupuis, the 20-year-old fiddler from a French-Canadian village. She's been compared to Natalie MacMaster at the same age; that's no exaggeration.

4) There can be no doubt that Dupuis is 20. She has holes in her jeans, her drummer is heavily tatooed and she has to brush her hair away to see her fiddle. That makes this a fresh generation of folk.

5) Some others were good, yet not as great as I had expected. Back of the Moon, a Scottish group, was OK, but lacked the fire and the zest of Irish groups. Elana James was endlessly pleasant, but rarely more. The best number from her group actually came when sideman Whit Smith sang a witty old cowboy song about cigarettes.

6) An aside: The native-American impact was immense. Asani made gorgeous harmonies; the basket-weavers did amazing things.

7) We've always heard that the native culture does splendid things with recycling. The basket-weavers take it further. When porcupines are run over or exterminated, the weavers are contacted; they use the quills for basketry. Few of us could get that much beauty out of road kill.

8) Some of these folksters take their ancient image in good graces. One joke: "Why are there no banjo players in 'Star Trek'? Because it's the future."

9) Dirk Powell is a fine fiddler (with his own band) and accordion player (with Balfa Toujours), but he also sat in on the banjo session and explained a bit of family history: Back when his grandfather heard of the three-fingered banjo method, he thought that meant he couldn't use his thumb. "That doesn't say much for my genetic background," Powell said. Eventually, the granddad learned it was for two fingers and a thumb; traditions were passed on.

10) I'll describe that "x" now, in case you find it. It has two diagonal lines, crossing each other at the center. If you find it, let me know. I'd really like to have sex again.

Comments

[Michael Motta]

Mike,

Here's the good news for you - no more tax!

Your having sex is going to depend upon "getting lucky" by being able to "shoot blanks" on the board and "a-callin' them exes".

[Ron Eggleston]

Mike,
Some of your comments were on target, but you missed the boat on others. Elana James and her group were excellent, and drew very enthusiastic crowd reactions. But you omitted any mention of one of the best acts, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. These young artists generated great energy and fun on their MAC performance. I heard more "buzz" about them throughout the festival than any other act. You also failed to even mention Henry Butler. I am no big fan of his, and his Valley Court evening performance before a huge crowd got more reaction than I thought it deserved. But his performance of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" before a sparse Valley Court crowd on Sunday was magnificent.