The Call of Music

The Call of the Music

I am a folk music and storytelling junkie. I love listening to old folk songs and spend most of my driving nowadays listening to stories. I wasn’t always that way.

I always liked music and even played the guitar and harmonica in my youth, but it wasn’t until I got my first teaching job, that really got into folk. A colleague of mine suggested that I go and see the Philadelphia Folk Festival (https://pfs.org/philadelphia-folk-festival/). This is a three day festival of music and food that takes place every summer in an old farm north of Philadelphia. You pay for admission for the weekend and there must be some local inns or motels where you can stay, but the majority of the people that attend camp out right on the grounds in an area that is set aside for camping.  It’s sort of the folk version of Woodstock. Only this happens annually. There are folk singers and groups from all over the world that perform. There’s a children’s area where storytellers, jugglers and children’s performers display their talents. There are open areas for people to just bring their instruments and jam. Though the incredible jamming that goes on happens all night throughout the campground. And thousands of people attend.

Once introduced to the Philly folk festival, I was hooked. Coming back to the start of school left me energized to add so many more songs to my classroom. 

It also got me to go to the Clearwater Revival Festival (https://www.clearwaterfestival.org/) in Croton-on -the-Hudson, New York. This one I believe was started by Pete Seeger. It too had multiple stages and lots of people. For this one, there wasn’t camping, but it was close enough to my sister’s house in New Jersey that I could travel to daily. It is every year in June.

Then there was the Old Songs Festival (https://festival.oldsongs.org/) in Altamont, New York, also in the Summer each year. Only for this one, I gave up on camping and chose the comfort of local motels. Old songs not only included multiple stages but dancing also.

I got to know a lot more about folk music through these festivals. I even went to some music camps, Pinewoods Music and Dance camp (https://www.pinewoods.org/camp-sessions/session-schedule/) in Plymouth, Massachusetts

and Fiddle and Dance camp (https://ashokan.org/camps/) in Ashokan, New York. 

As I said, I became a Folk junkie. 

Then there was storytelling. Some of which I got interested in through the folk festivals, but more so by going to the National Storytelling Festival (https://www.storytellingcenter.net/festival/) in Jonesborough, Tennessee. 

Each of those festivals and camps, provided me with experiences that created the person that you see today. It even helped, by chance or fate, to find the person I love and married.

But that’s a tale for another day.