I just
got back from East Texas where I was playing and teaching
concertina workshops at the Palestine Old-Time Music and Dulcimer
Festival. We
sure had a big time and I’ve put a few sound bites and photos here
so you can check it out.
April 2007
We were
playing Anglo, English and two kinds of Duet concertinas and ranged
from beginner to advanced. To find common ground I taught two
old-time tunes including Angelina Baker, transcribed below from my
playing by Dan Worrall. We learned the tune and chords, then worked
for quite a while on the rhythm, combining back beat accents with
partially dotted eighth notes. Quite a trick if you’ve never done
it before. Each player picked either bass, chords, melody or
harmony parts and if you click on the tune you can hear what we
came up with.
Click the tune below to hear the MP3 file.
Hymn and
shape note singing was an important part of the festival and many
of the instrumentalists included that material in their concerts as
well. The concertina contingent worked up this glorious arrangement
of the shape note song “Northfield”.
My host, the extraordinary Dan Worrall, showed me a great time. On our way to and from the airport, he showed me the sights and I got up to speed on East Texas culture.
All of
the south is famous for Barbecue and I had some great examples of
that as well as fabulous Mexican food. I also got to sample another
southern treat, Chicken Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and white
gravy, fried okra and spinach on the side with a tall iced tea,
unsweet.
I had a
great time at the festival and really enjoyed seeing East Texas.
The dogwood trees were in bloom and masses of bluebonnets covered
the low rolling hills. Here I am sitting among the flowers and
conversing with the bees.
