Still More Wheatland
Monday, September 11th, 2006Saturday night after we went back into the main festival area, we found dinner and I bought earrings from two different vendors… one ceramic/bead artist and one hot glass artist. My friend Margabeth wasn’t there again this year. When she does come I can sit in her booth and chat a while, and it is quite a pleasant break. Not this year, anyway… maybe next.
Of course, if you play a Heftone bass, you spend a lot of time chatting with people about “what IS that instrument?” at a festival like this. During the daytime when people have had more coffee than beer, I enjoy chatting about it. After all, I really enjoy the instrument and I’m sold on its strengths (the best of which is that it is so small it fits in the back seat of my New Beetle).
The later in the day it gets, the less likely the inquirer will remember our conversation the next day, and thus the less likely I’ll go into detail. After dark, my answer most often is “It’s a bass.” This is an accurate answer but it lets me keep walking toward the next jam session without stopping. Fortunately, in the dark the instrument is not so obvious as I go by.
I spent time talking to a pleasant gentleman about the bass around noon on Saturday. He was quite interested. I could tell by his voice/dialect that he must be from Africa. I don’t know why I didn’t ask about where he was from, because I have a deep love for the African people I met when I was on my trip there and I’m always interested to hear about one more country I might not know much about yet. Africa is such a huge huge place, it’s hard to even comprehend it all.
Later in the evening I looked to the stage when I heard an African band and there was the same gentleman in the band playing what I think was a marimba. Drat. I really wish I’d chatted with him more. They played such a great show (the main musician was Mamadou Diabate of Mali, and the guy I talked to was one of his three backup musicians, the gentleman at far left in the photo here).
After the concerts of the day had concluded, we went back to our friends with the wonderful three-sided jamming tent. This time there was room for us. Their heater was going (as well as a heater in the middle of a field might be), and I snuggled myself in that tent at the spot which had the least chance of catching any wind.
Brian and I took turns singing requests for our friends (who don’t hear us very many times a year) and listening to them sing for us. This group is all about singing harmonies. I just love them. When they are playing, I can’t usually follow along with all the unexpected chords, but I don’t mind just sitting and lstening. I knit a whole baby hat on Saturday while listening to others play, and that suited me just fine.
We played music there until something like 2am, and then toddled back and wrapped up in every last bit of clothing/blankets we had. We slept as best we could, Brian did better than I did. I think I got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep when I finally got warm enough.
However, at some point it is just time to get vertical so I got out of the tent and started my Sunday. At least there was a tiny hint of sun just as I was getting going. That really helped my optimism level for a while, until I could get my first cup of tea (which Brian found and brought back to the tent for me… he is so good to me).
We got food and then went back to see the jamming-tent singing friends. Many of them were already packed up and saying goodbye (they have longer drives than we do). However, one of their friends came down and asked us would we please come to her camp and sing a few numbers for her friends? Her friends are from the U.K. and they in turn had friends and family who played ukulele.
Now, in England, the most popular uke player of all was and still is George Formby Jr. who played a banjo uke and was a comic, playing novelty numbers on stage and in movies. He was brilliant, both as a performer and as a uke player. Many people from the UK do not know about the type of uke music that we play. These folks had family who owned both banjo ukes and the more standard wooden ukes such as the one Brian plays.
We do not play any George Formby tunes but Brian had enough novelty numbers to keep them quite happy, indeed. We played a sort of mini-concert and then a guy came by on guitar who we’ve played with over the years. He sang an original number about Miami, I don’t remember all about it but it was incredibly well-crafted and we very much enjoyed that piece.
And just as quickly as we started that session, it ended and we dispersed. This is the way it goes at festivals. Wheatland has more jamming than most of the other festivals we’ve attended but it is like a leaf blowing in the wind, it changes by the moment.
Before it all was over, we found our way to the Musicians’ Campground where several of our friends were, and we played some tunes there. Banjo Jim from the Blue Water Ramblers (Grand Rapids area) was there, and as always that jam was delightful.
When Jim had to go, we moved to a different (less windy) corner and four of us jammed more. There was one banjo, one Heftone bass, and two soprano ukuleles (however each uke was tuned differently, for those uke players who follow this blog). Much, much fun!!!
But all things must come to an end. I went looking for a cup of tea to buy. Only one vendor still had hot water, and that was the fancy coffee vendor. Fine, I’m good with that… hot water and tea is a very important thing on a cold and breezy end-of-Wheatland Sunday. We stayed until the bands were all done. We looked one more time for folks to jam with. It was just plain all over. We headed home…
Fortunately, we found that there is one more festival left in Michigan this season. We will be heading to The Annual Earthwork Harvest Gathering next weekend. It’s on the Earthwork Farm, where Seth Bernard and a bunch of other cool young musicians and creative people live. Here’s the information:
Friday – Sunday, September 15 – 17th, 2006
4399 N. 7-mile Rd., Lake City, MI
Camping available
Food vendors on site
No dogs are allowed!!
We both have engagements on Saturday so we will just be going up there for Friday to jam as much as we possibly can. For non-musicians, there are many performers lined up… an amazing number/quality of musicians.
And if $25 (a good price for this sort of thing) won’t work for you, they say this on the website:
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS to help the gathering run smoothly. Donate 4-6 hours of your time in exchange for free festival admission.
People can volunteer at the gate!
So… we said goodbye to Wheatland for another year, but it is not yet goodbye to the outdoor music festivals of 2006. Yet. One more time, my friends…
Photos: 1)Me with Heftone Bass, playing with Brian at Middleground/Wheatland. Thanks to Lynne Sahlgren for taking the photo, 2) African band (Mamadou Diabate and friends), 3)Jam session late night in the cold, 4)Ukulele Jam in musicians’ campground.