Old Palestine Concertina Weekend In East Texas

[gcoover]

It's that time again, time to start thinking about bringing yourself and your concertina to the East Texas piney woods for the 9^th annual Old Palestine Concertina Weekend.

 

Held in conjunction with the 12^th annual Palestine Old Time Music & Dulcimer Festival (www.oldpalmusic.com), this year it will be March 21-23, 2012, in Palestine, Texas.

Jody Kruskal will once again be the guest headliner and teacher, and we will also have two days of volunteer-taught classes for those who play English, Anglo and Duet, plus plenty of time for jamming and comparing instruments and tunes.

 

Last year we had over 20 concertina players from all over the US including Oregon, California and Maryland and New York.

 

This year, Dan Worrall will present a workshop on the old octave style of Anglo playing based on his recent book and CD “House Dance”. Gary Coover will be teaching beginning and Third Row Anglo and will be premiering his new 100-page tutor “Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style”. There’s even rumor there will be a Boer music player attending.

 

With luck concertina builder Harold Herrington might even be able to attend to talk about concertina construction and repair.

All in all, a fun weekend with good music, good friends and good BBQ, plus you get to meet and hear some of the country's finest old time musicians. And if you’ve never heard Sacred Harp singing, it’s almost worth coming just for that.

For more information watch this space at concertina.net or contact Gary Coover at gcoover(at)swbell.net.

[sidesqueeze]

Last year I attended this festival and had a great time there. I made a bunch of new friends and learned quite a bit. I've waited all year to hear the call for this festival, and I wouldn't miss it for the world!

 

We had some beginners and some world class players. As Gary said, there are all kinds of concertinas there, and surprisingly, some of the attendees can play all of them!

 

The weather in East Texas was delightful last March. I never needed my jacket.

 

There's also Texas barbequeue in the area, and fantastic Mexican food. Also, after trying the chicken-fried steak there, I believe I've worked my way up to being ready to try chicken-fried chicken this time!

 

Ken

[Reed Bellows]

EDIT: Having a bit of financial hardship, so I won't be able to attend this year. I hope everyone has a great time, and we'll see if I can swing it next time around.

Edited March 2, 2013 by Reed Bellows

[Dan Worrall]

I just made hotel bookings, and am primed to go. Looking forward not only to the music and people, but also the blooming dogwoods, bluebonnets and azaleas.

 

Sean Minnie has confirmed he is coming to Palestine this year. He is a great player of Boer music on the Anglo and the MacCann duet....I've asked him to please give us a workshop on Boer style playing....it is an amazing style, and hard to get a chance to hear it on this side of the ocean!

 

See you there.

 

Dan

 

 

[Jody Kruskal]

My hotel reservations are also confirmed. Can't wait to taste those fried okra nuggets again. This is really a good time and I'm looking forward to seeing you all there for some fine old-time squeezing!

[Dan Worrall]

Glad you are coming, Jody...always great fun.

 

Some more developments.

 

Harold Herrington, as some of you may know, is in poor health and will not be able to hold his usual repair workshop, which he has done ever since the beginning of this weekend workshop eight years ago. He will be greatly missed at this year's weekend.

 

Greg Jowaises says he'll be there, and has very kindly offered to fill in for Harold this year with a repair workshop of his own. He'll also be bringing some concertinas for display and/or sale, including some Carrolls if I heard right. That is wonderful news!

 

Gary tells me he is working on a final schedule, which will be posted soon. I told him I would hold a little session on playing in octaves, if anyone wishes to do that (wither straight-up octaves or Kimber style, depending on what anyone wants).

 

Gary is unveiling the first final copies of his new book on "English-style" anglo playing. It is an amazing work, and he'll be holding a workshop as well.

 

And as I mentioned earlier, Sean Minnie is coming, and I'm twisting his arm to teach us all a tune in the Boer style.

 

That is a LOT of variety! I know Gary is pulling together some other fun items, like a slow jam and some beginners workshops on various systems (in addition to Anglos, there should be players of all systems, including all four main types of duets).

 

See you there!

[Greg Jowaisas]

Many thanks to Dan and Gary for there enthusiasm and attention to details.

 

I'm sorry that Harold Herrington won't be there. Harold has always been a gentleman in our conversations and I was looking forward to meeting him.

 

I'll be bringing some handouts for diagnosing concertina problems and a sick patient or two for participants to practice on. These workshops usually take the shape of explaining how a concertina works, common things that go wrong, and how to diagnose and cure. But I'm open to any other repair and building topics that anyone wants to discuss.

 

Aside from the repair workshop I should be available Friday and a large part of Saturday to look at any problems with individual instruments and to talk concertinas in general. I plan to have a couple of Carroll Concertina anglos for people to try and a few englishes that are available for sale.

 

Sounds like a great time and I'm looking forward to meeting concertina players and participants.

 

Greg

[gcoover]

Fellow Hexagonists, Octagonists, Dodecagonists and Squarists,

 

It's two weeks to Old Pal Concertina Time (March 21-23), so here's an update and a preliminary schedule.

 

Activities and highlights this year will be:

 

• Jody Kruskal - Oldtime Anglo workshops featuring The Storms are on the Ocean, Can You Dance A Tobacco Hill, Throw the Old Cow Over the Fence
• Sean Minnie - South African/Boer Music workshop
• Dan Worrall - Octave-Playing for Anglo workshop
• Greg Jowaisas - Repair & Maintenance workshop
• Gary Coover - Harmonic Style Anglo workshop
• Ensemble Workshop featuring Welcome Welcome, Rose of the Redlands, Evening Shade, Northfield, Sons of Sorrow, Si Beag Si Mor
• Slow Jam, Tune Swap, Duet workshop (McCann, Crane, Jeffries, Hayden)
• Concertina Dinner at the Ranch House Restaurant

Of course there will be offsite expeditions to Sheps BBQ and to the little Mexican taqueria I can never remember the name of.

 

And I wouldn't be surprised if there are some late night sessions again this year - some have been absolutely magic, even if we were evenutally shut down by the late night security guard.

 

I've also attached our wonderful logo, created by famous cartoonist (and EC player) Carol Lay (www.carollay.com). If you go to www.zazzle.com anyone who wants to can get this logo on t-shirts and coffee cups. Guaranteed to make you play better, or at least show you to be a concertina fashionista.

 

So far I know we've got folks coming from New York, California, Michigan, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. It's going to be great fun, but we're really going to miss Harold Herrington - I'm sure we'll be able to come up with an appropriate moment of silence or moment of noise in his memory.

Gary

 

[gcoover]

Old Concertina Pals and New Concertina Pals -

 

Only one more week until the big 9th annual Concertina Extravaganza in the East Texas piney woods! Once again a jam-packed weekend of all kinds of concertina music for all kinds of concertina players and concertinas - English, Anglo, Crane Duet, Hayden Duet, McCann Duet, Hayden Duet.

 

If you're thinking of playing a particular type or make of concertina, this is an excellent opportunity to see and try out a huge assortment of different squeezeboxes.

 

To recap, Jody Kruskal is our headliner, Sean Minnie will be teaching Boer music, Greg Jowaisas will be doing a repair workshop, Dan Worrall will be teaching octave playing, Gary Coover (that's me) will be teaching a Beginning Anglo workshop and an Ensemble Workshop, Ron Wilson will be hosting a Slow Jam, and there will be other tune swaps and duet workshops and who knows what else what might happen - maybe even another late night session or Concertina Caterpillar?!?.

 

With the recent loss of Harold Herrington, we also definitely need to come up with an appropriate moment of noise or maybe even a full blown Irish wake in his honor.

 

I've been sending out music for most of the workshops, so once again, if you haven't been receiving those emails that means we don't know you're coming.

 

Friday night dinner will again be at the Ranch House Restaurant, 305 E. Crawford Street, Palestine, TX, at about 5:15pm (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g56414-d3134307-Reviews-The_Ranch_House-Palestine_Texas.html). Polish up your "party piece" tune(s) to regale your fellow diners with!

 

The website for the Old Pal Concertina t-shirts and coffee cups: www.zazzle.com.

 

The website for the festival; www.oldpalmusic.com.

 

And here's the street address of the festival:

 

Museum for East Texas Culture

400 Micheaux St
Palestine, TX

It's in a wonderful old 3-story brick Tudor-Gothic High School built in 1916. After you pay at the front door for the festival (we'll hit you up later for the $30 concertina surcharge), turn right and go down the stairs and you'll find us in our usual place, taking over two rooms in the basement at the base of the stairs.

Hope to see lots of old friends and make lots of new friends!

Gary

[Dan Worrall]

We just finished another great weekend at Palestine....our ninth. Kudos to Gary Coover for organizing it, and to the many players who were there and contributed.

 

One first this year is that we had players on all four duet types....Kurt Braun on Crane, Sean Minnie on MacCann, Gary Coover on Jeffries, and Jim Besser on Hayden. I hope someone posts a photo of that! Several of the duetists plus some of the Anglo and English players backed up Jody in his concert performance of an old Carter family song, Over the Ocean - quite a big band sound. Gary Coover's workshop on harmonic style Anglo helped several current single-note players get started on that, and Sean Minnie's Boer concertina workshop was a first peek at that style for nearly everyone. I attempted to teach one of Chris Droney's old time waltzes - a gem from the early 1850s - in Chris's octave style. Dunno how the English concertina and Slow Jam events went, as I was elsewhere. A strength of our weekend is that there is information on so much more than the latest hot Irish cross-row playing for Anglos. Nothing against that style - it is lovely of course - but these 2 1/2 days of workshops and concerts also stretch the mind a bit farther into other new ground, which is good for the well-rounded player. And seeing and hearing and (occasionally) jamming with all the other old time musicians on other instruments is always inspiring (to say nothing of the blooming dogwoods and the BBQ!).

 

Jody Kruskal held some very nice workshops for both Anglo and 'all' concertina types, and gave a great Saturday night performance during the old time music concert....Minnie the Mermaid was a winner, but he also nicely played an air dedicated to the memory of two of our fallen regular attenders who passed away this last month - Harold Herrington and Troy Young.

 

Greg Jowaises was here as well, and manned a repair booth most of the weekend, as well as held a repair workshop. It was especially nice because quite a few of the crowd did not know Greg and his very evident skills....now they do. Many thanks to Greg for helping us out, especially in a year in which Harold is no longer with us.

 

Just like last year, many of the concertina players held forth in their own late night session after the Saturday concert, and again closed the joint down, playing until the wee hours, and outlasting all the mere string musicians in other rooms. Not sure just how 'wee' those hours were, as I caved in and retired at 1:30 am....I think Jody and Gary and Ron Wilson and some of the others were there until 2-ish or later.

 

Hope to see you there next year!

 

----edited to add in someone I left out!---

Edited March 26, 2013 by Dan Worrall