Fourth Annual Palestine (texas) Squeeze-in

[Dan Worrall]

All,

 

It may be cold dreary weather outside for most of us now, but there is something to look forward to: the fourth annual Palestine Concertina Squeeze-In, which shall hold forth within the Palestine Old Time Music Festival; it is only a couple of months away! The festival occurs Thursday through Saturday, March 27-29, in Palestine, a small and picturesque town in northeast Texas (http://www.geocities.com/palestinefestival/ ). The dogwoods and azaleas should be in full bloom, and for concertina players there will be lots going on:

 

· Among the headliners of the overall OT festival (an impressive lot of various old time musicians) are two prime concertinists: Jody Kruskal and Mark Gilston.

 

· Continuing the general theme of American Old Time music on the concertina, Jody Kruskal ( http://jodykruskal.com/ ) will hold several workshops, some for all systems and some tailored specifically to the anglo. We will examine two or three well known southern tunes: Tombigbee Waltz, Seneca Square Dance (aka Waiting for the Federals) and a third Jody is still thinking about; all are tunes played in the local jam sessions at the festival. Learn the fundamentals of melody, chords and double stops with a bellows driven old-time rhythm, no matter what system you play. Jody comes to old-time music through his playing for contra dances with the bands Grand Picnic, Squeezology and Hog Wild. He will show you the details of how he achieves his unique harmonic concertina sound that emulates the fiddle and compliments old-time southern string band tunes. Registrants will be sent sheet music and MP3 recordings of Jody playing the tunes at various speeds, so they can get familiar with them in advance (see below).

 

· Mark Gilston (http://markgilston.com/ ) is another concetina-playing headliner who will be back again this year; any who have been to this workshop before will sing praises of his beautifully chorded style on the English, perfect for song accompaniment. The festival organizers sign Mark up for his outstanding dulcimer skills, but we concertinists seek him out for his superb English concertina playing and knowledge, as well as for his baritone concertina for the shape note hymns!

 

· Last year's attendees have had several suggestions for some group concertina sessions this year:

 

1) Concertina band. We'll reprise last year's shape note tunes (making them available in advance to pre-registrants) and of course the Magnolia waltz for some group playing of pre-learned tunes in as fully arranged style as we can muster. If you have a favorite tune you think would be great en masse, send it to me and I'll make it available to all before hand (I know Kurt Braun has been working up a few old time melodies and hymns; maybe he'll send some of those on for us).

 

2) Some of you suggested a slow jam for old time tunes, where we invite in a banjo or fiddle friend or two, dulcimer, etc to play along with us squeezers (special requests were sent in for banjoists Harold Herrington, Bob Tedrow (if he can come) and Mark Gilston in this regard). The idea is to get concertina folks feeling comfortable with playing OT before joining in the various festival jam sessions, which are the backbone of the overall festival. By the way, there are usually some Irish sessions, too....

 

3) A tune share session. Forget the headliners, and just get together with the folks and share favorite concertina pieces and cool tunes for each other's listening pleasure, in an casual, easy-going environment.

 

4) Beginners' workshops and system-specific get-togethers. Those who have been before know how it works: just ask someone early in the week, and we'll try to set it up. It is usually easy for beginners to get one-on-one with more experienced players in their particular systems. And 'Duets Anonymous' rides again.

 

5) Concertina repair session, hosted as usual by Texas anglo builder Harold Herrington. Bring the squeaky reeds and the broken springs.

 

Beyond these concertina events, there are loads of things going on in the overall old time music festival, including:

 

--Jam sessions each day and night with old time musicians: there is no more concertina-friendly environment anywhere for old time music sessions

 

--Concerts every night featuring noted old time players and singers, including of course Jody Kruskal and Mark Gilston.

 

--Other workshops at festival will include ones for a variety of instruments taught by the other headliners, including fiddle, autoharp, hammered dulcimer, dulcimer, guitar, mandolin, etc. One not to miss is the shape note singing workshop, which was awesome in previous years. In this festival, these workshops are not scheduled until each morning.we will keep an eye out for shape note singing so that there will not be a concertina conflict on that one.

 

If interested in attending, please register in advance for the concertina activities. The overall Festival has a modest entrance fee payable at the door by all attendees including concertinists (see festival site at http://www.geocities.com/palestinefestival/ for details). In addition, though, this year we will again ask an extra, pre-paid fee (from concertina folk only) of $30. As we concertinists are a very small community vs the much larger paying crowds of stringed instruments, we give all of this extra fee to the Palestine festival organizers to enable them to defray travel costs of the concertina headliners, especially Jody, who travels from the frozen reaches of New York.

 

So....to pre-register, send me an email first, confirming your attendance (my email address can be gotten via this Forum or at the Concertina Library at this link: http://www.concertina.com/worrall/index.htm ). I'll then send you an adddress for the pre-payment by mail for the $30 fee. I'll then send you music and sound files (ie, Jody's tunes) and keep you abreast of developments (including a day-by-day rough schedule).

 

Accommodations and other logistics: A list of hotels is given on the Festival website http://www.geocities.com/palestinefestival/ , which also has details on performers and scheduling. A favorite hotel of past concertinists has been the Best Western, which has special rates for the festival; register early, because it fills up! If arriving by air, Palestine is about a 90 minute drive from Dallas, or 2 and ½ hours from Houston. There are plenty of diversions for non-musical spouses and family, including a 19th century working steam railroad that runs from Palestine to Rusk Texas and back, a dogwood trail in a large nearby forest park (this is high season for these blooming trees), antiques, home tours, etc.

 

Hope to see you there!

 

Dan

[polkabeast]

I mayhap attend this shindig. I'm in Denton, a few hours away. I'm the only concertina player I know in Texas so far.

[Chris Timson]

... SIGH ...

 

Maybe next year.

 

Chris

[Mark Evans]

Ah, dogwoods in full bloom. We have them here in the Northeast, but not like your neck of the woods. That and mesquite BBQ make a trip there a real temptation. I will have to remain here with our bracing cold. I do however look forward to the review and pictures!

Edited January 22, 2008 by Mark Evans

[Jim Besser]

It may be cold dreary weather outside for most of us now, but there is something to look forward to: the fourth annual Palestine Concertina Squeeze-In, which shall hold forth within the Palestine Old Time Music Festival; it is only a couple of months away! The festival occurs Thursday through Saturday, March 27-29, in Palestine, a small and picturesque town in northeast Texas (http://www.geocities.com/palestinefestival/ ). The dogwoods and azaleas should be in full bloom, and for concertina players there will be lots going on:

 

I might just make it this time, if Morris commitments allow.

[polkabeast]

Bump.

 

I hope to meet some of you at this wonderful event. I'm going to register this weekend! I'm bringing musician friends, too. None of them play concertina, but we're all excited about the roadtrip and the weekend of music.

[Dan Worrall]

Bump.

 

I hope to meet some of you at this wonderful event. I'm going to register this weekend! I'm bringing musician friends, too. None of them play concertina, but we're all excited about the roadtrip and the weekend of music.

 

Great! Send me your email address...I've got some MP3s and sheet music for Jody's tunes (good ones, those) for you, plus a few other tunes we'll fool around with. If anyone else is thinking about coming (Jim B., are you still thinking fo coming to it?), just drop me a line so I can get you in the loop for the music pre-mailing. It is nice to have heard (and seen) the tunes beforehand....and also nice that Jody and Mark will be around for 2 1/2 days there....lots of time to get into those tunes and their techniques, plus play in the jam sessions. Should be lots of fun.

 

Dan

[Jim Besser]

Great! Send me your email address...I've got some MP3s and sheet music for Jody's tunes (good ones, those) for you, plus a few other tunes we'll fool around with. If anyone else is thinking about coming (Jim B., are you still thinking fo coming to it?), just drop me a line so I can get you in the loop for the music pre-mailing. It is nice to

 

Looks like I'm not going to make it after all. A very attractive music alternative presented itself -- 90 miles from home instead of a few thousand. Next year, I hope.