Gettin' Folky

A few months ago my fiddle teacher, Violet, received a letter announcing she had been awarded the Mike Seeger Scholarship to attend the 2010 Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis in mid-February. Mike Seeger, who died last year, was not only a very well-known guy (in a well-known family) in the folk music world as a musician (just Google him), but he was also, in a nutshell, hugely responsible for the popularity and preservation of old-timey, traditional, and folk music. His scholarship fund furthers the cause of preserving and promoting traditional music. For Violet it provides for her and an escort the registration fee for the conference, as well as a hotel room and gas money to get there, as well as a performance in a special Showcase meant to honor her and her achievements.

http://www.folkalliance.org/

And who is the lucky escort? Yep, you guessed it. Going to a folk music conference probably isn't too high up on most people's lists, but for me, an old-time music geek, the chance to attend something like this has me dancing on the ceiling. Originally a member of Violet's family was going to take her, but it seems nobody can get away for several days during that time. I promised to take her in the event nobody else could...I couldn't let her miss this event. Long story short, Violet did some shrewd finagling with the conference organizer, who seemed to be willing to stand on his head to get her there, and he has now agreed she can have two escorts - me - as her student, and Sterling - her 17 year-old guitar-playing grandson. (He's now dancing on the ceiling, too)

At first I thought this conference was only for American old-time string band front porch-type music, but I was mistaken. I've since discovered that "folk" actually encompasses a LOT of different music, played by a lot of "different" people...not just old-timey string band, but everything from Celtic stuff played by musicians from Ireland, to acoustic blues, to hairy arm-pitted women singing "If I Had a Hammer", to coffee-house beatnik style whatever-you-call-that, to fruity-acting guys playing flutes. And all taking up what seems to be the whole Mariott in downtown Memphis. In my youtube searches for this conference I've seen all kinds of instruments - ones you expect to see, like fiddles, guitars, banjos, dobros, base fiddles, etc, to the ones you don't expect - pan flutes, accordions, tubas (seriously), tambourines, bongo drums...you name it. In addition, this conference is a full round-the-clock experience, with people staying up all night, going from room to room, band to band, jam session after jam session. The whole conference is a celebration of folkish music by some of the best musicians in the world, as well as a way for musicians to find bands, and bands to find musicians.

The conference organizer asked if we'd like to be on the "quiet floor" or the "jamming floor." After seeing some of these videos, I think we made the wise choice of the "quiet floor", if only for my benefit. I think Violet could and would stay up all night jamming. He also warned me that it was pretty wild, and we'd better get used to walking down a hallway and have someone jump out and start playing an instrument at us without warning. I have a feeling I'm really going to feel totally out of my league and much like the complete fiddle novice I am.
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In any case, I think this is going to be quite the experience. I'm don't exactly know what to expect, but I am definitely taking my camera.