Winfield Photos

Guitar on Friday morning, Stage 3.

Here are some photos from my stage performances at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas this past September.  These took place after the torrential Thursday rains had ceased and things were getting back to normal.

Thanks to Ilace Mears of Missouri for the pix from Stage 3 and to Bradford Rush of Ohio for the pix from Stage 2.

Hammered Dulcimer on Stage 3 (Nick Blanton
compact carbon-fiber model dulcimer)

McSpadden mountain dulcimer on Stage 2 on Saturday.

My daughter, Kaitlin, flew in from Berkeley, CA to sing with me on Stage 2 on Saturday afternoon! (Huss & Dalton Guitar)

Showing the brand new turkey feather quill (my pick) that I stripped and fashioned for that day's performance on my Ben Seymour Galax dulcimer on Stage 3.

Stage 3 Annex at Winfield

It was not exactly the auspicious first performance I had envisioned giving at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield.

It was better!

Because of the deluge that was raining down upon us (an act that preceded me on Stage 3 had the audience sitting on the stage behind them because it was dry!....which put me in mind of scenes from Pete Seeger's Hootenany black and white TV show)....I decided to do my first set of the day in the horse barn just south of Stage 3, which became dubbed "The Stage 3 Annex" by Seth Bates, the Emcee for the afternoon sets.

This let the audience be dry, it also let the sound people not be touching electrified equipment while the rain and mist blew through, around and upon their attempting-to-be-sheltered equipment.

The rain on the tin roof above provided some challenge over which I had to work to be heard, but the hardy folks who gathered to hear music had an experience that is not unlike rainy day porch pickin' all across this great nation of ours (and I'm quite certain, in several other great nations on the planet!)

The inclemency of the weather also provided an opportunity that I eagerly snapped up:

The chance to jam with some of my colleagues and friends, who are themselves prize-winner and very fine dulcimer players!

Nathaniel Samsel (from Georgia, a recent winner of the Colorado Dulcimer Festival's Mountain Dulcimer Contest) is in the middle; Jeff Hames (a National Mountain Dulcimer Champion from Mississippi is on the far right) and Irma Reeder (not pictured, but playing guitar on my right from New Mexico, also a Colorado Dulcimer Festival Mountain Dulcimer winner) joined me for a very fun impromtu jam session as a part of my afternoon set.
That's why it turned out even better than I had imagined.  Every day I get to share music with other folks, in ways that prompt us all to bring our best, focused attention and listening ears that help us hone our chops, is a GOOD DAY!

Thanks to Jeff Lilley for this photo to help keep this good memory fresh!

After the Land Rush....

After the Land Rush and many of the the campsites are claimed, or re-claimed from a year of vacancy (which is what we CHOOSE to believe happens in OUR Pecan Grove)....everyone settles in to finding the neighbors that weren't uncovered in the Land Rush Line-Up or who are beginning to arrive as we re-create this annual, magical, acoustical Brigadoon.

The afternoon I arrived the heat was pretty oppressive, but by the weekend, Kansas was whipping up some good storms (on the outside edge of the seasonal hurricanes which usually have a strong impact there.)

Jim is watching the weather map, but having sailor Jeff with his nautical knots (there's an unlikely alliteration!) we feel secure in the battening of our hatches.

So when the winds blow strong and bring in the storm clouds from the north, scudding by at a furious rate of speed, our proud Scottish flag unfurls and the walls of our  carpeted "living room" keep us relatively warm and dry.

But how quickly it becomes hoodie weather!

But we are adaptable and this year we opened our own e-Library for quiet perusing of books, magazines or the editing of lyrics or chords on the songs that are shared between different i-devices.

Guess which one is reading an actual book (with paper pages?)

Land Rush is what begins "Winfield"....

Walnut Valley Festival 2003 (ariel view from the South)

The Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield officially opens on the Wednesday of the 3rd full weekend in September with Pre-Festival Workshops.

The interior gates are staffed and volunteers are checking armbands beginning Thursday for entrance to the festival grounds.

But as long-time festival goers know, the REAL festival begins the week BEFORE the festival opens with the LAND RUSH.


   

These are the two years that I participated in the Land Rush with my pals Jim and Jeff (in 2009); Jim and Juel (in 2010).  In the 2010 video, the front of Jim's white pickup is visible on the left side of this view as the campers are heading (in assigned numerical order) into the Walnut Grove (or West Campground.)  My van was parked under the streetlight just to the right of this view during the massive thunderstorms the night before.

The hard-core participants have gotten in line for this Land-Rush more than a week before this, at the end of August.

Once in line, the greetings to neighbors, the seeking out of old friends, and the picking of new and old tunes and story swaps begin....and continue throughout the festival.

I was able to arrive this year on the afternoon of Land Rush after leaving my home in Fort Collins at 3:18 am.   (more to come....)