After Folklife...

Well, another Folklife Festival is in the books. I had a blast as always but didn't get to see as much music as I would have liked. There's always so much to see and do and hear at Folklife. I just can't get enough! I didn't get to spend any time on Bluegrass Hill. I missed Hot Club Sandwich. I didn't get to see many of the great bands and dancers that perform at Folklife every year. I did get to play with the Kosher Red Hots in the European Cabaret Show. That was a lot of fun and I learned a whole lot about Klezmer music and the Jewish migration to Seattle. Apparently we've got a whole bunch of Sephardic Jews around town that I never even knew of. I also got to see the Garfield Orchestra playing Strauss waltzes in the Exhibition Hall for the new Big Bamboo Dance Floor. That was a glorious event! There's nothing that compares with the sheer grandeur of a 50-piece orchestra playing Strauss. Nothing.

We played one of our best shows ever on Monday afternoon. It was wonderful. We were right on top of things and had the Center House dance floor hopping for our forty allotted minutes. I'm really happy to see that the Polka Dance has become a Folklife Tradition along with the other dances. Polka is a deserving tradition just as much as Contra, swing, English Country, flamenco or Cajun. Kudos to everyone at Northwest Folklife and especially Liz Dreisbach for putting together such a wonderful festival for this year. Here's looking forward to 2005!