24 Jun 2008
   

Drew Nelson and Noreast’r
Current mood:  impressed
Category: with this Music
More from miss adventures and the pipeline...

This has been the month for songwriters. It started sometime in May, and the cycle is just finishing. Well, this cycle. In looking forward, I see musical passages not invented yet. I see the familiarity of tradition, the comfort that the knowledge base is being handed down from player to player; from teacher to student; from master to masterful.

The Friday Noreast'r began, I was waiting for my Rothbury ticket to be delivered via UPS. I had no choice in the matter of delivery; Rothbury has it's rules and that's it...okay okay. I wasn't going to let the precious cargo flail around on the front porch for three days without me to rescue same. Not at these prices!

As the morning progressed, I wrote a little about Michael Fracasso and Joel Mabus visiting town, and likened the latter to "Uncle" Joel, the nice guy who played banjo in the living room. Little did I know that there is such a living room, The Parlor, it is named, where the musicians become functional family with the observers.

kellybeez was introduced, formally, to The Parlor at Noreast'r and Drew Nelson.

Noreast'r is the festival for musicians. Everyone in the place reveres music. The vendors, the children, the sound guys, the grounds workers, the volunteers, and mostly the songwriters worship together in accordance with the music. Songs are holy here. Songs are fun here. Songs are tossed around in the wind, hidden between the trees and tents, toyed with, explored and shared – but never wasted.

The scheduled songwriting workshop became a "magical" experience for attendees when the closely-knit community of songwriters met to share the gift. People couldn't keep from talking about the "Songs I Wish I Would Have Written" result of the musicians' respect for the good stuff - instead of bragging about their own accomplishments, they saluted other artists.
It is all about the song.
This feeling of unity and continuity solidified when Drew finished out The Parlor's schedule Sunday evening, to an audience of hard-core music lovers whose abundance of love compensated for any lack of numbers.

Drew shares compelling stories before, during and after his songs. Barefoot and often singing with his eyes closed, he led us into some deep rooted primal base knowledge of the beginning of everything when he began to tell us about Grandmother Moon.

Before Drew could finish the tale of how Grandmother Moon instigated day and night, among other things, the wave of our cumulative emotion caught up with him, in The Parlor. Where else but home are we free for unconditional love? Unencumbered by the outside world, we followed Drew through creation and ended up at Grandmother Moon's knee with him. His questions became our questions.

Grandmother Moon is here for all of us. I hear her.

you can hear her, too.

Drew Nelson Website
Drew Nelson Myspace

don't forget to admire all of the beautiful musicians shown in my photos of Noreast'r