The oldtime banjo blog from Kiel

The CBR (Crisfield BAHA Retreat) understandably is of great attraction to all of us. As it coincides with the Kiel retreat more and more cancellations of the Kiel meeting arrive. Just got one more. Now we are less than ten applicants left. Hopefully there will be some guys from around Kiel who will join us. But the "artists in resident" will be the backbone of the retreat. And they will bear the financial costs. The fewer we are, the more each one will have to pay (well, of course the costs are not very high). We could need some more participants! So give your heart a nudge, dear reader. (Almost) nothing aquivalents the fantastic view from our retreat´s place across the baltic sea (not even - let´s say - Jane´s Island Park). It´s true, the Costello´s are missing here, but we could try an internet conference, huh? And we definetly will sing some BAHA songs here too like "Ears in Heaven", "Dr. Niparcho, the Magic Dragon", "The Baltimore (Fire) Implant...

Unfortunatly the "BAHA-Festival" :-) in Crisfield coincides with the Kiel-Retreat, both will take place at the third weekend in September. Some applicants did cancel Kiel during the last days as they want to go to Crisfield. Of course I do understand this very well - I also would have liked to go there to celebrate Patrick´s success and to meet the guys again. But I will not be able to go. So in the end the Kiel retreat is kind of compensatory. Hopefully I will not get more emails with cancelations. So far the number of participants shrinked from 16 to 10 (not all cancellations came because of Crisfield). If you, my dear reader, pondered over the idea to come to Kiel, let me know. See details in this blog in earlier entries and at www.kolicom.de .

Found a source for beautiful photographies from folk festivals in the sixties including Newport with Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger,Frank Profitt, Son House etc. It´s on flickr . I like to view them with Cooliris. It turns your browser into an ever-expanding "3D Wall" whenever you launch it from your browser toolbar. It's really hard to explain, so you have to try it to see what I mean. You can get it free at www.cooliris.com .

Last week I attended an educational meeting of American/Canadian/German colleagues near Berlin. Learned a lot there. As I was afraid of banjo withdrawal symptoms when leaving home for one week without my 5string I decided to take it with me. There should be an opportunity to play it in the garden during a break or wherever after the training, I thought. And indeed, I could use it some time or another. But the last evening was a blast: As I told some of the collegues that I had a banjo with me, they urged me to bring it into the local beer cellar the last evening (well, not much urging, it was just me who announced it :-) Five days long we had discussed serious matters during the day and had some chats in the evening (plus were proud to have accepted an invitation to a very formal reception in the US embassy in Berlin). But when I entered the beer cellar this last evening with my banjo, they all waited for music. Everybody seems to have longed for foot tapping, hand clapping, whistling...

Die letzte Folksession im Statt-Café war recht interessant. Folker und Interpreten von Singer/Songwriter-Stücken wechselten sich ab. Es gab auch ein Duett von Drehleiern, schwedische Geigenpolkas und Irisches. Kein Banjo auf der Bühne - aber evtl. nächstes Mal meines? Mal sehn. Die Sessions sollen immer am 2. Montag im Monat stattfinden. Ob das auch für die Kieler Woche gilt, weiß ich noch nicht.