I will see you in far-off places (or, 574 Norway)

[Hannah Mae]

Hello dear bay area singers!  I've been thinking of y'all a lot lately - I've sung a few places since I last sang with you, and I wanted to tell you about them....

I sang in Denver about two months ago - lovely church with amazing reverb (we sounded like angels - I thought I was in the wrong place when I walked in). It was a small but tight group, and it was much more of a *practice* singing than ours are.  Like, when we had a tough time with a song, we'd stop and sing through parts and do it a few times until we all had it nailed.  We did many fewer songs, but I learned a lot.

Then at the beginning of April, I sang in Tacoma, just south of Seattle and north of Olympia - and by show of hands, that's where everyone came from - there was only one singer there from Tacoma.  It was a big lively group, maybe around 40 people, with lots of strong singers.  I got my mom to come down with me from Seattle, and she was surprised that I recognized every one of the three people who had arrived before us, all from the All-California.  (I think, rather than considering the smallness of the sacred harp world, she thought I was some kind of rock star.  I did not dissuade her.)

And then on Easter I sang in Seattle - recognized many faces from Olympia, shamelessly called all my favorites, and we were complimented by the AA group meeting down the hall in the same church basement ("y'all sing so nicely every month"), and wondered how long before my next singing.

I haven't gotten to sing with other people much recently - I'm living on a little farm in rural Norway, about two hours north of Oslo, building a sailboat.  Not many opportunities to get my sacred harp fix (I'm listening to William Duckworth's "Southern Harmony" right now, which is sort of bizarro-world modern classical sacred harp), but there's a lot of empty space for me to sing by myself, and there's some pretty amazing reverb down in the hull of the boat, harmonizing with the buzz of the power tools.

Hope you're all well - I look forward to singing with you again the next time I'm in California!


Hannah

[Carolyn Deacy]

Singing School with Tim Eriksen
Jun 5 (Tue) Time and Details to be announced
Singing School with Tim Eriksen
Contact Shelley Phillips for details at shelley/at/got/dot/net or (831)426-9155 or (831)427-2980.


Sacred Harp Workshop at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival 
Jun 10 (Sun) noon-1:00pm
Peter Ross, Terry Moore, and Gary Breitbard host
San Francisco Free Folk Festival
Presidio Middle School
450 30th Avenue, San Francisco
This is one of the workshops at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival, held 6/9 and 6/10 noon-10pm Saturday and Sunday