March « 2023 « Jim Novak Songwriter

Archive for March, 2023

Back to the FARM

Friday, March 31st, 2023

Performance Lane, offered by Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM), provides an opportunity for songwriters to do “two songs or ten minutes” at their online open mic. The February show is archived at https://www.facebook.com/FolkAllianceRegionMidwestFARM/videos/1619410058508390. I did an oldie, Maple Sugar Snow (at approximately 1:11, and a rather new one, A River Nearby (at 1:17).

Note the Michigan State University sweatshirt, worn in recognition of the mass shooting that had happened on campus only 10 days early, in which 3 students were killed and 5 others were injured. The Spartan Strong Fund has been created to provide a variety of supports to students and staff: https://givingto.msu.edu/spartan-strong.cfm

Jim Novak on Zoom with host Caroline Barlow

FARM is one of 5 regional affiliates of the Folk Alliance International. FARM serves 15 states and provinces, and includes Michigan. The Southeast region, SERFA, covers 12 states including most of Virginia. The Northeast region (NERFA) serves northern Virginia, including Prince William County, where I now live, and 16 states and provinces of Canada.

Folk Alliance International, maps of regions of North America

February’s virtual Performance Lane for FARM totaled a dozen stellar performers including Host Caroline Barlow, Carla Ulbrich, Bryce Taylor, The Rough and Tumble, Karyn Oliver, Digawolf, Megan Bee, Aleksi Campagne, Sarah King, Carole Wise and Beth Padgett.

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Northern Virginia

Friday, March 31st, 2023

FOLKING AROUND NORTHERN VIRGINIA

The Folk Club of Reston Herndon has been for nearly 40 years “dedicated to the appreciation of music and the preservation of folk traditions.” Along with their weekly in-person sessions, the Folk Club has a virtual open mic on alternating Mondays. The virtual open mic’s are archived on Youtube. I participated on several Mondays this Fall after I moved to Virginia. For example:

On March 6, 2023, I stopped by (virtually) to play four songs, with the times noted below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ziJi1iG4aM

Don’t Postpone Joy ( at about 1 minute into the recording), followed by

Center of the Universe (and the Brecht poem Pleasures); later,

Anyone Who Had a Heart (Burt Bacharach) (at about 1 hour into the recording) and

River Nearby (at 1:38:00)

FCRH’s virtual open mic is organized and hosted bi-weekly by Al Hobson, the group Treasurer; Al also has opened a house concert venue, info at https://artsbarnmusic.org/. Regulars at the FCRH virtual open mic during my first 6 months or so include talented and entertaining fellow Virginians such as Ron Goad, Jim Nagle, John Druitt, Dan Grove, Bob Boden, Isabella Perelman, among others.

Links for my performances from the FCRH virtual open mic’s in Fall:

September 5, 2022 (my first visit) CCC Boys, First Class View, Greene County Coal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8A_mAZpKqQ

September 19, 2022. Blue Star in the Window, Mastodon Conversation, Old Strings, Orange Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzddxV6DU1M

October 3, 2022. How Much Time Have I Got, Green Barracuda, Fake It Til You Make it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ysvcGs0po

October 17, 2022 It’s My Party (Wiener, Gould and Gluck); See You Later Traitor; Ballad of the Old Hitchhiker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMY1x-dV_Qw

November 28, 2022 Barmaids and Waitresses, Maple Sugar Snow, Shine When Trouble Shakes You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX03C2azBkY

December 26, 2022 Good King Wenceslaus (trad.), The Day after Christmas, The Magi (Michael Smith), A Wanderer Am I (Michael Smith) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmlZ8iMUPMs

Performing over Zoom for the Folk Club of Reston Herndon

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Archiving “Songwriters Open Mic”

Sunday, March 12th, 2023

The Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) has acquired all 25 years of the Songwriters Open Mic video programs for their Archives. There were 9 cardboard boxes stuffed with different video formats (VHS, 8 mm, mini-DV, DVDs), plus sign-in sheets, program logs, and publicity material. The AADL Archives will digitize the collection, and eventually present this material online, in the context of documenting the local and regional community of passionate amateurs who constitute and support the environment for original music in our area.

Already online is a large sample of close to 200 half-hour programs from the past few years, which I uploaded to YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/@songwritersopenmicannarbor7761/videos

Additional background: AADL’s COMMUNITY COLLECTIONS have a focus on Local History. Topics range widely: the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Police Department, recipes and cookbooks, architectural drawings and postcards, pioneer families, the White Panther Party and John Sinclair, and an oral histories of African-American culture in Washtenaw County.

Andrew MacLaren, AADL Archives Manager, moved my boxes of media and papers to the Library’s temporary storage facility, and coincidentally the facility is immediately adjacent to the public access television station (CTN) that has broadcast the Songwriters Open Mic programs for all these years.

As I watched Andrew drive away with the 25 years of tv programs, I appreciated once again how much the open mic nurtures my own songwriting, and it allows me to meet and engage with a community of hundreds of talented and creative songwriters and those who love songs.