Porchfest 2013

Hello Everyone!

            So today I went to Porchfest! It’s a free local music festival where musicians play music on porches in the Ithaca Area. I’ve always loved folk music; when I was 16 I traveled over to Ireland and experienced the culture first hand. I would be walking down the streets of Galway and come across countless street performers playing Folk music. So when I heard about Porchfest I instantly became excited. I took the TCAT Bus from Ithaca College down to the Commons, and started walking. At first I didn’t hear any music but I soon came across a band outside a coffee shop. From there I encountered many bands, all playing completely different kinds of folk music, I heard Irish, English, Folk Jazz, and Southern/American folk music.

I came across a few bands playing but none that I stayed a long time for. Until I was walking down a street and heard a fiddle playing. I immediately thought it sounded like Irish Folk Music. I made my way into a backyard with brick walkways and wicker chairs, there was a huge crowd of people so I made my way to the front, found a spot of grass to sit on, and watched the band play. I then realized it was a Jug band, it was real folk band music. Their name was the Fall Crikkers Jug Band, their band consisted of 8 people; a man played the fiddle, another played the washtub bass, another played an acoustic guitar, a woman played what I believe to be a mandolin, a boy and a girl played the ukulele, a woman played the keyboard, and lastly in the back a man played a washboard. The first thing I noticed was the atmosphere as the band played. It was so cheerful and joyous; to the left of the porch was a place where people were dancing to the music. The band members and the crowd laughed at jokes made by the man playing the fiddle. As the band played their songs they all had smiles on their faces and I looked around at the audience who were full of excitement, tapping their feet and smiling; there was a general love for music.

I listened to the music and found the beat each time. The melody of most of the songs were upbeat dancing songs, those songs were a 4 beat like their songs “Jug Band Widow” and “Little Biddy Bizness”. They incorporated instrumental breaks where all the instruments would play making the texture of the music deeper. In "Little Biddy Bizness" the chorus and other parts of the song’s texture were lighter than the instrumental breaks, meaning all the instruments were playing but less intense while Dave, the man who played the acoustic guitar sang. One song they played was not a 4 beat melody but a 3 beat waltz. It was called “Mon P’tit Chou” which Dave shared that it’s a song about when him and his wife first met. Dave sang in French, the mandolin and guitar kept the 3 beat and the fiddle played a different melody but still harmonized with the mandolin and guitar, the other instruments harmonized along as well.

Lastly, the song I loved the most was a very Irish sounding folk song. I didn’t catch the name of it but it reminded me of an Irish Jig. The fiddler played furiously while the acoustic guitar, washboard and washtub bass played along and the washtub bass kept the beat. The form of the song was the fiddler would play a melody 4 times, then switch and play a short different melody then go back to the first melody and play it 4 times again. It was a song where all I wanted to do was dance along to it.

That’s the thing I love about music; the fact that it can take total strangers off the street and unite us with music. The history of Folk music is that exactly; bringing people together for celebration. Porchfest was an awesome experience!
-Kelsey