— Seventh Annual —

The Catskill Mountain
Folk Gathering

✦ ✦ ✦
July 12 · 13 · 14 · 1974
Pleasant Ridge Pasture · Halcottsville, New York · fifty cents

Friends —

This is our seventh year together up on the ridge, and I have never once felt like we are doing the same festival twice. Every July we hand the meadow back to the music for three days, and every July the music shows us something new. The roster you'll find inside represents close to a year of letters, kitchen-table visits, and long telephone calls — every performer here is someone whose work I love and whose presence makes the Gathering more itself.

Take your time. Linger between sets. Talk to the players — they came a long way to be heard. And if you have something to say about a set you loved, write it down on one of the slips by the registration table. We keep those notes forever.

— Wendell K. Lassiter, programming chair

— TAP A PERFORMER NAME FOR FULL NOTES —

Friday — opening day

forecast: clear, high 78°, light breeze off the ridge
4:00
PM
The Hollowback Brothers Pine Grove
brother harmony · guitar & mandolin · Tioga County
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Friday 4:00–5:00 PM · opening set
Instruments
Lyle on Martin D-28, Caleb on F-style mandolin, both on lead and tenor vocals.
Notes from the Organizer
Lyle and Caleb Hollowback have been singing together since the early fifties and they still listen to each other like they're hearing the other voice for the first time. Caleb runs the family hardware store in Owego; Lyle teaches social studies. They play maybe ten weekends a year now and they always say yes to this one. We open the festival with them because there is no more honest start than two brothers in close harmony.
Setlist (as submitted)
  • Pretty Polly
  • Lonesome Pine Special
  • Single Girl, Married Girl
  • Cannon Ball Blues
  • The Knoxville Girl
  • "Two Roads Home" (Caleb, 1971)
  • "Letter from Schoharie" (Lyle, 1968)
  • Wildwood Flower
  • Eight More Miles to Louisville
Technical Rider
Two SM58s on a single boom — they share. No floor monitor required; they prefer to hear the room. Overhead room mic appreciated for the recording archive.soundcheck: 3:15 PM · 20 minutes
Audience Notes — from prior years
Brought my grandfather, age 84, who has not been to a concert in nineteen years. He held my hand through the whole "Knoxville Girl" and afterward all he said was "they did it the right way." Thank you, Lyle and Caleb. — Anonymous slip, 1972 program
There's a moment in "Two Roads Home" where the mandolin drops out for two bars and the guitar carries it alone and I have thought about those two bars all year. — J. Klein, Roxbury · 1973
My favorite part is when they look at each other before the last chorus. Like a secret handshake but louder. — Marigold T., age 9 · 1971
5:15
PM
Hattie Calloway Streamside
autoharp & hammered dulcimer · songs of work and weather
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Friday 5:15–6:15 PM
Instruments
Oscar Schmidt 21-chord autoharp (her mother's), Dusty Strings hammered dulcimer, voice.
Notes from the Organizer
Hattie has been carrying songs out of Delaware County for forty years and she gets stronger every year, not weaker. Her sets feel like sitting at someone's kitchen table while they tell you the truth. She came to me last fall with two new original songs — "October Apple" and "My Daughter's Hands" — and I cried in my office. Bring tissues. Bring your full attention.
Setlist
  • Wayfaring Stranger
  • Bright Morning Stars
  • Lord of the Dance
  • Hard Times Come Again No More
  • "October Apple" (new, 1974)
  • "My Daughter's Hands" (new, 1974)
  • Down in the Valley to Pray
  • The Cuckoo
  • Black Is the Color
Technical Rider
Lavalier mic for vocals — she moves, and a stand mic will not keep up. One stationary instrument mic. No monitor. Hattie reads the audience by ear.soundcheck: 4:30 PM · 15 minutes
Audience Notes
She sang "Hard Times" and the whole streamside went still, even the kids in the back row. I have never heard a crowd of three hundred people listen that hard. — R. Polanski · 1973
My mother passed in January. Hattie sang "Bright Morning Stars" and I felt my mother sitting beside me. I am not exaggerating. — Anonymous · 1972
Asked her after the set what kind of strings she uses on the autoharp and she said "the ones that work." Best answer I've ever gotten. — D. Yarrow, Margaretville · 1970
6:45
PM
Eldon Marsh & The Bittersweet String Band Pine Grove
old-time string band · clawhammer-led · all members from within 40 miles of this meadow
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Friday 6:45–8:00 PM · long set, no opener
Instruments
Eldon Marsh — clawhammer banjo, vocals. Wendy Foss — fiddle. Tom Otis — upright bass. Marcy Otis — guitar, harmony.
Notes from the Organizer
If you ever want to know what this part of the country sounded like a hundred years ago, listen to Eldon Marsh play "Sandy Boys." Eldon has been the spine of the regional old-time scene since I was a kid, and the Bittersweets are the band he has carried with him through three iterations. Wendy Foss came on in '72 and the band has not been the same — in the best possible way. They closed the festival in 1969 and 1971, and this year I asked them to open the first big block because we need their energy from the very beginning.
Setlist
  • Cumberland Gap
  • June Apple
  • Old Joe Clark
  • Sail Away Ladies
  • Cluck Old Hen
  • "The Margaretville Reel" (Eldon, 1967)
  • Lost Indian
  • Sandy Boys
  • Big Sciota
  • Sugar in the Gourd
  • "Wendell's Tune for the Festival" (Eldon, 1972 — written for this gathering)
Technical Rider
Four-mic string-band setup: one banjo, one fiddle, one bass, one shared vocal between Eldon and Marcy. One low-monitor stage left. Eldon steps to and away from the mic himself — please do not chase him with gain.soundcheck: 5:30 PM · 25 minutes
Audience Notes
"Wendell's Tune" made me cry and then it made me dance and I think I was the only person who did both. Worth the drive from Binghamton. — P. Sutter · 1972
Wendy Foss's bow arm is the best thing in the Catskills, full stop. — C. Hatfield · 1973
Eldon told me after his set in '69 that he writes his tunes in the truck. Five years later I still think about that every time I'm driving alone. — Anonymous · 1969
8:15
PM
Pearl McKendree Streamside
unaccompanied ballad singing · the long ones · candle-lit
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Friday 8:15–9:15 PM · lit by lanterns only
Instruments
Voice alone. No instruments. Pearl works the human voice the way other people work a craft they have given their life to — because she has.
Notes from the Organizer
Pearl learned most of her ballads from her great-aunt in Sullivan County, a woman who could hold a hundred and forty songs in her head and pass them down by the kitchen stove. Pearl has been doing this work since 1957 — collecting, holding, singing, teaching. "The Stone Walls of Roxbury" is her own composition, a single-melody ballad in the older mode, and it stands beside the Child ballads on her set list without embarrassment. If you have never sat through a ten-verse unaccompanied ballad before, you are in for a kind of attention you didn't know you had.
Setlist
  • The Twa Sisters
  • Barbara Allen
  • The House Carpenter
  • Pretty Saro
  • Geordie
  • Fair Annie
  • Lord Randall
  • "The Stone Walls of Roxbury" (Pearl, 1969)
  • Awake, Awake, Sweet England
Technical Rider
One vocal mic only, set warm and low. NO MONITOR — she finds them disorienting. Stage lights to the lowest workable setting per Pearl's standing request: "the song should arrive in the dark."soundcheck: 7:30 PM · 10 minutes (vocal level only)
Audience Notes
She sang "Barbara Allen" with all eleven verses and not once did I want her to hurry. I want to live the rest of my life at that tempo. — H. Greene · 1973
Drove four hours from Albany on the recommendation of a stranger at a record store. The stranger was right. — Anonymous · 1971
My husband doesn't usually go in for ballads. He cried during "Lord Randall." He still hasn't told me why. — B. Liddick · 1972
9:30
PM
Reuben Sage Pine Grove
clawhammer & two-finger banjo · instrumental set · no vocals
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Friday 9:30–10:30 PM
Instruments
Open-back banjo (Vega Tubaphone, 1928, his father's). Strung with nylgut. Plays sitting.
Notes from the Organizer
Reuben does not talk much between tunes. He plays banjo the way some people pray — slowly, and as if the only audience that matters is the one inside the instrument. His instrumental sets are unlike anyone else's; he leaves long silences between tunes and the silences are part of the music. If you came tonight wanting fireworks, walk down to Streamside and catch Junie. If you came wanting to listen to a single banjo think, stay put.
Setlist
  • Shady Grove
  • Cluck Old Hen
  • Pretty Little Miss Out in the Garden
  • Roscoe
  • Country Blues
  • "Sage's Run" (Reuben, 1971)
  • Hangman's Reel
  • Soldier's Joy
  • "After the Snow Came Down" (Reuben, 1973)
  • The Wagoner
Technical Rider
One condenser mic on the banjo, set low. Stage lit only at the level needed to see the fingerboard from the front row. Please ask the soundboard to leave the silences alone — no fading in between tunes.soundcheck: 8:45 PM · 8 minutes (instrument level only)
Audience Notes
"Sage's Run" is the tune I want played at my funeral. I have written this down where my children will find it. — Anonymous · 1972
There were six seconds of silence between "Country Blues" and "Sage's Run" and I have been chasing that exact six seconds in my own playing ever since. — T. Hadley (banjo, Margaretville) · 1973
He bowed once at the end. That's all. It was enough. — Anonymous · 1971
10:45
PM
Junie Calloway-Whit Streamside
Appalachian dulcimer · jew's-harp · late-night closer
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Friday 10:45 PM – midnight · Day 1 closer
Instruments
Mountain dulcimer (her own build, walnut and spruce), jew's-harp, voice. Hattie Calloway's daughter.
Notes from the Organizer
Junie is twenty-six and one of the best dulcimer players working anywhere. She grew up in Hattie's house and she'll be the first to tell you she absorbed half her songbook by osmosis, but Junie has gone past inheritance into her own territory. Her originals are funny, sharp, real. "Twenty-Three Cousins" — wait for it. Closing Day One with Junie has become my favorite tradition; the meadow is quiet by 11, the streamside lanterns are lit, and her dulcimer carries forever in that air.
Setlist
  • Pretty Saro
  • "What Mama Sang Me" (Junie, 1970)
  • "Walking Home from Roxbury Fair" (Junie, 1972)
  • The Riddle Song
  • Wild Mountain Thyme
  • Go Tell Aunt Rhody
  • Single Girl
  • "Twenty-Three Cousins" (Junie, 1973)
  • Bury Me Beneath the Willow
Technical Rider
Vocal mic + instrument mic. Junie requests 2–3 minutes of stage silence after her final tune before lights come up — "the audience needs to land." Please honor this. We have done it every year and it has worked every year.soundcheck: 9:00 PM · 12 minutes
Audience Notes
"Twenty-Three Cousins" — I have twenty-three cousins. I laughed so hard at verse four I dropped my coffee in the grass. Worth it. — K. McAllister · 1973
Watching her play with her mother in the audience is the kind of thing that justifies a whole festival. — Anonymous · 1973
She introduced "Walking Home" by saying she wrote it in October walking home from the fair and you could feel October in the song. That is a real songwriter. — L. Brennan, Stamford NY · 1972

Saturday — the long day

forecast: warm, scattered cloud, possible afternoon shower
9:00
AM
Morning Air Workshop — Shape-Note Singing Workshop Tent
led by Thomasina Reedy · open to all · bring a Sacred Harp book if you have one
Stage & Set
Workshop Tent · Saturday 9:00–10:15 AM · participatory
About the Workshop
Thomasina has been teaching the rudiments since the mid-sixties, and a Saturday morning with her is the truest start to the festival's second day. You do not need to read music. You will sing the shapes for the first half-hour and the words for the second. Bring water. Bring the willingness to be a beginner.
Tunes to be Taught
  • Wondrous Love (159)
  • Idumea (47b)
  • Northfield (155)
  • Liberty (137)
  • New Britain (45t)
  • Bound for Canaan (82t)
Technical Rider
No amplification. 40 spare Sacred Harp books at the door. Hot tea station with honey and a basket of muffins from the Halcottsville Bakery. Folding chairs in the hollow square configuration.no soundcheck required
Audience Notes
Showed up not knowing what shape-note was. Left with my voice raw and the inside of my chest feeling re-arranged. — D. Crowley · 1973
Thomasina makes you feel like a beginner without making you feel like a tourist. The difference matters. — Anonymous · 1972
10:45
AM
The Three Sisters of Roxbury Pine Grove
vocal trio · gospel-rooted · NO INSTRUMENTS · Faye, Doris & Caroline Hatfield
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Saturday 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM
Notes from the Organizer
The Hatfield sisters have been singing together since they were little — they grew up two miles up the road, in the white house with the blue shutters, and their voices fit one another like they were carved out of one tree. Faye sings lead, Doris the high harmony, Caroline the low. They do not rehearse — they say they don't need to. Watch them at the end of "Long Black Veil" when they hold the last chord. You'll see what they mean.
Setlist
  • Will the Circle Be Unbroken
  • Bright Morning Stars
  • "Mother's Best Apron" (Doris, 1968)
  • Angel Band
  • Are You Washed in the Blood
  • Long Black Veil
  • Down to the River to Pray
  • "Three on a Porch" (Faye, 1971)
  • Family Bible
  • I'll Fly Away
Technical Rider
Three vocal mics in a tight semicircle, all set identical. NO REVERB please — "we make our own." Hot water with honey and lemon stage left. They do not want a monitor.soundcheck: 9:30 AM · 10 minutes
Audience Notes
"Bright Morning Stars" by these three could rearrange your whole afternoon. Came back to the meadow at 4 and I still felt the harmony in my ribs. — R. Cassady · 1973
Caroline's low part on "Angel Band" — I would pay the festival admission for that one verse and consider myself ahead. — Anonymous · 1972
My five-year-old daughter asked me why the singing felt like swimming. I think she got it exactly right. — M. Polenz · 1971
12:15
PM
Garrett "Buckwheat" Plumly Streamside
jaw-harp · bones · hambone · percussive dance · a one-man rhythm section
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Saturday 12:15–1:15 PM · the festival's only solo percussionist
Notes from the Organizer
Garrett picked up the jaw harp at age six and the bones at age nine and he has been a working percussionist of the most stripped-down kind ever since. He dances on a maple board he built himself — same board for fifteen years. He does NOT want to be called "novelty." This is a serious tradition with a deep regional lineage and Garrett carries it with care. Watch his feet. Bring a young person.
Setlist
  • Hambone for Henrietta
  • Bones on the Cumberland
  • Devil in the Strawstack
  • Old Dan Tucker (with bones)
  • Buck and Wing
  • Sandy Boys (with feet only)
  • "Plumly's Plumb Polka" (Garrett, 1969)
  • Dance Around Molly
Technical Rider
Boom mic above the dance board, condenser for jaw-harp, kick-mic on the board itself. The spare set of bones we keep on hand should be sterilized — Garrett brings his own clean pair.soundcheck: 11:00 AM · 18 minutes (he needs the board placement right)
Audience Notes
I have never seen a child laugh and a grandfather cry at the same set, but Buckwheat managed it in '72. — B. Quinn · 1972
He let me try the bones after the set. They are HARD. He was patient. — Tommy A., age 11 · 1973
1:30
PM
Mona Strout & Father (Edwin Strout) Pine Grove
twin-fiddle duet · Mona age 14 · she has been outplaying her father since age 11
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Saturday 1:30–2:30 PM
Notes from the Organizer
Mona Strout is fourteen years old and she may be the best fiddler I have ever booked. I do not say this lightly. Her father Edwin is a fine player in his own right — a generational regional talent — and he is the first to tell you Mona has gone past him. The two of them together are pure joy. Edwin plays straight, Mona plays around him, and they pass the lead back and forth like a thread between fingers. "Mona's First Tune (1971)" was written when she was eleven and we have been waiting three years for it on the Pine Grove stage.
Setlist
  • Twin Sisters
  • Forked Deer
  • Limerock
  • Salt Creek
  • "Mona's First Tune (1971)" (Mona, age 11)
  • Bonaparte's Retreat
  • Liberty
  • Devil's Dream
  • Eighth of January
  • Whiskey Before Breakfast
  • "Edwin & Mona's" (Edwin, 1973 — written for the duet)
Technical Rider
Two fiddle mics on tall booms. NO MONITORS. Edwin's note: "Mona's tone needs a quiet stage. Please hush the soundboard chatter and any side-stage conversation during the set."soundcheck: 12:30 PM · 20 minutes
Audience Notes
She is FOURTEEN. I watched a man behind me cry into a sandwich during "Forked Deer." — Anonymous · 1973
Edwin looked at her once during a tune — just looked, didn't say anything — and the look had the whole history of his pride in it. That was the moment of the festival for me. — W. Karp · 1973
"Mona's First Tune" sounds like an eleven-year-old wrote it AND like nobody wrote it. I don't know how to explain that better. — S. Hadley · 1972
3:00
PM
Cyrus Ashbridge Streamside
12-string guitar · all-originals set · letters and almanacs and small towns
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Saturday 3:00–4:00 PM
Notes from the Organizer
Cyrus writes songs the way some people keep journals — patient, specific, more interested in the postmaster than the president. His 12-string work is unfussy and beautiful, and he names the small places back into being. "Twenty-Six Miles to Margaretville" was written sitting on the hood of his pickup in October and you can hear October in it. We are proud to host him for a fourth year.
Setlist (all originals)
  • Saugerties Light
  • Letters to My Brother Who Won't Write Back
  • Catskill Almanac
  • Marisol in November
  • The Hardware Store on Main Street
  • Snow Pond Hymn
  • Phone Call from Albany
  • Twenty-Six Miles to Margaretville
  • What the Postmaster Said
  • Slow Way Down to Hannacroix
Technical Rider
DI box for the 12-string + one vocal mic. Monitor on stage right. The 12-string drifts in the heat — please build a 5-minute pause into the middle of the set for re-tuning. Warm low light, not white.soundcheck: 2:00 PM · 15 minutes
Audience Notes
"What the Postmaster Said" makes me want to write to people I have not written to in years. Then I do. — Anonymous · 1972
He's the most patient songwriter I know. Nothing rushed. Nothing for show. Just the song. — V. Tilden (yes, that one) · 1971
After his set I sat on the bank of the stream for twenty minutes and did not feel the need to say anything to anybody. — L. Markey · 1973
4:30
PM
The Greenbrier Ramblers Pine Grove
full bluegrass-into-string-band · the dance set of the weekend · two fiddles
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Saturday 4:30–5:45 PM · expect dancing in the grass
Members
Earl Greenbrier (banjo), Sutton Greenbrier (mandolin), Jay Greenbrier (guitar), Nora Greenbrier (bass), Marlee Hicks (fiddle), Pip Driscoll (fiddle).
Notes from the Organizer
The Greenbriers are the only band on the program with two fiddles and they know exactly what to do with them. Their dance set on the Saturday-late-afternoon slot has been a fixture of the Gathering since 1970 and a generation of festival-goers has now learned to clear the grass in front of the Pine Grove stage in advance. Bring boots. The originals — especially "Ramble out of Greenbrier" and "The Postmaster's Reel" — have entered the regional repertoire in a way that makes me very proud of what this festival can be a part of.
Setlist
  • Big Spike Hammer
  • Salty Dog
  • Way Downtown
  • "Ramble out of Greenbrier" (Earl, 1968)
  • Roving Gambler
  • Walking the Dog
  • Stoney Creek
  • "The Postmaster's Reel" (Marlee, 1972)
  • Black Mountain Rag
  • Soldier's Joy
  • "Festival Goodbye" (Sutton, 1973 — written for the closing of last year's Gathering)
Technical Rider
Six-mic setup: two fiddle, one banjo/vocal, one mandolin, one guitar, one bass. Bass also direct. Two monitors. Full 30-minute soundcheck (please respect this — they earn it).soundcheck: 3:00 PM · 30 minutes
Audience Notes
Danced for forty straight minutes with a stranger who introduced herself as "the woman in the green dress." Married her four months later. Truly. — J. & L. Aspen · 1971/1972
Two fiddles trading on "Black Mountain Rag" is the thing that taught me what a fiddle could do. — Anonymous · 1973
"Festival Goodbye" — I have listened to my tape of last year's closing set probably forty times. Cried more each time. Anyone else? — R. Talley · 1973
6:15
PM
Vesper Lee Tilden Streamside
contemporary songwriter · fingerstyle · the kind of set you remember in winter
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Saturday 6:15–7:15 PM
Notes from the Organizer
Vesper grew up in Pine Hill, fifteen miles up the road from this very meadow. She first attended the Gathering as a teenager in 1969 and walked away knowing she would write songs for the rest of her life. Her work belongs to the contemporary songwriter tradition — Mary McCaslin, Carolyn Hester, the people writing now — but it is rooted in this specific landscape of stone wall and pasture and pond. Listen to the bridge of "Brother Hawk" and you will hear voices rising up from the gathered mountain throats into open sky — that is the sound she keeps trying to find. We are deeply lucky to have her back.
Setlist
  • Carry Me Home, July (opener — always)
  • Cold Pond, Late Light
  • What the Pickup Truck Heard
  • Wednesday in Phoenicia
  • Mountain Letter #4
  • Mountain Letter #11
  • I Have Been Sitting With This Question
  • Brother Hawk
  • Carry Me Home, July (reprise)
Technical Rider
One vocal mic, one guitar mic, optional overhead condenser for room tone. Lighting cue: please drop the stage lights one notch when she begins "Mountain Letter #11." She'll nod to the booth on the intro.soundcheck: 5:00 PM · 18 minutes
Audience Notes
"Wednesday in Phoenicia" got me through a hard winter. I drove three and a half hours to thank her in person and got too shy at the merch table. Trying again this year. — Anonymous · 1973
Vesper opens with "Carry Me Home, July" every year and every year it's like the first time. Some songs just are the song you write them to be. — P. Quinones · 1972
She is the future of this music and also completely of it. Both. — E. Marsh (yes, Eldon Marsh) · 1973
7:30
PM
The Tannery Hollow Singers Pine Grove
shape-note SATB quartet · no instruments · no amplification
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Saturday 7:30–8:30 PM · acoustic, no mics
Members
Pell Stanfield (treble), Annetta Fox (alto), Jerome Cargill (tenor), Frank Plonker (bass).
Notes from the Organizer
Four voices, no amplification, standing in a hollow square at the center of the Pine Grove stage. The Tannery Hollow Singers do shape-note the way it was meant to be done — full voice, no apology, every word landed. They have been working together for eleven years and they finish each other's breaths. We program them at sunset on Saturday because that's the hour the Pine Grove acoustics turn warm and forgiving, and because they earn a sky like that.
Setlist
  • Wondrous Love (159)
  • Idumea (47b)
  • Northfield (155)
  • Liberty (137)
  • Sherburne (186)
  • New Britain (45t)
  • Schenectady (177)
  • Devotion (48t)
  • Pisgah (58)
  • Russia (107)
Technical Rider
No amplification of any kind. They will arrange themselves in a square at center stage and project. We ask the audience to please remain seated and quiet during the set. The hollow square configuration faces inward, not outward — they sing to one another and the audience overhears.no soundcheck required · 10-minute room walk at 6:30 PM
Audience Notes
I have been to a lot of choral concerts and this was not that. This was four people pulling sound out of the dirt. — Anonymous · 1972
"Idumea" at sunset broke me open in a way I am still piecing together a year later. — H. Marston · 1973
9:00
PM
Henrietta Voss Streamside
Appalachian lap harp & voice · Day 2 closer · lit by candles in jars
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Saturday 9:00–10:15 PM · Day 2 closer
Notes from the Organizer
Henrietta plays an instrument almost nobody plays anymore — the small Appalachian lap harp, a regional cousin of the autoharp with a sound that hovers between dulcimer and zither. She has been doing it since 1948. Her voice is low and unhurried and the way she ends a verse is the way other people end a sentence. She closes Saturday night with the kind of set that lets the entire festival rest for a moment before Sunday.
Setlist
  • All Through the Night
  • Down in the Valley
  • Mary Hamilton
  • Greensleeves
  • "Late September Window" (Henrietta, 1971)
  • The Last Rose of Summer
  • "What the Harp Asked" (Henrietta, 1973)
  • The Water Is Wide
  • Loch Lomond
  • Scarborough Fair
Technical Rider
Two condenser mics on the harp at low gain, one vocal mic. The harp is very delicate — please NO feedback testing on these channels at soundcheck, only whisper-level setup. Candles in jars along the front of the stage in lieu of footlights, per Henrietta's standing request.soundcheck: 7:45 PM · 15 minutes, whisper levels only
Audience Notes
"Late September Window" — I wrote down the title on a napkin and I have kept the napkin. — G. Pell · 1972
She tunes between every song and the tuning IS the song. Don't fight it. Just listen. — Anonymous · 1973
The candles. The harp. The slow ending of Saturday. I cannot explain why this set heals me but it does. — M. Carrasco · 1971

Sunday — the slow farewell

forecast: cool morning, clearing by noon, golden afternoon
7:00
AM
Sunrise Singing Circle Meadow Center
hosted by Wendell K. Lassiter · everyone gathers · everyone sings · bring a blanket and a mug · open repertoire
10:00
AM
Old Bess Ferguson Workshop Tent
unaccompanied ballad-keeper · age 89 · she holds the oldest songs in this county
Stage & Set
Workshop Tent · Sunday 10:00–11:00 AM
Notes from the Organizer
Bess Ferguson is eighty-nine years old and there is nobody in our region who carries the older repertoire the way she does. She learned most of her songs from her grandmother — songs the grandmother learned from HER mother, putting some of these melodies back into the 1820s if not earlier. Bess sings while sitting and she does not rush. "Aunt Bessie's Lament" is the song her grandmother wrote in 1882 after her sister moved west; Bess sings it because somebody has to. We treat her set the way you would treat any visit with an elder you love. Hush. Listen.
Setlist
  • The Cherry-Tree Carol
  • The Wife of Usher's Well
  • Lamkin
  • Edward
  • Mary Hamilton
  • The False Knight Upon the Road
  • Lord Bateman
  • James Harris (The Daemon Lover)
  • "Aunt Bessie's Lament" (Bess's grandmother, 1882)
Technical Rider
One vocal mic, lowered to her chair height. She sits while singing. Her cane stays against the chair, please do not move it. Water on a small side table within reach. We do not introduce her — she begins when she's ready.no soundcheck · level set during sunrise circle
Audience Notes
Walked out of that tent feeling like I had been given something I will never be able to repay. — C. Yardley · 1973
She forgot a verse of "Lamkin" and laughed and started over, and somehow that was the most beautiful moment of the festival. — Anonymous · 1972
I sat next to her after her set in '71 and she told me about the apple tree at her grandmother's place. We talked for an hour about the tree. — J. McRae · 1971
11:30
AM
The Witch Hollow String Band Pine Grove
four-piece old-time · all-women · the most fun band on the program
Stage & Set
Pine Grove Stage · Sunday 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Members
Margaret Holm (banjo, vocals), Tessa Driskell (fiddle), Jo Pendarvis (guitar, vocals), Imogen Lestrange (bass).
Notes from the Organizer
The Witch Hollows formed at the festival in 1970 — they met at the Saturday jam by the campfire — and they have been together ever since. Margaret runs the band and she runs it well; their set is tight without being precious. The originals are all written within the tradition — "Witch Hollow Two-Step" already feels like it's been around forever, and "Imogen's Wedding Tune" was written for an actual wedding (Imogen's, last September; we sent flowers). They are the reason a lot of younger women in the regional scene picked up clawhammer and bass.
Setlist
  • Sally Ann
  • Cluck Old Hen
  • Pretty Polly
  • Shady Grove
  • June Apple
  • "Witch Hollow Two-Step" (Margaret, 1971)
  • The Boatman
  • "Letter from Tessa" (Tessa, 1972)
  • The Wagoner
  • Sail Away Ladies
  • "Imogen's Wedding Tune" (Margaret, 1973)
Technical Rider
Four mics (banjo, fiddle, guitar/vocal, bass) and two monitors. Margaret handles all soundcheck communication — please direct questions to her, not the band collectively.soundcheck: 10:00 AM · 22 minutes
Audience Notes
"Imogen's Wedding Tune" — I have played the tape for my fiancé four times and we are both crying. — Anonymous · 1973
Tessa's fiddle break on "Sally Ann" is reason enough to drive to a festival. — H. Driggs · 1972
They invited a teenage girl from the audience up to play banjo on "Cluck Old Hen" — she was nervous, she was great, the crowd lost it. That is what a festival can do. — R. Bellingham · 1973
1:00
PM
Salem & Tobias Greene Streamside
brother duo · guitar & mandolin · high harmony · they live two miles apart and call every Sunday
Stage & Set
Streamside Stage · Sunday 1:00–2:00 PM
Notes from the Organizer
Salem (mandolin) and Tobias (guitar) grew up in Hannacroix and they have been singing brother harmony since they were small. They are not flashy. They are not loud. They are exactly the duo you would want to sit beside on a porch on a Sunday afternoon, and we are programming them in the Sunday afternoon porch-slot for exactly that reason. "The Last Mile to Halcottsville" was written specifically about the drive into the festival — they always end with it.
Setlist
  • I Know You Rider
  • Roving Gambler
  • The Cuckoo Bird
  • Knoxville Girl
  • "Two Brothers Walking Home" (Tobias, 1970)
  • "Letter from the Logging Camp" (Salem, 1972)
  • Long Journey Home
  • Will the Circle Be Unbroken
  • "The Last Mile to Halcottsville" (both, 1973)
Technical Rider
Two vocal mics, two instrument mics. Salem's mandolin slightly hotter in his monitor — he cannot hear himself otherwise. Tobias prefers a touch more reverb than is standard, which we honor because he's earned it.soundcheck: 11:45 AM · 15 minutes
Audience Notes
"The Last Mile to Halcottsville" — I have driven that road for the festival five years running and now I cannot drive it without singing the chorus to myself. — P. Henneman · 1973
Brother harmony at its plainest and best. Nothing fancy. Just true. — Anonymous · 1972
3:00
PM
Closing Concert — All Performers Pine Grove
the whole festival on stage together · Bright Morning Stars · Will the Circle Be Unbroken · Down in the Valley to Pray · Carry Me Home, July (Vesper leads, everyone joins) · Eldon Marsh calls the closing tune from the back of the meadow
festival-goers seated in a grass field on a sunny afternoon
Saturday afternoon in the meadow, 1973 — the Greenbriers' dance set, looking northeast toward the ridge.
people sitting and lying on grass at an outdoor gathering
Streamside, near sunset, last July — the audience drifting toward the lanterns before Hattie's set.

Getting Here

Pleasant Ridge Pasture, three miles west of Halcottsville off Route 30. Look for the hand-painted sign at the second bend. Parking $1, free for performers and anyone arriving on a bicycle.

The bus from Kingston Trailways stops at Margaretville at 11:40 AM Fridays — we'll have the festival pickup truck waiting until 1 PM.

Camping & Food

Tenting permitted in the lower field, $2 per night. Please pack out everything you pack in.

The Halcottsville Volunteer Fire Company is running the food tent: pulled pork, vegetable stew, corn on the cob, lemonade, coffee, pie. Their funds go straight to the new pump truck.

Workshops & Jams

Open jams at the campfire ring every evening from 11 PM until people stop. Bring an instrument. Bring two if you have them.

Saturday afternoon clawhammer workshop (3 PM, Workshop Tent) led by Reuben Sage — free, all levels welcome.

For Next Year

Suggestions for performers, food, programming changes — leave a note in the box at registration. We read every one. Eighth annual programming begins September 1974.

Festival office: PO Box 47, Halcottsville NY · or call after 6 PM: (914) 555-0162.

╔═══════════════════════════╗ ║ PINE GROVE ║ ║ STAGE ║ ╚═══════════════════════════╝ │ meadow ─────┼───── meadow │ ┌──────────┐ │ ┌─────────────┐ │ WORKSHOP │ │ │ FOOD TENT │ │ TENT │ │ │ (Fire Co.) │ └──────────┘ │ └─────────────┘ │ registration table ✦ │ ┌─────────────┴─────────────┐ │ STREAMSIDE STAGE │ ←── stream │ (lanterns after dusk) │ └───────────────────────────┘ camping ↓ ←─── parking lower field (look for the wooden gate)