A Real Sense of ‘Community’ Permeates NERFA Conference

by Michael Kornfeld
 

More than 600 folk music aficionados – including performers, presenters and promoters – converged on Kutsher’s in Monticello, New York over the Veterans’ Day weekend for the annual Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) Conference.  The once venerable Catskills resort that was part of the borscht-belt circuit during its heyday was transformed into a veritable folk Mecca during what many considered to be the best NERFA conference they ever attended.

Sleep-deprived attendees enjoyed three jam-packed days and nights of music showcases, song swaps and jam sessions, informative panel discussions and workshops, a large trade show-like exhibit hall, communal meals in the dining room, and lots of informal conversation and networking. 

A wonderful spirit of community permeated the long weekend.  Indeed, as Long Island-based singer songwriter Roger Silverberg put it, community was the one word that set this year’s conference apart from some previous ones.  “You really felt it.  Everything seemed to extend itself into a fantastic extended family vibe,” said Silverberg.   Like him, Glen Roethel and I had looked forward to this year’s event as an opportunity to make new friends and connections, while opening up new possibilities.  Although both of us had attended and enjoyed previous NERFA conferences, this one exceeded our expectations and was certainly the best one with which we were involved.  And boy, were we involved. 

Following a series of formal and tricentric showcases — in which dozens of pre-selected artists from throughout the U.S. and Canada were afforded 15-minute performance slots each evening — so-called late-night ‘guerilla showcases’ took place in a number of hotel rooms until the wee hours of the morning, while other musicians staked out parts of the lobby for informal jam sessions that lasted as late (or early, depending on your vantage point) as 6 a.m.

AcousticMusicScene.com Creators Host Showcases & a Midnight Hoot

Glen and I hosted AcousticMusicScene.com Showcases on both Friday and Saturday nights, as well as an earlier very special AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot on Thursday — following what’s known as the Folk DJs Choice showcase.  We also offered tastings of wines from Palmer Vineyards on Long Island’s North Fork .
 

For the past several years, a number of folk radio DJs have come to the annual conference a day early and have presented artists who they consider to be worthy of more attention for the listening enjoyment of other  early-arrivers.  Playing off that, we decided to give four folk DJs who also have recorded albums a chance to raise their voices in song.  Barbara and Graham Dean of WBCR in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Wanda Fischer of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in New York’s capital region, and Larry Hoyt of  WAER in Syracuse, New York each performed a couple of numbers.  More than 70 people crammed into our room to hear them, as well as some two-dozen artists from the U.S. and Canada whom we invited to perform one song each during a round-robin song swap.  Spontaneous accompaniment was encouraged and often materialized in wonderful ways, as when Pittsburgh’s Brad Yoder added clarinet riffs to several numbers. 

The Midnight Hoot was designed to be like a late-night song circle around a campfire, only without a fire and in the cozier confines of a hotel room.  We encouraged performers to connect with each other and back each other up, and we received very positive feedback from artists and presenters alike — with most saying what a nice kickoff this was to the weekend and urging us to do it again in 2008. 

Participating artists in the AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot included  Danny Bakan, Beaucoup Blue, Jud Caswell, Joe Crookston, Emily Elbert, Freebo, Spook Handy, Joe Jencks & Helena Nash, Stuart Markus, Deidre McCalla, Phil Minissale, Danielle Miraglia, Penny Nichols, Chris O’Brien, A.J. Roach, Glen Roethel, Roethel, Markus & Foxsong,  Erin Sax-Seymour, Roger Silverberg, Betty Soo, Hank Stone, Tannis Slimmon, Victoria Vox, Randall Williams and Brad Yoder. 

Karyn Oliver, Chris O’Brien, FREEBO, Marc Douglas Berardo, Emily Elbert and Amy Speace & the Tearjerks

Featured artists in the Nov. 9 and 10 AcousticMusicScene.com Showcases included Freebo, Arlon Bennett, Joe Jencks and Helena Nash, Amy Speace & the Tearjerks , Anthony da Costa, Lara Herscovitch, Hope Machine, Patti DeRosa, Karyn Oliver, Bonnie Lee Panda, Danny Bakan, Marc Douglas Berardo, Steve Chizmadia, Emily Elbert Chris O’Brien, Glen Roethel, Stuart Markus, Hillary Foxsong, Twilight Hotel, Jud Caswell, James O’Malley, Beaucoup Blue, Greg Klyma, Phil Minissale, Randall Williams, Jack’s Waterfall, Victoria Vox, and Terry Kitchen.  Some performed 15-minute solo slots, while others engaged in 30-45-minute song swaps. 

Following the final pre-arranged set, AcousticMusicScene.com hosted an informal open song swap and jam session in which some 20 performers traded songs and licks until just after four in the morning.  Glen and I hung out with the riotously funny Eric Schwartz, gifted and soulful troubadour Joe Jencks & Helena Nash, and talented Americanadiana singer-songwriter and banjo player Danny Bakan in what was billed as the Red Hot Canadian Room until just before sunrise.  Incredibly, or maybe not, others were still in the hallways jamming.

In addition to co-hosting late-night guerilla showcases, Glen — whose sophomore release, Smaller Things, is in production — participated in others hosted by Tribes Hill and fellow New York singer-songwriters Stuart Markus and James O’Malley.  He received accolades for his performances from John Platt, a folk DJ with WFUV in New York, among others. [Platt featured a song from Glen’s next CD on his “City Folk Sunday Breakfast” program the following Sunday, preceded by short commentary on the NERFA conference]. 

I moderated a panel discussion for small venues and house concert presenters that sparked a lot of audience interest and participation, and also was among the panelists in a two-hour session on PR, press and promotion for performers and presenters.  I stressed the importance of both performers and presenters embracing e-technology and the new media to get the word out, heighten awareness of their music/venues, and help build audiences and community. 

As the newest member of the NERFA board of directors, I pressed for using e-technology more effectively as a communications and information-sharing tool to help enable our members to nurture connections and relationships forged during the weekend online and seek to continue to foster that spirit of community that so characterized this year’s conference. 

As part of the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance (Folk Alliance), NERFA (www.nerfa.org ) aims to foster and promote multicultural, traditional and contemporary folk music, while strengthening and advancing organizational and individual initiatives in folk music and dance through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development. 

More photos from the 2007 NERFA Conference will be posted in the Gallery section of AcousticMusicScene.com.  If you have any photos you’d like to share with us for possible inclusion, please send them to photos@acousticmusicscene.com

A related article, “Long Islanders’ Presence Felt at NERFA Conference,” appears in the News-Long Island, NY section. You might also enjoy reading WFDU-FM (Teaneck, NJ) DJ Ron Olesko’s Nov. 15 recap of the conference that appears at ronolesko.blogspot.com.

Folk Alliance’s annual conference takes place next February in Memphis, Tennessee.  More information on it will be posted in coming weeks.