Long Island was well represented at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference at Kutsher’s Resort in Monticello, New York over the Veterans Day weekend.  Local residents accounted for some five-percent of the 600+ people in attendance and made their presence felt more than ever before – hosting and participating in late-night music showcases and song swaps, serving as workshop panelists, jamming in the lobby,  and, in general, enjoying the esprit de corps that characterized this year’s conference. 

“It was one of the best conferences I ever attended in nearly 40 years in the business … exhausting, as always, but energizing, too,” wrote John Platt, host of WFUV’s “City Folk Sunday Morning” in a posting to the Folk DJ listserv, in which he expressed thanks to his fellow folk DJs for introducing him to some wonderful artists on Thursday night and to all the musicians who played in the myriad showcases.  Platt, who participated in the Thursday night Folk DJs’ Choice showcase and helped emcee the weekend’s formal showcases, notes that “There were too many fine performances in the formal, tricentric and guerilla showcases to mention them all.”  However, he says that the consensus among his friends was that Twilight Hotel, Amy Speace, Ellis, and Anthony da Costa were among the conference buzzes. (Editor’s note: AcousticMusicScene.com was proud to feature most of them in its late-night showcases).   

Impressed by LI’s representation at the conference, Platt  highlighted it on the Nov. 18 edition of "City Folk Sunday Breakfast," during which he played "You," a track from AcousticMusicScene.com’s Glen Roethel’s forthcoming CD, Smaller Things.  Says Platt:  “One of my favorite moments was hearing local singer-songwriters Glen [Roethel], Stuart [Markus] and Hillary [Foxsong] jamming in the lobby before dinner on Saturday, with a host of folks joining in on their killer version of ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes.’” 

Markus was delighted with Platt’s assessment, and says that another conference highlight for him was “the honor of being a ‘presenter’s pick’ at the Moore Music/FOCUS Music presenters’ showcase Saturday afternoon, getting a 15-minute chance to strut my stuff in front of a packed room of house concert presenters.”  He also joined Freebo and New Jersey troubadour Spook Handy in leading the singing during noted WXPN (Philadelphia) DJ Gene Shay’s annual late-night pop song sing-along party that continued into the wee hours of Sunday morning. 

Although the annual NERFA Conference does not formally get under way until Friday, there has been a growing trend to arrive a day early.  Following Thursday night’s Folk DJ’s Choice showcase, more than half of the early arrivers crammed into the AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot to enjoy a song swap in which four folk DJs were given an opportunity to raise their own voices in song.  Afterwards, more than 30 performing artists strutted their stuff — often spontaneously accompanied by others in the room — until four in the morning.  Among the more than 30 participating American and Canadian artists were Long Islanders Foxsong, Joe Iadanza, Markus, Phil Minissale, Roethel, Russ Seeger, Roger Silverberg and Hank Stone. 

"A mere four hours’ sleep a night was a pittance to pay for the inspiration, the teaching, the fellowship, and the fabulous music that went on throughout the weekend," says Foxsong.  "It was absolutely a musician’s paradise."

What set this year’s conference apart from previous ones, as Silverberg puts it, is “just one word: community.  You felt it.  Everything seemed to align itself into a fantastic extended family vibe.”  For him, the most eye-opening experience was being with all his friends from LI and making new ones who live within 30 minutes of his Huntington home.  “We’re all so busy with gigs and everything else that being in the local scene rooms and at the dinner table is something that really just doesn’t happen back at home,” says Silverberg.  “I really feel that some of these ‘local’ connections deepened from the NERFA communal experience.”

Minissale concurs with Silverberg.  “The camaraderie among the folk musicians from Long Island was incredible at NERFA,” says the ‘Long Island Blues Boy.’  “All of us joined together as musical ambassadors and shared the many talents of Long Island with the rest of the Northeast.  It was an honor to be part of the ‘Long Island Sound’ at NERFA,” said Minissale, who wowed people with his impressive fingerpicking.   He traded riffs with Philadelphia-based father & son blues and roots duo Beaucoup Blue and mandolinist & self-described Rust Belt Vagabond Greg Klyma in an AcousticMusicScene.com Showcase song swap.  Minissale also had an opportunity to play with rootsy Oregon-based songster Lauren Sheehan, among others, and was interviewed during the conference by Kathy Sands-Boehmer of the Me and Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, Massachusetts for its blog at http://meandtheee.org.blog/txp/.

Besides the AcousticMusicScene.com Showcases hosted by Roethel and editor & publisher Michael Kornfeld, among the dozens of late-night guerilla showcases on Friday and Saturday that extended into the wee hours of the morning were a ‘Long Island Sound’ room hosted by Marcus, ‘O’Malley’s Mix’ hosted by singer-songwriter James  O’Malley, along with Karen Finkenberg (Folk Music Society of Huntington, The Eclectic Café in Bay Shore, etc.), and ‘The Song Box’ hosted by George Trapani, who hosts an intimate series of the same name in Seaford.

Finkenberg, who, along with her husband, Jack, has been attending NERFA Conferences for many years, believes this was the best one since 2004.  “There seemed to be a lot more young musicians this year – always a good sign, “she said.  In addition to da Costa, young performers like Emily Elbert, Minissale, and Chris O’Brien were also much talked-about and frequently jammed with each other and others, when not showcasing themselves.  “There also seemed to be a ‘sense of community’ that has been lacking in recent years,” Finkenberg observed.

Performing artists from LI shared those sentiments.  “The first thing that struck me about NERFA was the near-complete lack of my-song-is-better-than-your-song competitiveness among the musicians,” said Foxsong, who was attending her first NERFA Conference and who just started performing a smidgen over two years ago.  “Other than one instance that she cited, “it was genial support all around, and it was wonderful,” Foxsong said.  “The biggest thing I came away with from the weekend is a new definition of ‘successful musicians.’ I’d have told you beforehand that a successful musician was one who was selling a couple of hundred thousand records and selling out the big halls.  But now I see that really doesn’t matter – the successful musician is the one who can connect with the joy in the music, and can use his music to spread that joy around.”

This was also the first NERFA conference that singer-songwriter Hank Stone has attended.  A self-professed late-bloomer, Stone says he has “often felt hopelessly left behind in the effort to be heard.  But as my confidence has steadily grown, I finally feel like a part of something.”  Through the conference, Stone says he’s “made new friends, got better acquainted with folks I knew, and formed mutual-appreciation societies with several artists.”  Stone also came to the conference with a good attitude.  “I wasn’t expecting to get gigs from the conference, just to have a good time,” he said.  “Well I had the best time ever, and the connections I made in fun may open some doors.  But if not, I’ll still return for the fun.”

Echoing those sentiments, singer-songwriter Joe Iadanza, asserts: “I know a lot of people are at NERFA trying to get gigs.  A lot of non-showcasing folks spend a lot of time chasing down promoters and getting annoyed when no one notices them.  I made that mistake at the national conference once.  Honestly, I’ve learned (and am practicing) this: Stop pestering them.  Keep writing and keep improving.    Get more involved and share yourself with the community.  Get to know folks because they are great people, and not because you want something from them.  Play, have fun and stop worrying.  Know this: when your music and your performance are good enough, the presenters will come looking for you.”

“At the most emotional, stripped-down level, NERFA was a blast from start to finish.  I haven’t had that much fun in a long time,” says Iadanza.  “I was simply overwhelmed by the mass of talent, and I was grateful to be inspired by them and their music.”   He notes that he was “totally blown away by [16-year-old Pleasantville, NY singer-songwriter] Anthony da Costa’s tricentric showcase,” which he described as “as good of a solo performance as I’ve seen by seasoned veterans in big rooms,” and “particularly enjoyed hanging out with some guys in the Kutsher’s lobby for several hours, trading songs and learning classic folk tunes, and just laughing and making friends with each other.” 

In addition to an abundance of musical talent, fun and joy, NERFA conferences also feature an exhibit hall, communal meals, plenty of opportunities for networking and schmoozing, and an array of informative workshops and panel discussions.  Kornfeld, who became the first Long Islander to serve on the NERFA board of directors, also moderated a popular interactive afternoon “Gathering Place for Small Venues and House Concert Presenters” and participated in a panel discussion on PR and Promotion.  Award-winning LI-based family entertainer Patricia Shih moderated a panel discussion on “Developing World-Class Children’s Programs” and spoke out during an early-morning community meeting with the NERFA board, urging that more attention be paid to, and programming be included for, family artists and family audiences at future conferences.  “If the folk community continues to ignore young audiences, the folk audience will continue to gray, diminish and eventually die off,” she asserts.

Other Long Islanders in attendance at this year’s NERFA Conference included photographer Robert Berkowitz, Susan Cohen, Joanne & Stephen Dezego (Garden Stage), Stephen Fricker, Alice Hayden, Georgianne & Rick, Annalee & Erica Jackofsky (The Homegrown String Band), Dan & Susan Knopp (Knock Knock House Concerts), Jack Licitra (Jack’s Waterfall), Gary Schoenberger (Folk Music Society of Huntington and L.I. Concert Notes), Marty Stone (Our Times Coffeehouse) and Mark Virgilio.  Performing artists from Queens included Steve Chizamadia and Annie Dinerman, while Brooklynites included artists Nels Andrews, Meg Braun and Barry Kornhauser, as well as folks associated with the Good Coffeehouse Music Parlor.