Folk Festival

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the 30th Ann Arbor Folk Festival. I've been to the folk festival before -- I went four years ago when Patty Griffin (whom I adore) was the headliner. This year, however, the lineup was even better -- my sister, Daisy May, had the honor of opening Saturday's show. As you might expect, the whole family trucked on down to AA to see her perform.

Dad offered to stay home with the babies, so Mom actually had a night out on the town! It was nice to get out of the house for a while, but it was kind of strange to spend so long (all of about eight hours) away from Pip and Squeak. We went out to dinner before the show and, since the festival was being held on the University of Michigan central campus (my alma mater), I had time to nip over to my favorite coffee shop and indulge in a double decaf cappuccino (and it was perfect).

The folk festival itself was so so -- I remember thinking the same thing four years ago. I must have persnickity taste when it comes to folk music, because most of it wasn't my cup of tea. I'll will admit to being terribly biased, but I think Daisy May stole the show (at least judging from the hootering and hollering that came from a certain group of fans in the front row ;). Of course I had heard of headliner John Prine, but had never listened to much of his music. I enjoyed his performance -- I think a great part of his appeal is that he just seems like such a genuinely nice guy. I always divvy up famous folks into two categories -- those that I would enjoy having over for dinner and those I would NOT. John Prine definitely falls into the "over for dinner" category, while Bob Dylan (whose music I love), does not. This applies to people outside the music genre as well -- Mario Batali is definitely on the guest list, but I'll take a pass on Martha Stewart (even though I'm one of those crazy Martha fans). Harrison Ford can come over to nosh, but I think Russel Crowe might be a little too incendiary (although both would be great scenery ;). Anyway, you get the idea ...

Of course, now that I'm officially old and boring, getting home late after the concert totally wiped me out for the rest of the weekend and I'm still trying to recover from the sleep deficit (a process which Molly the Teether is not helping). I am enjoying my sister's new CD, Mother Moon, tremendously, which makes those long, sleep-deprived work days pass on by a little faster. If you're into the folk "thing," you might want to check it out. I don't think any of the tracks from her new CD are available on the web, but you can check out her previous albums at CD Baby. /End shameless plug