Dave's Music #97 Storyhill Fest 2022
We were keeping the weekend of Aug12-14th open for a possible drive out to Boulder and Rocky Mountain Folks Fest; but then I saw a post about a VIP Resort weekend tied into the Storyhill Fest. While I've always appreciated Storyhill, I always thought it was kind of weird that they have a fest, but when I saw Ira Wolf and Peter Mayer were playing there I bounced it off of Lori. She was in and we booked it and our first officially mid-north Minnesota trip. We had a great time. I would classify it as a Singer / Songwriter festival, and we did enjoy the fact not a single artist felt compelled to have a drum set on stage. We could focus on the lyrics and stories and not strain to hear what they are singing about.
The blog post picture is a day after a weekend getaway. The cats enjoy the human sitting in the basement working on his music videos, while he's also doing the laundry. (not pictured ha) Then a 5 mile bike ride to the Holmen Library to use their high upload speed. Finally back home to work on the text and embedding.
So here we go:
Thursday night we were the last VIP's to check in but we made in time for our complimentary dinner; and we sat next to Andrew and Ana who were also two rooms down from our spot at the Ruttger's Resort. We believe these are our two non-musician friendship that will be fostered over the years. That evening ended with a cool house concert like concert with Storyhill in the Pavilion at Clearwater Forest. The VIP's could all get up at a mic and tell a story and request a song. Andrew requested one that he heard them play with Apostle references that he couldn't find anywhere. I quickly figured this was one I should tape for the night... GREAT Song.
We were planning on kayaking Friday during the day but it was kind of cool, rainy and windy; so we ventured around the area to Deerwood and they had Summerfest Days with Crafters (Red Neck Wind Chimes), Clothing places (Lori found a cool sweatshirt) a Dunk Tank with ELCA Pastors (remember it was cold), a Dog Fashion Show, an old guy cover band playing 70's music (first song Simple Man by Lynrd Skynrd), and FOOD. We had both cheese curds and a pork chop on a stick.
Then it was back to Clearwater and the first official day that started at 4:00 with Chad Elliott. I didn't know him too well, and I won't say it went downhill from there, but he and Kathryn Severing-Fox proved to be our favorite find of the weekend. Chad and Kathryn had you sitting and dreaming about the stories they would tell in song. Chad had that attention getting voice and Kathryn's fiddle and harmonies created those moments when all you could do is smile. Stories included red dirt, grave stones, Confederate flags, and cruising (scooping the loop) around town; all in vivid detail.
Next up was the Bad Posture Club that Carol Roth wrote a great article about over at Adventures in Americana, HERE. Followed by Ira Wold and Ben Kyle. What a great night.
Ira Wolf we last saw at Midwest Music Fest in LaCrosse 2018, and I have all her music. Since then she went through both getting engaged, a pandemic, and a major breakup which will show up in what she calls her "Divorce Album" coming out soon. Until then enjoy a fantastic rare Utah Phillips song, and a reimagined Fickle Heart. I'm on record wishing she would also put out a cover album, I love to hear what songs she would pick and anything with her voice (kind of like Emmy Lou's voice) would sound great and be her's.
It was kind of cool and damp, so we passed on seeing Storyhill's closing concert for Friday.
Saturday by the time we made it to the fest, it was 2:00 and I had a chance to enjoy conversations about Storytelling. Peter Mayer, Ben Kyle, The Sea The Sea, Chris Cunningham, and Kathryn Fox were all answering questions and really just being great mentors.
Then first up was Edie Carey. David Enge was curious what I would think about her, so I would say she fit in great among the talented songwriters. I loved her story and song about the couple who met at a white elephant gift exchange while married to someone else, divorced them, ran into each other and are now married and happy for 15 years. Here's an example of her storytelling and the title cut off her most recent album.
Next up was J.E. Sunde followed by Peter Mayer, The Sea The Sea (another duo I first met at MWMF 2018) and Storyhill closed the night. This highlight clip goes longer to give you 80% of the Storyhill song that Kathryn joined them for.
Like Ira on Friday; to Lori and I we came for Peter Mayer and he was wonderful.
So many favorite Peter songs, but we were both glad he played Holy Now. My buddy Tim Kolek always wanted our ACTS church band to cover this song. We're ELCA Lutheran and the holy water reference in the lyrics kind of screams Roman Catholic; but we just never got to it. We wouldn't have been thrown out by the members if we covered it.
I'm going to leave you with the other song that Kathryn joined Storyhill on; though the I'm leaving a lot on the cutting room floor. I bought a lot of music and will sure to be adding them in future playlists.
I can not guarantee we'll be back next year if it again falls the weekend of Rocky Mountain Folks Fest. Our friend, Shanna in a Dress won their Songwriting Contest and gets a main stage spot next year. If you can't make it out there, I'm trying to book her and Chad/Kathryn for future house concerts, follow us on Facebook and try to make a concert.
Here we are almost a year later and we're not going to the fest because of camp calendar the festival is being held on the same day of the Great River Folk Fest that I've made almost 95% of the time. The line up is great with three people I call friends, Humbird, Nikki Morgan and Sarah Morris. I highly recommend you stop at either fest, but they are about 4 hours apart which makes it a haul to hit both. Carol Roth with Adventures in Americana had a nice interview with Storyhill about the fest. CLICK Here.
I hope you loved the journey up to Clearwater Forest MN. You can find and follow us on Facebook and as always Good Music has NO Expiration Date, so if you are listening to this ten years from now, it still will be awesome music. If this is a first time visit, check out the index of themes for past Reviews and Playlist editions and for the Reviews alone, click here.
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