Category: Local Events

Juan de Fuca Festival 5

Have you heard of forest bathing? It’s an immersive, mindful practice of walking in the woods and focusing on just being.

Attending the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts for me was music bathing, taking in, savoring, loving what music has to offer.

David Jacobs-Strain, above, was one of the reasons we went to this year’s festival. Slide guitar, deeply soulful singing, and moving, evocative songs. He helped me realize I was taking a dip in music bathing.

Bob Beach sings, plays harmonica and flute. We heard him first as a duo with David Jacobs-Strain and again in a second performance with Jacobs-Strain and two other terrific performers, Keith Greeninger and Dayan Kai.

Keith Greeninger is an award winning singer/songwriter with a husky voice presenting songs full of soul. He improvised and played masterfully.

Dayan Kai is described as “a true musical force of nature. Born without sight he began playing classical piano at the age of two.” In concert at the festival he moved between guitars, wind instruments, and percussion. And, yeah, the guy can really sing.

The Juan de Fuca Festival offered dozens of performances. We could have spent up to nine hours a day taking in everything from ballet to zydeco. Music bathing at its best.

Juan de Fuca Festival 4

We saw Bruce Coughlan, above, twice at the Juan de Fuca Festival. First he played and sang as the duo of Whiskey Minstrels, then with Tiller’s Folly. Coughlan is a longtime songwriter and musician from Canada.

Nolan Murray performed twice with Coughlan. An award winning fiddler, he easily moved from fiddle to mandolin to mandocaster. I love mandolin and Murray was effortlessly brilliant.

Canadian Laurence Knight joined Coughlan and Murray as bassist and vocalist of Tiller’s Folly.

Juan de Fuca Festival 3

I have an enormous playlist on my iPod, packed with music I love. But even my most-played, favorite song is no match for live music. Room-filling, soul-stirring, dynamic. Rosie & the Riveters at the Juan de Fuca Festival is an example.

Rosie & the Riveters ended a ten week tour at the Juan de Fuca Festival at the top of their game. They performed their own songs, described as “playfully defiant,” and “confident talk-back harmonies” with titles like “Ms. Behave,” “Gotta Get Paid,” and “I Wanna Be King.”

Though their set was light and upbeat, a new song “I Believe You,” was filled with such raw honesty to bring me to tears. It caught a very current moment. You can hear it at their website.

The group is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. From left to right they’re Farideh Olsen, Alexis Normand, and Allyson Reigh. They’re great performers and we’re already looking forward to their return for a solo concert next March.

Juan de Fuca Festival 2

When I said yesterday that the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts draws performers from far and wide I wasn’t exaggerating. One of the groups we saw perform twice on Saturday, All Our Exes Live in Texas, hails from Australia.

The singer-songwriter group has won the ARIA, Australia’s Grammy, for best roots/blues album of the year. They came to the festival in Port Angeles as part of a world tour.

Halie Loren, above, is based in Oregon and has also toured internationally. Her rich, bluesy voice was perfect for her set which included an unexpected version of the 1967 hit, “Ode to Billie Joe,” best I’ve ever heard. And she set a fresh new standard with many of her other songs. Top notch.

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. It’s a time to remember and appreciate our veterans who gave their all. These service men and women have always made America great.

Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

We’re spending the weekend immersed in live music and performance at the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts in Port Angeles. It’s a four day lineup of talent from near and far, and an opportunity to be saturated with awesomeness.

Chris Swenson was a highlight of our first day. He calls his work “human jazz,” a description that barely scratches the surface of voice/song, movement/dance, and performance that defies easy characterization. Check out his website to get a better idea and see him in action.

The program reads, in part, “His work is unique in its cross-cultural synthesis of theater, dance and music and its willingness to unbridle the imagination.”

The festival is a family event with a street fair and free outside entertainment. As the day progressed, kids joined the fun and danced joyfully around the periphery of the main stage.

Blyn ablaze

The tiny community of Blyn, located at the head of Sequim Bay, is the center of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, which owns the community and operates its tribal activities there. At this time each year the landscape is a breathtaking wonderland as miniature lights are tightly woven onto trees and shrubs along the highway and next to the tribe’s many enterprises.

We came through at dusk, before the full effect of the lights and colors could be seen. But you can get hint of what it’s like: truly stunning.

The lights are on both sides of Highway 101 and frame the tribe’s many enterprises, including a casino, gas station and convenience store, a community center, library, gift shop, totem carving shed, and other buildings that serve the tribe and its activities. It’s well worth seeing if you’re in the area.

Homecoming

We arrived at the halfway point of our evening walk to find this sweet scene. A cute young man, flowers in one hand, sign in the other: “Of all the fishes in the sea, WHALE you go to HOCO with me?” HOCO = Homecoming.

Mom and Dad were nearby. The intended date was being driven, blindfolded and unawares, to this spot. We didn’t wait around to see the outcome but I’m betting there was an enthusiastic “Yes!” He was very cute and pretty irresistible.