Northern Roots

Tim Eriksen Concert Broadcast: Live at the Jaroslaw Festival
Wednesday January 7, 1pm EST
Polskie Radio Dwojka
Or Online…

THE FESTIVAL “PIESN NASZYCH KORZENI”
The festival in Jaroslaw is one of the best I’ve ever been to for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which are musical. It has a strong participatory orientation, with lots of actual workshops- not the American folk festival style workshops which are just less formal concerts usually with some sort of vague theme (“I Love My Cat” etc.) The programming was excellent- a really interesting and diverse mix, and a far cry from the “wonder bread of many lands” phenomenon one often encounters at these things.  I also love the fact that Piesn Naszych Korzeni has never in its history used amplification. If I’m going to hear Motorhead I want it to be a million decibels and I don’t care what the space is like, but my feeling is that most festivals could save a lot of money and do a public service by holding concerts in spaces with acoustics that don’t require sound reinforcement and encouraging singers to sing more audibly and listeners to listen less audibly.

Jaroslaw festival line up

Photos from my concert

I was originally scheduled to play in a smaller venue, but it had to be moved due to “increased public interest.”  The whole note taped onto festival posters read:

“Szanowni Panstwo! Z uwagi na wzmozone zainteresowanie koncert Tima Eriksena zostaje przeniesiony do Kolegiaty Jaroslawskiej na godzine 20:15.”

Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg and I attempted to translate this at about 2 in the morning, with the help of a local hedgehog who was out foraging, while waiting for the policeman appointed to drive us to the Krakow airport to find a way to get into his paddy wagon after locking his keys in it. We figured out it says something like: “Dear People. BEWARE! Tim Eriksen’s interesting concert blah blah blah 8:15.”
I was reminded of a time Cordelia’s Dad spent the better part of a day on ferries getting to a remote part of British Columbia for a show with Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies only to be greeted by posters on which had been scrawled “cancelled due to lack of interest.” Thanks for telling us, hippies.

In any case, the church in Jaroslaw is pretty cavernous. Even filled to its capacity of about 1,000 people it was extremely reverberant. I generally prefer a dryer sound, but that’s partly because I find the reverb on most recordings tiring and unnecessary. An actual reverberant room can be a lot of fun to sing in, although it can make some things, fast songs for example, difficult. My performance on some songs was less than stellar – unfamiliar acoustics, jet lag, borrowed guitar and other  lame excuses. But there were also some I’ve never sung better, and overall I’m really pleased with the recording. It may take shape as the basis of a live CD later this year- we’ll see.

Most of my time in Jaroslaw, when I wasn’t waiting in line for a jam bun, was spent teaching Sacred Harp singing. The first day we met once, but a lot of the 60 or so people who turned up wanted to sing more. For the rest of the week between 50-70 of us met for two 90 minute sessions a day, the last of which was a mini-singing and demonstration at the abbey where many of us were staying. It was a wonderful group of people and they really worked hard. It was great to hear “fa sol la” wafting out of abbey windows, or from the little grove where some singers were camping. By the end of the week we even spotted some pro shape note grafitti in town (chalk, not spraypaint). There’s now a little start up singing in Warsaw I hope to get to one of these months.

My festival appearance was part of a tour organized largely by Magdalena Zapedowska. If you hadn’t heard already, we were married last month in Northampton MA, and had a singing and dinner at the Holbrooks’ in Hadley. We’re grateful to so many for their kindness and support.
Here’s a link that may be of interest:

Jaroslaw Sacred Harp Singing on Youtube