Songtaneous at the Wild Rice Festival
The entrance to HANC
This weekend, we were Songtaneous at the annual Wild Rice Festival in Roseville (MN). This annual festival supports the efforts of the Harriet Alexander Nature Center (aka HANC) and featured all kinds of fun family activities, from traditional wild rice harvesting and honey extraction demonstrations to a pancake breakfast.
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I hadn’t been to HANC before, so I was delighted to walk from my premium parking spot through the parking lot to a tree covered path a few yards away. To the right was the area where the Native American dancers would perform. (Sadly, our schedules were in conflict and I only got to see one dancer from a distance as I was leaving.)
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Flute player and storyteller Duke Addicks
Crossing the parking lot, I followed the sound of flute music through the woods to the small outdoor ampitheater to the right of the path. (The word ampitheater was somewhat grandiose for the friendly intimate entertainment space that appeared to my left.)
On stage, flute player and storyteller Duke Addicks coaxed haunting and spritely tunes by turns from a variety of Native American flutes. Between the tunes, he shared a ton of Native American stories and lore, including how the flutes were made. In his last set, he played a huge drum — “the heartbeat of Mother Earth” — while he told stories.
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New singing friends: Morgann, Kara and Taylor. (And Spices’ member, V! in the background.)
Shortly after I arrived, my singer friends began to arrive. Some have sung (or currently sing) with me in my a cappella group. Others I know from the Saturday Songtaneous sessions. One I went to music school with and I met and sang with three new friends for the first time.
Taylor, Kara and Morgann responded to an invitation I sent to McNally Smith through my friend Judi. (Thanks, Judi!) We hadn’t sung together before, but each of them dived right in. During our second Songtaneous, I met a mother and daughter who came up “on stage” to sing with me. My favorite way to meet new singers (and players *smile*) is through making music together.
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Each singing session was scheduled to last 45 minutes. I taught the audience — which included my singing friends — a number of chants, including the rainforest chant I learned from Ysaye Maria Barnwell. I’d invite different friends to join me on stage to help sing. We sang songs and chants and created some spontaneous inventions as well. I watched time well in the first set, but by the second set, the music just carried us away.
