Life has been pretty busy here in New Funswick. I guess the best place to start is with the magnificent marvel that is Folly Fest.
Dancing
The 6th Annual Folly Fest was held from June 27-29 in the Village of Gagetown. And what an event it was! With 3 days full of wonderful music, food, picaroons beer, dancing, laughing, and (best of all) the people, this is easily (in my humble opinion at least) the best festival in the Maritimes.
The museum that I work in during the summer serves as the acoustic stage for Folly Fest, and rightfully so as the acoustics in this building are incredible. It is practically impossible to sound bad when you sing in here. And with bands like Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra and the Alex Bailey Swing band (as well as many, many others) the museum was filled with some brilliant music.
Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra
As Nick is away in Antigonish, I had to enlist my friend Julian to play Folly Fest with me. We had a lot of fun rehearsing and getting ready for the big day. We even wrote two songs. Video footage of them was taken and if I can get my hands on it I would love to share it. And the show itself was ever so fun and intimate. And the rest of Folly Fest is a beautiful blur of sun, dancing, swimming, amazing concerts, fire shows, meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones. It was hard to pack up and leave to return to regular life on Monday. But it only means the countdown to next year’s festival can begin.
The Oddreys
After a speedy recovery on Monday, Tuesday brought Canada day along. My friend Luke and I had been enlisted to play a 2 hour show, and I think there must have been a record set that day for heat. We had a lot of fun, got pretty sun burned, and just had a great time playing music.
And then I had a really long nap.
I wrote most of this a few days ago, with plans to post it the next morning, but then Hurricane Arthur decided to crash through New Brunswick and did a rather large amount of damage. Mostly to trees and electric lines. So we were without power from the morning of the 5th (when we woke up to trees attempting to fall on my mom’s car) until last night (the 9th). The storm on the 5th was unlike anything I have ever seen.
Through the window when the tree went down
With pelting rains and screaming winds, I decided it would be more fun to see firsthand and went swimming in it. It was glorious. Diving under and swimming through calm, undisturbed water, and then rising to the surface to meet the wind and driving rain once again holds a piece of beauty for me. Needless to say, I am a bit weird.
Hurricane Swims
Huge, beautiful, old trees were down everywhere the next morning when we took a drive to survey the damage. My homelands looked as through giants had been playing kickball with the trees. We were lucky to have just lost the trees however, and didn’t sustain any damage to our house. However, there are many people in the area who had trees crash through their house, had roofs ripped off their barns by high winds, glass shattered by branches, and much more.
One of many
That being said, it is incredibly heart warming to watch the huge outpouring of help that is offered when a disaster such as this occurs. We had 2 huge trees fall in our yard, cutting off our driveway and partially landing on my mom’s car. Sunday morning brought the return of the sun and a crew of neighbours who dropped by with chain saws, trucks and big hearts to help us get the trees out of the way. And there were many other such scenes all over the area. People are wonderful.
5 Trees Less at the Cottage
Also, everyone in NB will now have enough firewood for about the next 10 years. It is also incredible the amount of joy one can experience when turning on a light switch to have the light actually come on, or to flush a toilet without having to use a bucket of water. It’s the little things in life that mean the most.
No fridge? Solution: Make Creative Drinks
So what is coming up next musically you ask (as I assume that is why you are looking at our site). I am running a Coffee House and Open Mic at the Court House Museum in Gagetown this Saturday (the 12th). There will be music. There will be coffee. There will be alcohol. There will be people dressed in their finest hippie garb. It will be wonderful. If you are in the area, or feel like going for an adventurous drive, please come by. Admission is by donation! And there is going to be some amazing music happening.
On another exciting note, Nick’s first play in Festival Antigonish opened last night. It is called Be My Baby, and from what I have heard it is a brilliant show. So if you are in the vicinity of Antigonish, or feel like driving in a different direction than towards Gagetown, I would highly recommend that you go check this show out. If nothing else you get the entertainment of watching Nick talk with a Scottish accent. I am pretty proud of him (but a lot less mushy than he is if you read the last post, so that is all I shall say 😉 ) Happy Opening Nick! Break a leg!
Here is a link to check out showtimes. He is also in Munschapalooza! as well as The Chuckle Hour: http://festivalantigonish.com/showtimes/
I am heading down to Antigonish for a few days pretty soon to see the play, and we are planning to record some new music. Have a song you would like us to try? Leave us a comment, or send us a message and we might just dedicate it to you.
Here is a large hope for sunny, hurricane free skies.
Peace and Harmony Restored
Much love,
Doll
Guy & Doll 