Augusta Memories

I am home after an incredible week at Augusta, in Elkins WV. So many memories!

The stories! The video below is of my storytelling students telling the classic story, "No News." They adapted it to be a three-person story (it's usually a tale told by 2 tellers in tandem), and added some of their own comments to make the story uniquely theirs.

The people:

Listening and singing along at the Doowop evening! This was all kinds of fun. How do we remember songs we learned so many years ago?

Telling tales at the Augusta Festival! We had a nice audience for our early morning set. My students had the opportunity to tell the story they'd worked on all week on a festival stage.

Ellen Gozion explains the process of making crankies to me. The crankie in the
photo was made by the daughter of one of my storytelling students.

The music: On the last day, all of the musicians from all of the classes got together to play one last tune together; they had chosen "Over the Waterfall" at the beginning of the week to be their "camp tune" and everyone, from beginners to the pros, played together.

The place: Halliehurst, one of the two mansions on campus, on a full moon night, with the porch full of musicians. The nights echoed with music, and the laughter and pounding feet at the dance pavilion.

Some people just need to have things spelled out for them!

Below, Alan Jabbour, a renowned mountain fiddler, scholar and collector of old-time music, joins in a jam. Alan was always around playing music with everyone who wanted to join in, and was so approachable. The instructors were all the same way--approachable, friendly and helpful. I loved being part of such a great group of teachers.

Larry Staats, one of my class, on stage at the Augusta Festival on Saturday.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.