Enduring Anything For the Music

No tornado, this year, but an intense thunderstorm hit The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, NY, Friday night, turning Dodd’s farm into fields of mud.

   But festival-goers didn’t seem to mind. Many broke out galoshes, and those without mud gear just went barefoot. By Saturday it was sunny enough to make the damp only a minor glitch.

   Falcon Ridge attendees are a hardy lot. They cheerfully endure rain, wind, unforgiving sun and, yes, even tornados to hear their favorites play.

   Music was performed on three stages, a dance tent stayed lively until the wee small hours, and an international food court was a vegan’s paradise. And the crowd included jugglers, men in skirts and mud people.

   “I can’t even tell you how magical this festival is for me,â€� performer Katryna Nields said. “It’s a community of musicians and a community of listeners.â€�

   One of the ways Falcon Ridge is able to build that community, Nields said, is by inviting performers back year after year. Artists new to the festival, and less established than “the regulars,â€� are showcased and get to sing a couple of songs to introduce themselves.

The audience then votes for its favorites and the top three to five artists are invited back to perform at the next year’s festival.

   Falcon Ridge also attracts folk legends like Ani Difranco and Arlo Guthrie. This year, Janis Ian performed in what she called “the legacyâ€� position.

   Ian broke onto the music scene in 1967 at the age of 15 with “Society’s Child,â€� a song about a white girl dating a black boy. Saturday night, she talked about being heckled while performing that song as a young girl. The show’s producer insisted she finish her set and Ian said she learned at that moment the power of music. As she continued to play that night, the rest of the audience silenced the hecklers and, Ian said, inspired her to keep writing and playing.

   At Falcon Ridge, in her fifth decade of making and performing music, Ian performed songs about her life in a same-sex relationship. “We’re married in London / but not in New York / Spain says we’re kosher / The States say we’re pork.â€� (Ian paused after that lyric to appreciate the laughter; “They don’t get that one in Nashville.â€�)

   Falcon Ridge is not just about listening to great performers from a distance, which if you don’t get your tarp laid out at the main stage at 7 a.m., is where you’ll be. The workshop stage offers musicians a chance to collaborate, sometimes with a theme: “Not Just Another Old Fashioned Love Songâ€�; “Rollin’ in the Aislesâ€�; “It Just Takes Twoâ€�; “The Songs of Paul Simon.â€�

   At the family stage, kids are the focus. Some of the performers, like Hoopoe the Clowne, are there specifically for the youngest audience members, while others, like Mecca Bodega, work at making music accessible with activities like having young people play a 10-foot Tibetan trumpet. Mecca Bodega plays what member Chris Merwin describes as “original world music fusion.â€�

The group hit three of the four stages over the weekend, playing “artsy and danceable� music at the dance stage, interacting with children at the family stage and showcasing their best on the main stage.

   At the end, most people were muddy, soggy, possibly sunburned, but happy, and eager to return for another year.

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