centralia old time campout

Friday night we drove away and left a full moon drenched field behind us.  Everywhere was music and dancing.  Our new pals from Seattle were kind enough to let us ride down with them and their angel-dog Pixie to Centralia, WA where there is a 10 day old time gathering (old time is the pre-radio style of American string band music, quite diverse).  The campout is located in a field at a sheep farm and has a cold running stream at one edge, plus modern toilets and showers (solar powered) and a nice cookstove set up for anyone to use.  The latter was great for us because the car was filled to the brim--no room for cooking equipment on top of the instruments and camping gear.  

Shout Lulu is a band based in Fayetteville, AR and Matt has known the fiddler through the midwest festival circuit for a few years now.  His bandmates are fairly recent transplants from Seattle and we got to know them a bit at this year's festival in West Plains, MO.  Luckily they gave us the name and number of some Seattle folk that host a bimonthly square dance and the rest is history!  New friends made.

I am traveling with a banjo-ukulele.  It is nice and small for easy packing and has a good sweet sound.  Matt plays the fiddle and dances.  So far we played once in the town of Vashon here on the island--made a few dollars plus a cookie, and spent it all at the farmer's market.  The plan is to play along the way and make a little pocket (read: beer) money.  Take some pressure off the ol' debit card.  

The number one activity at the campout was jamming.  This is simply the getting together of musicians and playing together.  For me it is a little stressful to just jump in as I have a hard time figuring out what to play--but as they say practice makes perfect.  I'm happy to report it was my most successful time at it thus far.  Whew!