Sherwood Celtic Music Festival

Egads! I've started to work up this write up several times, but never get very far before something distracts me. Now it's been several weeks since the event and I'm shamefully late with the report. That is indeed embarrassing.

Remember how I went to Texas Mead Fest back in September? Well, the following Sunday, September 23 to be exact, Monkey Girl and myself spent the afternoon at the Sherwood Forest Celtic Festival just east of McDade. It's a fall event held on the grounds of the Sherwood Forest Renaissance Festival. I have to say, I was quite impressed with what I saw. I remember going to an early Cavalier Days festival outside of Smithville--an early forerunner of this one--and being less than impressed since the entire site consisted of tents and performers trying to recreate the ren fest vibe under less than ideal conditions. When Cavalier Days went under, I was actually a part of a stopgap event, Underhill Village Faire, held at Old Cactus Jack's west of Austin. I wore my Hern the Hunter costume and had a good bit of fun, but the faire itself had major problems, mainly because some of the organizers had and inflated sense of self-importance that lent an unprofessional air to the shindig. Shortly thereafter Excalibur Faire started up, but despite good word-of-mount in the early years, went belly-up after moving to a permanent site outside of Lockhart.

So, it's only natural that I was a wee bit skeptical regarding the potential of Sherwood Forest Faire when it launched a couple years back in McDade. But I saw their online advertising for a late September Celtic music fest--and, more importantly, sets by Clandestine, pretty much my all-time favorite Celtic band--and I knew I had to go. And I'm not ashamed to admit I was very impressed with what I saw once I got there. The festival grounds are well-established with many permanent buildings, but more importantly, many flush toilets. Heck, Scarborough Faire didn't even have flush toilets until about a decade ago! The Sherwood Forest grounds are about half the total size of Scarborough, and set in the Lost Pines area of Texas, so you know the setting is top-notch.

Almost immediately, we ran into Martha Wells and her husband, Troyce Wilson. It's always good to see familiar faces. And several people called out to me, recognizing me from the Texas Mead Fest the day before. Small world, huh? The music was free-flowing as well. The Bedlam Bards, a Texas Celtic staple, were there for several sets. I'd heard they'd retired, but they seemed to be no worse for the wear this day (Apparently, it was the Brobdinagian Bards who retired and reunited for the festival). There were many, many bagpipes around, some playing singly, others roaming in packs. I didn't realize they had herding instincts. Monkey Girl was fascinated by the Highland games--something about men throwing tree trunks caught her attention. There were also quite a few harpists, and although they tended to congregate together, they didn't roam like the pipers.

But the big reason I was there was to see Clandestine. I hadn't seen the band perform in more than a decade, prior to their farewell tour when founding member Jen Hamel departed Texas to pursue graduate school. I never expected the band to reunite, but that's exactly what they did in 2006. Al Cofrin, a NASA engineer and creative force behind the historical music ensemble Istanpita, joined the lineup to make it a quartet, his lute giving the band a distinctly different sound than Hamel's guitar. They put out a "new" album, ReD, a couple years back, and I bought myself a copy first thing. Now I have the complete set!

A funny thing happened at the start of their set. As soon as piper E.J. Jones began to play, a cicada flew out of a nearby tree and landed on his shoulder, where it stayed for most of the first song--much to Jones' consternation. I guess it was a case of unrequited love. The crowd certainly got a chuckle out of it.

The set was lively and over far too soon. They played "Bluebonnets" from the Music From Home album, as well as several from ReD, including "Down," which is perhaps the first modern Celtic-styled song that features the Red Baron so prominently (it's historically inaccurate, but then again so is "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" from Billy Joel, so they're in good company). One particular highlight was a piece titled "The B Reel" by Cofrin, who wrote it as an experiment using a mathematical formula. That sounds strange, I know, but the end result was distinctive and catchy. I found out later they haven't recorded it yet, which is a real shame. It's high time for Clandestine to put out another album.

Emily Dugas on percussion has moved seamlessly into the front woman role, her voice is as strong as ever and from what I can tell from ReD, has become their primary songwriter. Clandestine's music has never been all sweetness and light--"Dunlavy's Castle," "Cannonball," "The Cruel Sister" and "A World Turned Upside Down" are melancholy if not outright mournful--but the vocals on ReD are surprisingly bitter, angry and bleak. That's not necessarily a bad thing--some of the songs are quite strong--but the relentless darkness grows wearying after repeated listens. I hope that in the future she's able to mix the mood up a bit and not rely entirely on instrumentals for contrast. And I'd be remiss without mentioning the excellent fiddle work Gregory McQueen, who attempted to dance a waltz for the audience and promptly fell off the stage. Thankfully, several members of the audience--both young and old--began dancing then so McQueen could focus his attention on remaining upright.

And yes, Monkey Girl had a good time. She stole my copy of ReD the other day and hasn't given it back yet. I suspect I may never see it again.

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