Potomac Flute Festival, Winds of Change

Potomac Flute Festival is approaching and this year’s event is shaping up to be something very exciting.

Early Bird Registration ends March 8th for Potomac Flute Festival. This year’s line up and the new festival website can be viewed at potomacflutecircle.net. Register early so you do not miss your spot.

While you're at the Festival, volunteer for a couple of hours (or more!) and get a flute raffle ticket for every hour you work. We need ticket takers for our concerts, support for lunch food set-up, some folks to help with the concert ticket will-call pick up before each concert, and help in a few other locations to give some relief to our Committee staff. To volunteer, contact Stuart Hill. At SJHHILL (at) aol (dot) com

January 09 notes & news

Here are some of the news bits I have been getting in January. I have also had the great treat of getting out to Phoenix and playing flute with the Arizona Flute Circle while visiting family. I hope everyone has had musical inspiration from all the wintery weather.

Note that Jan Seiden and Jeffrey Kuhn's will perform on Sunday, February 15, 2009

Jan writes “Please join us for a special afternoon to benefit for The International Rescue Committee, www.TheIRC.org”

Sunday, February 15, 2009
4:00 - 5:30pm
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville
100 Welsh Park Drive
Rockville, MD
Suggested donation: $15.00 at the door
Reception follows the concert


Dana Ross was able to raise $545 to help Randy Stenzel with medical bills through a charity auction of an incredible White Buffalo Flute he crafted. You can still see the flute photos on Ebay at the link below:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190283316602&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1123
Great job Dana on a beautiful instrument. You can find more of Dana Ross's work at Falcon Flutes and Drums.

Flute business news: Several folks have new flute business ventures Mark Purtill, has started a company and web site called Anasazi Dream Flutes. Mark offers a PVC version of the Anasazi flute to allow flute players to become familiar with the instrument. Flutes on his site are in three separate models (in A, C, & D). Each flute is PVC and decorated in a variety of natural and painted finishes.

Val Korbin is a Pennsylvania based flute maker who is a well known contributor to the yahoo Basic Flute makers group. He is now offering flutes and tools for flute makers getting started too. His site is www.hawkeyesnest.com

Festival news:
Dates are set for the 2009 Yosemite Flute and Arts Festival. September 25, 26, 27 – 2009.

The news I have seen is that the 2009 Oklahoma Flute Festival will not occur. This is a big loss in my opinion because I have heard a great number of first hand accounts of how well attended and how much fun this event was to be a part of.

There are several new events cropping up for 2009. The First Annual Magic Valley Flute & Art Festival will be held at the Twin Falls County Fairgrounds in Filer, Idaho on the 19, 20, 21 of June 2009. The web sit is up but a little sparse. http://www.magicvalleyflutefest.com/


Clint Goss reports “Oct 15-18 Vera and I will host the East-Coast "Flute Haven Native Flute School". Sessions will run Thurs evening through Sunday Noon in Phoenixville, PA and will focus on playing and techniques and jamming with other instruments. The program will include studio recording, workshops, and a major music jam-fest event on Saturday evening. Vera and I are joined by music facilitation pros Eric and Lynn Miller.” This is very close to Philly and will be well attended. Clint is a regular presenter at Potomac Flute Festival and at Zion where his classes are always well received.

In the same email Goss writes, “The Zion Canyon Native Flute School will run May 17-22, 2009. It was a huge hit last year and the program has been expanded for this year. Vince Chafin, Scott August, Cornell Kinderknecht, William Hoshal, and Vera and I will facilitate a full schedule of sessions throughout the week.”

Zion Canyon - May 17-22: http://www.ZionCanyonNativeFluteSchool.com

Flute Haven - Oct 17-22: http://www.NativeFluteSchool.com

November & December 08 news

It has been a very busy autumn and the blog has been non-news worthy as a result. That does not mean that there isn’t great news.

Chronologically speaking I did get in a great visit with Neuse River Flute Circle in November. It was wonderful to see friends from Timber flute Festival and to meet in “reality” many who I have spoken with “virtually” via email. These folks are staying busy and seeking to plan an event for their region as well as building a great flute community in the triangle region. Thank you to all for such a warm welcome in Raleigh! The NRFC link is here on the right hand links bar and they always have something good going on so look them up.


Autumn is school visit season and so I have had two visits in the areas Montessori School for Flute and Didgeridoo. The kids are maybe the world’s most appreciative audience and that is great for the ego of the most-humble player like me. Foremost though is the idea often quoted as “a mind once stretched, never return to its original shape” and I do see music have great affect on children frequently. I have had great success with having an educator read Paul goble's book Love Flute, prior to my visit and thus the kids have a wonderful idea of the power of the instrument prior to ever having heard it. The suspense builds and they are excited with questions and comments about the music.


It is never to early to say get ready for 2009 Potomac Native American Flute Festival – Put it on you calendar because the sixth Potomac Native American Flute Festival will be held the weekend of March 27-29, 2009 at the Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, MD. Confirmed performers include Scott August and Autumn’s Child featuring Mark Holland on Friday night; and Mark “Thunderwalker” Camden and The Jeff Ball Band on Saturday night. There will also be a 90 minute Saturday afternoon concert featuring 3 artists: Jan Seiden, Jonny Lipford, and the duo of David Landis and Diana Sunday (from the DC-local group KIVA). Workshops will be held throughout the event, which is scheduled to run from 3:00PM Friday, March 27 to 3:00PM Sunday, March 29. This years Potomac Native American Flute Festival features the theme "Winds of Change." From all four directions, Winds of Change are blowing through communities around the world—environmental, spiritual, cultural, financial, and personal. Native American Flutes are especially suited to giving voice to the feelings that accompany such change. The PFC has a link to your right here as well.

Many fine flute makers are offering holiday sales Dana Ross (Falcon Flutes and Drums), John Kulias (Meadowlark Flutes), Colyn Petersen (Woodland Voices) all have sent word of flute sales for the holidays. Remember that these folks build flutes for good causes, donate them to raffles and support the flute community in many good ways so as the say in WV “you outta dance with the one who brung ya”.

Speaking of good intentions Brad Young (4 Winds Flutes) has built and auctioned off a flute to benefit Randy Stenzell, who is fighting cancer as I write. Colyn Petersen and other have helped the Stenzell’s this season and I hope many folks will support that effort.

For those who are holiday shopping Clint Goss has a new piece in production that anyone can use. Clint states “The Jam Tracks CD for G Minor is here! It *just* arrived minutes ago and looks gorgeous.”
The web site now plays a sampler of all the tracks:

http://www.NAFTracks.com/ntgm_detail.htm

INAFA also has a new CD of music this year that is a fundraiser for the organization but includes some wonderful performers. INAFA has a link to your right on this page and the banner for the new CD is at the top of the page.

Autumn Flute News

First, the disappointing news: Leonard McGann's annual Flute Fall In will not be scheduled for this year and Leonard tells me that they may try it again next year, stay tuned.

2009 Potomac Native American Flute Festival – Put it on you Calendar! The sixth Potomac Native American Flute Festival will be held the weekend of March 27-29, 2009 at the Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, MD. Confirmed performers include Scott August and Autumn’s Child featuring Mark Holland on Friday night; and Mark “Thunderwalker” Camden and The Jeff Ball Band on Saturday night. There will also be a 90 minute Saturday afternoon concert featuring 3 artists: Jan Seiden, Jonny Lipford, and the duo of David Landis and Diana Sunday (from the DC-local group KIVA). Workshops will be held throughout the event, which is scheduled to run from 3:00PM Friday, March 27 to 3:00PM Sunday, March 29. This years Potomac Native American Flute Festival features the theme "Winds of Change."
The Potomac and Northern Virginia Flute Circles web site is being completely renovated, so please check back in a few weeks for further details and how to register. Some additional festival information is posted at their web site (see links at the right)

From Clint Goss; “I've just updated the version of Edward Kort's NAFlutomat program that is available on FluteKey.com to the latest version. It is now version 1.37.1. (Ed'snumbering omits the leading "1." and is just 37.1).Version 37.1 is a minor update from the long-standing version 37 that has beenposted in the Files section of this group since December '07.”Here's the link: www.flutekey.com and scroll down to the third section "Flute Construction" and click on"NAFlutomat - NAF Design Tool"

Jan Seiden has another great concert event coming up. Jan states “I have honor and great pleasure of appearing in concert with Arvel Bird (southern Paiute and violinist extraordinaire) and Art Shegonee (Menominee dancer) in a concert to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.”

In Concert: Arvel Bird, Jan Seiden and Art Shegonee
Friday, November 21, 2008 7:00pm
Calvary United Methodist Church, Annapolis, MD
Tickets: adults $15.00 advance, $20 at the door, children 5 - 12 yrs; $5.00
for tickets, call Randy Sisulak at: 410-721-3963

Fall Flute News

FLUTE QUEST 2008 -- Sept. 19, 20 & 21
Sponsored by the Washington Flute Circle, is an event that seems to be enjoying great commitment and enthusiasm each year. This year’s line up again looks great.
http://www.flutequest.com/

Vince Chafin
Gary Stroutsos
SATURDAY NIGHT CONCERT
7:00 - 9:00 PM

Ancient Sounds *
Jan MichaelLooking Wolf Reibach

Other Flute Festivals or Flute Events to check out

9/5 - 9/7 Indian Summer Fest in Milwaukee, WI http://www.indiansummer.org/
9/26-28 Native Arts and Flute Festival, Oakhust, CA http://www.yosemiteflutefest.com/
10/31 - 10/5 Oklahoma Flute Festival, Cherokee Heritage Center, Tahlequah, OK http://www.okflutefest.com/
10/11-12 Silverhawk Flute Gathering, Florida http://www.silverhawkflutegathering.com/
Wow, your carbon footprint would be preety huge to attend all five of these in the same year...

Jan Seiden has been performing with Arvel Bird, and will be giving a joint concert in MD on Friday November 21st in Annapolis to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.


Clint Goss has made available to Native Flute folks who may be interested - a new set of fonts for transcribing music. The fonts contain finger diagrams for Native Flutes (and fujaras) and are useful if you are creating transcriptions of music for flutes.

The fonts are freely distributable, and can be used on any system that can display TrueType fonts such as Microsoft Word, Finale, Sibelius, PrintMusic, etc.
They are on Clint Goss’s web site: http://www.NAFTracks.com/fonts.htm


It has been a busy past few weeks but our flute circle did sent a small delegation to the Sunwatch Flute Festival. While fuel prices may have hurt the overall attendance for this year’s event the good folks that were there had a great time. Sunwatch Archeological Park is a great spot for the event and offers lots of room as well as wonderful exhibits and grounds to explore. Saturday was a blockbuster line up of performers and if you were able to stay in the shade to avoid melting you caught some great music. John DeBoer, Spirit of Thunder, Peter Phippen, Jeff Ball and his band, Jan Seiden, Janice Trytten Sunflower, Jonny Lipford were all given about an hour and we had fun learning new tricks and discussing the performances along with the symptoms of heat injuries.

Flute Makers were at Sunwatch in great numbers and it was fun to see work from David Martinka, Leonard McGann, Brad Young, Brent Haines, Billy Crowbeak, Larry Evans, Randy & Shelly Stenzel, Dave Myers in the vendor area. We saw a lot of great instruments and ran into flute friends from Indiana Flute Circle, Potomac and Pennsylvania Flute Circle and friends from Timber Flute Festival – new NAF players! This event is close to home and has a good feel – it should continue to grow and do well. Hats off to the Miami Valley Flute Circle for pulling off a great weekend.

WV NAF Circle meets this Saturday Sept 13 from 1-3pm at RCCAC. Hope to see you there!

Flute Festival updates

The photo at Left is from the 2008 Timber Flute Festival here in Elkins. (Jay, Eddie Thomas and myself play an introduction for the Irish flute players - image from RCCAC website)

The Miami Valley Flute Circle of southwestern Ohio is holding the 2nd Annual SunWatch Native Flute Gathering August 23 and 24, 2008, in Dayton Ohio. We invite you to join us. SunWatch Indian Village, a National Historic Landmark, is a reconstruction of an 800-year old village built by the Ft. Ancient Indians on this site. This provides a very unique authentic setting for the Flute Gathering. The website http://www.sunwatch.org/ is full of information about this historic site.

Performing throughout the weekend will be top-notch national level flute players including Jeff Ball, Peter Phippen, Jan Seiden, Jonny Lipford, Douglas Blue Feather, John DeBoer and others, as well as grass roots flute circles and players of all ages. There will be vendors, storytelling, native foods and lots of flutes! To see pictures from last year’s Flute Gathering, please go to:

http://sunwatch.boonshoftmuseum.org/Flute%20Circle.html
and
www.myspace.com/sunwatch

Come join us as we step back in time to share the music of the ages. We look forward to welcoming you on August 23.

Andrew Sawyer, MA, RPA asawyer@sunwatch.org
Site Manager/Site Anthropologist
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park
2301 West River Road
Dayton, Ohio 45418
937.268.8199

Of note for this fall
Rick Dunlap has advertised in the INAFA newsletter about a new flute festival and he has emailed as well to request that everyone be aware of this new event. The Yosemite Flute and Art Rick says, “ We have awesome concerts and workshops planned with Mary Youngblood, Vince Chafin, Mark Holland, Jeff Ball Band, and Scott August. This is going to be a fabulous West Coast annual event September 26-28, 2008!

His website is
yosemiteflutefest.com

Rick Dunlap’s site is
http://www.blogger.com/www.myspace.com/visionhawkmusic

Summer flute events

In an effort to support all things NAF...

There is a great event coming up in August that I missed last year but really hope to attend this year. Contact information is below along with links to the event.

Also here are photos that a few of our friends shared from Timber Flute Festival 2008. Thanks to Jim Krysan and Kelly McCauley for the permission to share their photos. Above (L to R) Ron Warren, Janice Torres, Maria Oria, Carl Bolyard, Rowena Mills

The Miami Valley Flute Circle of southwestern Ohio is holding the 2nd Annual SunWatch Native Flute Gathering August 23 and 24, 2008, in Dayton Ohio. We invite you to join us. SunWatch Indian Village, a National Historic Landmark, is a reconstruction of an 800-year old village built by the Ft. Ancient Indians on this site. This provides a very unique authentic setting for the Flute Gathering. The website http://www.sunwatch.org/ is full of information about this historic site.

Performing throughout the weekend will be top-notch national level flute players including Jeff Ball, Peter Phippen, Jan Seiden, Jonny Lipford, Douglas Blue Feather, John DeBoer and others, as well as grass roots flute circles and players of all ages. There will be vendors, storytelling, native foods and lots of flutes! To see pictures from last year’s Flute Gathering, please go to:

http://sunwatch.boonshoftmuseum.org/Flute%20Circle.html
and
www.myspace.com/sunwatch

Come join us as we step back in time to share the music of the ages. We look forward to welcoming you on August 23.

Andrew Sawyer, MA, RPA asawyer@sunwatch.org
Site Manager/Site Anthropologist
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park
2301 West River Road
Dayton, Ohio 45418
937.268.8199

Jan Seiden Memory of Time #19

Congratulations Jan!
Some really great news, Jan Seiden’s Memory of Time CD has been ranked #19 globally by New Age Reporter! This deservedly puts her in some great company as you can see from the list of accomplished artists that make the charts at this website. The link to the chart listing is here http://www.newagereporter.com/charts/top100.asp Lets hope that someone has already reviewed the album for the next issue of INAFA’s newsletter Voice of the Wind.

May NAF News

The big news early this month was that Ron Warren, Native American Flute Instructor for this year’s Timber Flute Festival in Elkins, had been requested to perform for the Pope’s visit in Washington, DC. Details of the April 17 performance can be seen on Ron Warren’s website, http://www.ronwarrenmusic.com/calendar.html. Pretty cool I think and a great honor for Ron.

Cedar Mesa Music and Scott August are proud to announce the Scott August Signature Anasazi Flute. These instruments are made by Geoffrey Ellis of Earth Tone Flutes. You can see one at Scott’s website - the link is on your right. His site reports that he is now teaching lessons on the Anasazi Flute, and has had two workshops this year.

Keith Stanford of Cherry Cows Flutes sent me news about a charity FLUTE MAKING PROJECT. Keith says “Basically, several Flute Makers have joined together to work on a flute. A special piece of wood is first selected, then a song will be recorded, by a noted Recording Artist, using that Community Built Flute. The flute and CD will then be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to charity. For this particular Flute Build, a piece of wood that is over 50,000 years old was used to make this flute. Charles Littleleaf is the Recording Artist who will record the special song.” If you are a member of the yahoo groups basic flute making group you can see photo files of this instrument. (The yahoo groups are a pretty good way to network with other flute folks and are recommended in that the flute groups are pretty well moderated.) A flute like this one was detailed in the current issue of Voice of The Wind. This is a great idea and a very worthwhile way to create one of a kind flutes to help folks in a new dimension.

Also do not forget:
Jan Seiden is someone I mentioned last post as being a very talented flute performer you should hear as soon as you get the chance. Her official release party for the new album, Memory of Time will be May 13th.
I was fortunate to purchase a copy at Potomac Flute Festival and it is fantastic, below is a short summary of how you can hear Jan and get a copy of the album yourself.

When: Saturday May 17, 2008
3:00 - 5:00pm (doors open at 3:00pm, concert begins at 3:30pm, CDs available for sale and signing before and after the concert)

Where: 6800 Oakland Mills Road (Christ Episcopal Church) Columbia, MD 21045 www.ChristChurchColumbia.org
RSVP by May 12, 2008 to Jan at: flutejourney@yahoo.com

Spring Flute Events

Spring Flute Events

Spring brings new events of all kinds and here are a few worth mentioning:
Jan Seiden is someone I mentioned last post as being a very talented flute performer you should hear as soon as you get the chance. Her official release party for the new album, Memory of Time will be May 13th.
I was fortunate to purchase a copy at Potomac Flute Festival and it is fantastic, below is a short summary of how you can hear Jan and get a copy of the album yourself.

When: Saturday May 17, 2008
3:00 - 5:00pm
(doors open at 3:00pm, concert begins at 3:30pm, CDs available for sale and signing before and after the concert)

Where: 6800 Oakland Mills Road (Christ Episcopal Church)
Columbia, MD 21045
http://www.christchurchcolumbia.org/

RSVP by May 12, 2008 to Jan at: flutejourney@yahoo.com

The Native American Flute Spring is held each year in New Jersey and is being hosted by Jan Wylie. The dates are April 10-13 and to register you can contact Jan below:
P.O. Box 20573Roanoke, VA 24018 naf4jan@cox.net

The new edition of the INAFA newsletter is here and the ad for Timber Flute Festival looks great. The dates are June 22-27 in Elkins and while that seems far away remember that after June 1st there is a tuition increase for late comers, so register early please and bring a friend (smile). I have spoken with several folks who are interested in camping out during the event to remain rustic and help with costs - this is possible, just ask. To register for the event just click here or on your right. http://www.randolpharts.org/.

There is good news in that another flute festival is being promoted for September 26-28 in Oakhurst, California – just outside Yosemite. Billed as the Yosemite Flute and Art Festival you can visit http://www.yosemiteflutefest.com/ for details, but I’ll warn you it looks like this site just went up and is awaiting details…

More news soon - or visit our next flute circle meeting on Saturday April, 12th from 1-3pm in Elkins.

Potomac Flute Festival 08

Potomac Flute Festival 2008

New artists, new faces, new weather challenges, new West Virginians at the event. There were a lot of good things about a very busy and flute packed weekend at the festival.

This continues to be one of the largest annual gatherings of flute addicts on the east coast and workshops were sold out this year. Additionally the house was full on Saturday night for R.C. Nakai and his concert was a delight. The weekend started off a bit rough, as several folks were turned away in an icy parking lot Friday afternoon when registration was to begin. My fault really for not checking the web site before I rushed to the car to begin my long drive from Elkins and beat the freezing rain, but I was determined to make it to Rockville on time. My friends from WV (Allen, Johnny and John F) drove even farther on Friday but found some fun in town anyway. No ones fault but the snow gods for causing giving Montgomery College cause to close the campus and leave the festival committee scrambling to keep everyone in the loop for “plan B”. They did this quite well and further managed to pull off nearly the entire schedule of events in the remaining two days. The big disappointment was missing Mark Holland, who was stranded by the same weather without a way to even get to the festival. I got to spend a quiet Friday night with family and with above freezing weather on Saturday morning we all got back to what we came to do. Kudos goes to the PFF committee for working so hard to make all necessary adjustments to keep things tracking well in spite of the weather.

Jan Seiden and Jim Morehouse were Saturday afternoon’s concert performers and were great. Jan has a new album Memory of Time and her performance debuted several of the new songs from this album. Watching Jan play is almost as fun as listening to her. The new album is entirely flutes and percussion yet some of these tracks leave your ears wondering “how does she do that?” Her live performance is a treat as you get to see how Jan produces some of these sounds on some very special flutes. Jan has also taken up the Anasazi flute and her original compositions are both haunting and beautiful. Be careful listening to the Anasazi flute in the hands of a skilled musician, it will make you want to learn to play one – as there is no other sound like it. Jim’s playing really is beautiful to listen to and reflects both his personality and passion for the flute very well. His performance featured all of his own instruments, including flutes from the Maryland State tree, the Wye Oak, who was estimated to be nearly 500 years old when it fell.

New Flute makers this year included Jon Kulias from Meadowlark flutes. John creates in ceramic to make some beautiful and rich sounding flutes and he is getting a lot of attention these days for being one of just a few people who work in clay. It seems that attention is well deserved as he is a genuine guy and talented artist. Brent Haines returned this year with his amazing work and several flute makers had new designs to share. Geri Littlejohn is now offering branch flutes that are wonderful. Colyn Petersen’s new sub-bass flutes are awesome and he debuted the new Ron Warren signature flute at the festival. Randy Stenzel has a Johnny Lipford signature flute that is beautiful and plays as you would expect it would. Leonard McGann displayed a flute made from an Armadillo’s tail, and his rated R flute I cannot talk about here. The flutes that went up for raffle were just amazing too as each flute maker had something special in the drawing. Great eye and ear candy for flute addicts.

R.C. Nakai is someone that nearly everyone has heard of and his music as a collaborator and ambassador goes well beyond the flute world. His music definitely is dreamlike and mystical but for me his engagement of the audience and discussions of the instrument were a highlight equal to his playing. Sunday morning he gave a discussion with some history but a great deal of exchange and question and answer time about all things flute and flute related. As one of the Song Keepers for this instrument that may have been the best session of weekend for me even though he didn’t pick up a flute.

Workshop feedback was great from what I heard whether folks were making PVC flutes, learning about the history of the instrument, attending Clint Goss’s playshop sessions or learning about topics from breathing to music theory. All those happy flute people crammed into the music college makes for really good energy. Many familiar faces and some new folks too made for a great weekend socializing. It was tough to head home Sunday afternoon but at least I had a new flute to play on the drive.

To hear more stories and share the learning from Potomac Flute Festival attend our March meeting at RCCAC Saturday March 8th from 1-3pm

Events for Winter Fluting

Leaves are falling fast now and a long, cold rain is working hard to fill the creeks...

My time spent at the annual Flute Fall In event last week was fantastic. Many plans were discussed for the winter and several performances of note are coming to the area and are not to be missed. Get out your calendars…

The Museum of the American Indian is the newest and possibly most fantastic building on the National Mall. They are hosting several musicians next week that are well known to the flute world. R. Carlos Nakai will perform Friday, November 9, 2007, 6 p.m. on Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. The website states the following “R. Carlos Nakai, flute. Classical and traditional music performed by the leading Native American flute player, R. Carlos Nakai (Navajo/Ute), and friends.” Visit kennedy-center.org for further information.

On Saturday November 10, 2007 there are two performances (1pm and 3pm) in Rasmuson Theater at the Museum of the American Indian.

1pm Music of David Yeagley (Comanche), including Salve Regina for Native flute and women's voices.

3pm Dawn Avery (Mohawk) presents North American Indian Cello Project, including premieres of works by works by Ron Warren (Echota Cherokee), Timothy Archambault, Raven Chacon (Navajo), R. Carlos Nakai, and Dawn Avery, with R. Carlos Nakai, flute, Timothy Long (Muskogee-Creek/Choctaw), piano, Lisa Long, flute, Steven Alvarez, percussion, and the MC World Ensemble.

On Sunday, November 11, 2007 1pm in Rasmuson Theater at the Museum of the American Indian. A Concert for Veterans. In honor of Native veterans, this concert will include performances by R. Carlos Nakai, Dawn Avery and the MC World Ensemble, Tara-Louise Montour (Mohawk), Tim Archambault, Barbara McAlister, Timothy Long, Lisa Long, and Gabriel Ayala.

A big weekend line up with members of Potomac Flute Circle performing too.

A great cultural group has asked for help promoting a performance from Kevin Locke. This is a man who “needs no introduction” but I’ll provide you with a quote anyway. Kevin Locke is one of the featured artists in the documentary Song Keepers and has been an inspiration to many.

“An event of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society-- Program of Native American Music, Dance and Stories with Kevin Locke 2/8/08 Kevin Locke is a visionary hoop dancer, the preeminent player of the indigenous Northern Plains flute and a traditional storyteller. Of the Lakota tribe, he is known throughout the world as an ambassador of Native American culture.”

So the event is Friday Feb 8 at 7:30pm Kevin Locke in concert @ Harrisburg Academy in Wormleysburg, PA advance tickets $18 general admission seating. Call 717.214.2787 for tickets. Call me to arrange a carpool as I really want to attend this event too.

It is never too early to get the word out that the 5^th annual Potomac Native American Flute Festival will be held the weekend of February 22-24, 2008 at the Montgomery College in Rockville, MD Featured performers already confirmed include

Carlos Nakai - - - Friday Night - Mark Holland and Autumn's Child - - Saturday Afternoon Jan Seiden - - - - Jim Morehouse.

Workshops will be held throughout the event, which is scheduled to run from 3:00PM Friday, February 22 to 3:00PM Sunday, February 24. The festival will also include a Saturday afternoon concert featuring Jan Seiden and Jim Moorehouse, as well as over a dozen Native American flute makers and non-NAF vendors. Details and registration:

http://potomacflutecircle.net/