Norlands Weekend Day 2

This happened today-- Sunday-- and yes, I am tired!

I decided for today to show up a bit later and only play outside as a warmup before playing inside-- inside the giant church at the center of the Norlands grounds.

We were scheduled for a concert playing music and describing aspects of the Civil War-- how music played a part of the morale, and a side of the Civil War many didn't want to talk about.

This is where my friend Michel comes in. His background shows one side of his family tree being descended from slaves. I knew that he may have something to say about this as well as add his music, so I asked him to join.

I brought along Patty and baby Christian as well as Justin (Patty's son-- a history and military buff). We went on the grounds, met up with Megan and her mother, and setup shop in a familiar location:

After a 30 minute warmup, we played with Michel a bit and went over the setlist for inside. I had a very crude speech prepared and I was hoping for Michel to steal the show (he did). We were visited by the staff many times to make sure we were still doing the show, and had a town crier rally up people to go to it.
We went inside to prepare-- and low and behold, another student shows up to play...A little over a month from beginning and she wanted to play in front of everyone (makes me proud).

We played our fiddle tunes, my student gave a beautiful performance of "Britches full of Stitches", and Michel almost made me cry when he described spirituals, his family, and sang like a nightingale. Horses were making sounds outside so laughter made up for lack of speech direction. In the end we got to play, everyone's family or significant other were there, and what audience we had we made an impression on-- I hope.

Thanks for a great weekend Norlands!