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Kari Estrin, founding President of SERFA, called the meeting to order at 1:07pm
Kari made introductory remarks:
· SERFA Showcase tonight 9:00-10:30pm
· Regional meeting Friday at 9:30am – breakfast served
· Info sheets passed out to gather info on who’s in our region and what resources they can bring to the table.
Kari called out the states that make up the SERFA region, and asked who is from each state.
Kari noted that how the regions have developed has been backwards – by starting conventions instead of connecting states first, need to develop states within themselves as well.
Every regional convention has a different feel, NERFA is more singer-songwriter oriented, FAR-WEST is centered on industry as well, SWERFA is has a great deal of participation from house concerts. Our event will be unique to Southeast.
Kari introduced Louis Meyers, executive director of FA, who said: We’re here to get this thing started – there will be a convention this year by edict of the FA Board. Location and date will be announced by mid-April or May 1 by the latest in order to get a conference this year. Shooting for date between October 1 and November 15, and actively looking for locations.
Andy Cohen suggested Cedars of Lebanon State Park as a possible location.
After Louis left, Kari asked if we can continue with the meeting as we started, getting to know each other. Also, said, although the October conference is an edict, we need to discuss what we think we can accomplish first, that amount of time possibly being too short as no site has been booked as of the meeting and possible fundraising would have to begin, depending on the venue booked and could we raise enough money in time? Many budgets already spent for October. Setting a date would depend on the resources that stem from this meeting after some research could be done.
Kari asked for discussion about difficulties encountered touring in the SE. She asked venue operators: how can SERFA help you do what you do better?
Keith Harrelson said he’s collected some data from venues, and he’s presented in the past, and plans to in the future. So far, he’s gotten three responses: 1. Karen Reynolds – wants a list serve to help with block booking. 2. Jim Benelicia (sp?) Acoustic Coffeehouse in Johnson City – he’d like a bulletin board where he could post and read reviews of artists. 3. John Bright – Purple Fiddle in WV – wants to/needs to shift from tea drinkers to beer drinkers – looking for more danceable music. Info on where to get electronic equipment would be helpful.
Ed Snodderly was asked to speak in the meeting on how he has run the Down Home Picking Parlor in Johnson City for 32 years, and is also a touring musician. These venues are not in malls or toney locations, but usually in run-down joints. He asks performers: what are you doing in your town, before you try and come play my town. The funkier the better, sometimes when it comes to venues. His doesn’t take credit cards, there is no ATM, they don’t run tabs. He’s both a performer and presenter – started in the 70s. In those days, it was the Exit In in Nashville, and the Old Time Picking Parlor – the club is a musician, too. The venue is part of the band – sometimes it’ll make money, other times it’ll lose money, but you want to be part of something musical. There are no guarantees, you only get a percentage, just like a band member.
Kari said she works a lot with singer-songwriters, but she’s proud of the traditional music from our region. She introduced Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz.
Tracy said that what used to be called “folk to folks” is now called “outreach.” Get some musicians a little bit of cash and a whole lot of good feelings – like playing in old folks’ homes and community centers. It’s the people’s music.
Ginny said one benefit of playing traditional music in the South is that you don’t have to explain the music, which can also be a drawback if you don’t sing the song correctly.
Ginny sang a line of Amazing Grace to illustrate the little bluesy inflection that comes at the end of a line in some traditional songs.
Tracy said, you don’t have to explain in the South why a fiddle sounds the way it does. Now there are more organizations and grants in the South than there used to be.
Ginny noted that music from the British Isles came over to this continent and was mixed with the African American blues to give us what we have today.
Kari introduced Kathy Mattea and Hazel Dickens. Kathy said she started in the folk tradition, went mainstream country, and now is coming full-circle back to folk with her new record “Coal” – she said she’s had to “unlearn” the country stuff in order to “get out of the way of the song.”
Hazel – inducted into the West Virginia Hall of Fame – she said WV always ends up in the song – her “modern era” ends in the 1950s – the Appalachian melodies are embedded in her. When she began to perform, the only venues were bars, and women weren’t invited or allowed in. She’d never been in one before. She didn’t get to start doing festivals until she’d become well known. Being invited to folk festivals allowed her to bridge the gap between bluegrass and folk. She felt like she was selling something that was given to her (that made Kathy tear up). Playing folk festivals opened her up to new ideas other than just hard driving bluegrass. Often, she’d only get to meet her band 10 minutes before going on. Once she got her own band, the people started looking at her as a professional.
Kari introduced Andy Cohen – he talked about the blues – he said in the old days, he never made any money – he just got gig to gig – he got to talk to Honeyboy Edwards – Walter Hurton and he walked along Hwy 61 to record. Sons and daughters of sharecroppers came to Memphis to make this music – bulldogged the music industry into submission – all you need to know about the blues is out there on CD now – all the 78s have been re-issued – the pre-war country blues have been studied and are now done by Jewish Cowboys like Andy.
Kari noted part of SERFA’s mission statement notes that it is a place to preserve the traditional music of the South. She wants there to be fun in our organization. She called a break.
After the break, Kari asked us to brainstorm and daydream on what we could do by Fall. A conference? A one or two day event? We’re all here to advance our own careers, but we need people who are willing to put aside personal interest and work for the larger good.
Ginny asked what’s the difference between a conference and an event.
Greg Trafidlo said that whatever we do should be for recruitment as well as for current members
Betty Friedrichsen wondered if people would travel long distances for a one-day event, or would it need to be longer.
Keith pointed out that football and collegiate activities dominate Fall in the South.
Kari asked what season would people prefer for the conference, and noted that Louis prefers the Fall.
Randy Wynne, SERFA board member, suggested we do a Friday-Saturday-Sunday morning event, and that it should be in Georgia because that’s centrally located.
Don Porterfield said that Eddie’s Attic in Georgia could host showcases, and that maybe some other venues he knows could do so also.
Allen Guthier suggested having a spring event or two or three that would be a preview of the fall event.
Chuck Brodsky said that artists would be interested in venues outside of their home state, because local venues already know local performers.
David LaMotte said he’d like to see a full-on conference. We should jump right in and have showcases, workshops, concerts. (Jim Magill said don’t forget an exhibit hall.)
Talitha MacKenzie suggested affiliating with an institute of higher learning, and pointed out that ETSU has a department for Appalachian studies.
Charlie Dahan said that his school MTSU has a recording school and runs a lot of conferences and symposia – universities seek this stuff out.
Ginny likes the idea of involving college students and mentioned Warren Wilson College.
Betty Friedrichsen seconded the suggestion to incorporate colleges.
Kari asked is there enough dedication to get this to happen this Fall? (The sentiment seemed to be yes.)
Kari asked if we have any fundraisers amongst us? She noted that we need seed money from sponsors and fundraising for posters, flyers, travel, etc. and to offset some of the conference expense per person.
Kari said we need to have a housing coordinator, people to handle registration, transportation, and a local committee. These are the details we’re committing to.
Chuck says that all the artists are already booked this Fall, so this Fall won’t work for a conference. He said if FA wants us to have a conference, why can’t FA pony up the seed money?
Ronnda Cadle suggested that any date in the Fall would be too close to FAR-WEST.
Kari asked how many are already going to other regionals this Fall? “Just a handful.” So it looks like we want to have another organizing event, and to have a year to do a conference.
Charlie asked, Can we co-opt another event, like the Americana conference in Nashville?
Stacey Earle suggested picking a date either before or after the other regionals, because those conferences are important to touring performers’ income.
Audrey noted that the Americana conference is so much different from what we do in FA – many people don’t know what FA does.
Kari discussed her idea of having state coordinators (ambassadors) – if we organize the states first, they can feed into the regional
??? asked what about using the sub-regional showcases as fundraisers for the regional conference.
Kari suggested that selected artists from each state could showcase in other states, addressing Chuck’s concern raised earlier.
Betty asked if October is too busy for the regional conference, won’t it be too busy for the showcases as well?
David LaMotte questioned the financial feasibility of having artists play fundraisers, presumably for no pay, out of their home state.
Allen Guthier summed up what he’s been hearing – these showcases will feed into the conference – that’s a model he can market, he says.
Betty reminded us that the first conference will be small – more like a hundred than a thousand.
After listening to discussion, Kari summed up and asked: are we somewhat in consensus that 2009 is the conference? And some type of event in 2008? Those who responded seemed to agree that at this point the conference should be in 2009, rather than 2008.
Kari said she admires what Dalis and Dianne did with SWERFA and NERFA by starting those conferences themselves, but we want to involve the SERFA membership to do it more as a team, so that the responsibility doesn’t fall on just one or three or four persons.
Chuck said he’d like to see us pay homage to what makes the SE unique – focus was on on money in the old days – “industry” is not folk music. Music is sacred in the SE – our conference needs to be different from the Americana conference – we should not let it be dominated by industry professionals.
Andy Cohen said it should be at a college. He said transportation is not an issue – we will travel to wherever it is. He supported the idea of having the conference in 09 with feeder events starting sooner.
Kari acknowledged Chuck’s comment re: paying homage to what makes the SE unique, saying that has been our goal all along – we’ve been planning on featuring dance, craft and other traditional folk art forms.
Allen & Marce talked about the new website at www.SERFA.org. Allen said we could have a venues-only list serve (which we already have). He discussed rules for posting (which are already in place) that posts should be relevant to everyone and not just gig announcements. He suggested a rating system for venues by artists and vice versa.
Kari said we could enter our email addresses into Allen’s laptop to ensure we’re on the SERFA list serve.
Kari said she wants the venues list serve to be about more than just rating performers – she envisions more general communication amongst the venues.
Chuck pointed out that sometimes a venue operator might make a negative comment about an artist because of a contractual dispute that might actually be genuine.
Kari said we should get together a search committee for a 2009 conference with feeder events around the SE leading up to the conference. She said we’ll get volunteers empowered to put these ideas into effect. She emphasized that personal agendas are out of place here, and we’ll all work together for the common good.
Stacey suggested Little Switzerland in NC – Wild Acres – might be a good place for the conference. They require that organizations be non-profit in order to use their facilities and volunteer to get information about them.
Sonny Thomas from the Fiddle & Bow in Winston Salem said we tried to do all this as far back as 1986. He said that the SE is a unique area, and that there’s not a professional folk scene like the NE has.
Gloria Holloway from Friends of Florida Folk described her presenters-only list serve as being helpful with block booking, but she said no one really knows who’s on it. Anyone who’s on the list can post that an artist is looking for dates, and it usually works for name acts.
Kari thanked everyone for coming and adjourned the meeting at 4:40pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Ben Scales, Secretary/Treasurer of SERFA
