I spent most of the weekend at the Walnut Valley Festival. It’s primarily devoted to acoustic string music, particularly bluegrass, but there were some items of interest to students of Japanese popular culture.

• The second-place winner in the fingerpicking championship was Akihiro Tanaka, from Kyoto, Japan. I wasn’t able to get down to Winfield on Thursday, when the contest was held, but the fingerpick winners made an appearance on the main stage Friday evening. Here’s what Tanaka played then:¹

• I spent several hours listening to the jam sessions at Carp Camp.² Here’s the tune that the campers call “Finish (sic) Polka.” It sounds strangely familiar.

(This is not my recording, but Carp Camp’s own from last year. The campers played the tune at least twice this weekend, but neither time did I have my recorder handy.)

• One of this year’s Carp Camp catchphrases (if you write it as a single word, you get six consecutive consonants. Can you think of any other English words like that?) was “Don’t hurt the old people.” The third Monday in September (usually the day after Winfield), is celebrated in the Japan as Respect for the Aged Day.

1. The sound is less than wonderful. Stage one is a noisy place. [↩]
2. I don’t bring my dulcimer to Winfield unless I’m camping. This year I day-tripped, so I just listened. [↩]

Tags: Music

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 at 7:13 pm and is filed under Music, Real life adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.