Woodystock 2009 Review

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Series Three:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 7:36pm:

First of all, if you don't know already, here's the run-down on Woodystock from their website:


"Woodystock is a music festival held in the field at Jody Naifeh’s Ranch near Sapulpa. We have held this as our annual Woody Naifeh Scholarship fundraiser for the past 6 years, having given over $20,000 to Sapulpa High School engineering and science students in the past 8 years in honor of our Dad and uncle, Woody Naifeh. He was an engineer, wood carver, music lover, banjo player and all around Renaissance man."
http://www.woodystock.org/

This was my first Woodystock; I believe I meant to go a year or two ago but life happened and it didn't work out. Definitely well worth the wait. The Naifeh family obviously put a lot of hard work into making this a good time. The food and music were great, the art show turned out well, and there were a lot of friends to hang out with and a few new ones to meet.

So first, the music:

My friend, Harry Elzo and his band, Harry and the Hamsters were up first, but there was an issue with the hamsters so Harry got up flew solo for the entire set. He knocked out a number of Jerry Lee Lewis covers and a couple from Hank Williams, Sr. on his keyboard. The Killer would've been proud, although Harry did not set any musical instruments on fire or get into fist-fights with the audience.



Between the next scheduled set, one of Karen Naifeh's music students named Madison got up and did an acoustic duet with another young lady, performing a Taylor Swift cover and a couple of other tunes. Unfortunately, my camera battery crapped out on me, and I was charging it when they were up. Sorry, no pix, but they did great!

Cairde Na Gael were up at 7:00, and played a number of Irish/Scottish songs and a few jigs & reels. Awesome! I'm a little biased because I love this type of music, but really they performed quite well. You can catch them playing at Arnie's downtown every now and then and they also have a FB page: Cairde Na Gael


The Electric Rag Band got up a little after 8:00 and put on a great show. If you haven't heard them yet, they've got a little bit of everything, in a good way. It's kind of tough to precisely slide them neatly into a specific genre but essentially their music is a mixture of Blues, Bluegrass, Rockabilly, Hillbilly, Punk, Rock, Ragtime,...like I said, difficult to classify, but who the hell wants to be classified anyway? They've got a new album coming in the second week of October, "If You Got Some" and you can catch them in town as well. Here's the website with more info:
http://www.ragband.com/
Tulsa Jazz legend Earl Clark and his band started around 10-ish and motivated the crowd to dispel the rumor that white people can't dance. In addition to some tunes you might expect, he and his band also performed the coolest version of the Hokey-Pokey I've ever heard which got everybody with two legs in the groove. Too bad you can't upload vids into these posts, it was really something to behold. http://ecjazz.com/


Men Behind The Wire took the stage at 11pm, and played what might be called an aggressive or passionate style of Celtic music. As a surprise, Mrs. Jody Naifeh jumped onstage with her fiddle and joined them for a while. You may also know these musicians as the band Larkin, though this evening they were missing a member so they went under this psuedonym. Good stuff, very engaging, goes well with a pint of anything and a cigarette. http://www.knowrecords.com/larkin.html




The night's music concluded with The Televised. These guys did a number of original songs which were performed well, and even coaxed Karen to return to the stage with her violin and do a few numbers. Honestly, my friend and I went to talk about something when they were playing and I didn't get the opportunity to talk with any of them to find out where they normally play. They don't appear to have a website either, but they did well and closed the performances for the evening quite nicely.

Other things which must be mentioned, the food.

My God man! I don't know how long it took Todd to cook everything but he was still going on Saturday night. Seriously, the brisket was delisioso! All of it was an expertly executed representation of traditional MidWestern fare and some other surprises. Later on that night, he made some kind of a little lamb tart which was amazing.

Also, Woodyfest is a kid-friendly event, and if you brought any of your little ones, they probably had their face painted by the talented Miss Brigid Kelley. This normally isn't my cup of tea, but Brigid far surpasses the normal realm of cheap paint & glitter. Participants can choose from a wide variety within her portfolio or just talk through an idea until Brigid brings it to life. Speed and accuracy; I was pretty impressed. By the way, Brigid is already scheduled to be primary face-painter this year at the Nov. 1st-7th Dia de Los Muertos Arts Festival, Brought to you by Living Arts in downtown Tulsa. http://www.livingarts.org/calendar.htm


And finally, the Art auction seemed to go pretty well. The Naifeh family donated many of the pieces and other guests donated some as well. My dear friend Heike made two ornamental kusudama balls which turned out really well.
Each of these have a specific name or type of kusudama; unfortunately, I can not remember what they are.......still, they're amazing right? You should ask Heike sometime to make you one.

Also there were some prints by Sara Bowersock; good stuff.

by Sara Bowerstock of the Electric Rag Band