BANDALOOP
Actually this happened on Saturday afternoon after I visited Celia Miles book signing. Rare Bird Farm in Madison County has been turned into an event space and apparently many of their events are fundraisers for good causes. To get to Rare Bird Farm from Asheville you drive out Leicester Highway from West Asheville. The busy highway north is four lanes so you can leave Asheville at 60 miles an hour but within ten miles it narrows to two lanes and when it hits the mountains it becomes loop after loop, first following streams and then climbing up and over a high ridge. You drive slower and slower, swing around curve after curve, but when you are over the mountain the valley opens up and there is Rare Bird Farm. It is a pretty humble place with a few rough buildings and tents and a stage for bands to perform in as spectators sit on a grassy hill.
The $40 asked donation were not making anyone rich. The money was going to the Hot Springs library whose books had all been washed away during tropical storm Helene’s flooding a year ago. One table was devoted to getting rid of duplicate donated books But what you got for your $40 donation to the Hot Springs Library were a number of activities that were fun for children and adults. I was there to see a Crankie show by Primroses Coke. Primrose illustrated the story by drawings make on a long scroll which she scrolled past the Crankie stage, a story she told in both narration and song with sound effects provided by Libby on her fiddle. You can see it here.
I also wanted to listen to Rob Amberg read from his book, Little Worlds, which included his journal responses to Madison County over 50 years, was illustrated by his documentary photographs and including a story he used to tell his children about Madison county fifty years from now. Both presentations were worth the trip.
But there was much more: face painting, a photographer making portraits of people in costume, a workshop luring people into the fun of drawing, a woman with fake ears making grilled cheese sandwiches for $5 apiece, and at least two bands that I saw, but probably more.
BANDALOOP was great fun.
MUSIC
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0f2C68SlEwNnakkP_B5MP2jwA
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 
I guess you saw Bandaloop?! You might know that the group’s creator Amelia Rudolph, went to Woodstock School for a couple of years, when her Chicago Professor father did research in India. Sent his daughter to Woodstock and lived several months in Mussoorie graduated in 1982. see https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bandaloop+woodstock and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYwyetyAsUE
Thanks for the connection and the You Tube videos. The name here is the same but I’m not sure it is the same thing, or maybe it is. No dancing on Saturday. I’ll have to ask.
Good, let me know what you find
I envy your – you sure are spry and must more with it, and I 4 years yournger! Just had a brain scan which confirmed I have early Alzheimer’s – hopefully I have a couple more years before I won’t be able to send messages any more