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| Photo courtesy Jews Harp Guild. |
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Jew's Harps will be Jamming
Bay City hosts 2008 festival
North American Jew’s Harp Festival
Bay City Arts Center
Three days of workshops, children’s activities, jams, harp circles and performances, all centered around the mouth harp and other ancient instruments. Play the ukulele? The washtub? The mouthbow? This is the camp-out jamboree for you. Events start at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1, and stretch through the weekend, for details call 503-322-9607.
Next weekend, the Bay City Arts Center will be emitting a strange sound, a resonant chorus of twangs and friendly conversation. This unusual melody is better known as the annual North American Jew’s Harp Festival.
It’s sponsored by the Jew’s Harp Guild, an Oregon-based non-profit dedicated to the preservation of the Jew’s harp, also called the mouth harp, and other ancient acoustic instruments. What is it, exactly? It’s a small musical instrument that is held against the teeth or lips, and plucked with the fingers.
This modern celebration began in 1991, when Seattle resident Gordon Frazier, who had recently returned from attending the Second International Trump (Jew’s Harp) Congress that July in Yakutsk, Siberia, travelled down to Bill and Janet Gohring’s place in eastern Oregon. The players jammed all night and into the next day, and decided to start an official yearly festival. After being held in other small towns in Oregon, the festival landed in Bay City about three years ago.
“The atmosphere brings family unity closer together; it’s the perfect chance to meet many new interesting people (Jew’s harpers are a bit ‘twangy’); the opportunity to listen and play a wide variety of music from around the world; become introduced to a variety of musical instruments,” according to a description from the group’s Web site.
“Many of us enjoy the wide variety of workshops held during the festival. You can learn everything about the ancient, mystical little music instrument from present day back to Neanderthal times. But beware! Jew’s Harps are addictive! Once you start playing, you won’t be able to stop.”
Events begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 1, with crafts and a potluck cheese and oyster social, followed by dinner open mike concert, jam and dance. Workshops, band scrambles, tone-in meditations and concerts will continue through the weekend; among them are the “wood jam,” where anyone can play anything made of wood, and a similar “metal jam.” True to the festival’s mission, all events are free and fun, and open to the public.
The Bay City Arts Center will provide food for sale, and a limited amount of camping is available in the city grounds next door. Showers are within walking distance of the BCAC, Fifth and A Streets in Bay City. For more information on the 16th annual North American Jew’s Harp Festival, head to www.jewsharpguild.org, or write to newsletter@jewsharpguild.org.
And, according to the flyer, “All musicians welcome: If you weren’t one when you arrived you’ll be one when you leave.”
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