Last night I used the pass that I got from volunteering at the EFMF to take a yoga class at Lion's Breath Yoga Studio. I took a beginner Ashtanga class and had a good workout. The only thing is that after class I had a mixed feeling of tired and buzzed which meant I didn't fall asleep until after midnight. I feel very sleepy this morning :)

Here are pictures from the Sunday night student concert. I am sorry that we didn't get a photo of Jeannette in her class.

Al's bass class - can you spot him?

Augie's banjo class

Sheila's guitar class

My big break

Jamming til the very end - it is such a great weekend that we didn't want it to end.

Last year Jeannette couldn't sing because of a cold but luckily Ted stepped in and helped us through the weekend practising our harmonies and learning some new songs. This year he was on photo duty and took some cool shots here are a couple. Thanks Ted!

Sheila, Augie and Jeannette freezing their buns off.

But the excellent instruction and jamming more than made up for it. I decided this year to take the mandolin class and left my dawghouse at home. Al was cool and lent me his blond Engelhardt-Link for jamming.

Rob Baker was the mandolin instructor and is an excellent taecher. After a weekend at mandolin bootlcamp I can now play 4 finger chords, know the movable chord patterns, doublestops in the key of G and D and performed a break in a song in A. Amazing.

I wasn't really in the picture taking mood so Jo volunteer to take a few over the weekend. If it wasn't for her there wouldn't any at all. Thanks Jo!

Here's the main dining room/concert hall/barn dance.

Outside on the veranda

Dirty Hat Band

Homemade Jam

Rob and Dodie Baker with Carol Newlove on bass.

Ruth Henderson with friends

Wildwood Flower with special guest Brad Oviatt

Brad Oviatt passionately teaching the folks about harmony.

Clogging workshop

Pics coming soon...

Going up Bragg Creek

Going up to pick

Going up Bragg Creek

Learnin some new licks

OK so its lame - but I am excited cause I am going up to Bragg Creek FAMI Music camp with the Flowers to learn how to play mandolin. Just have to go in to work for half a day and then come home, finish packing up and hit the road. Got Marshall's mandolin, my iRiver h120 mp3 recorder, bottle of wine and lots of warm clothes. Hopefully we won't freeze our fingers off.

Toby, Jo and Sheila watching the concert

WildWood Flower and the Weeds :)

The Harmony Belles

Arnold, Charlie, Bryan and me on deck before we perform one of Charlie's originals

Group shot - this time J-bird doesn't have her eyes closed. Bryan, Sheila, Jeanette, Charlie, Toby and Arnold

Sandi and friend in the main hall listening to the Band Scramble concert on Friday night. I don't remember the woman on the right's name even though she was in the same Band Scramble Band - sorry! She plays fiddle and mandolin. Sandi is a singer-songwriter who plays guitar. After the concert, J, S and I went to the Cougar Cabin for the bluegrass jam - for the first time ever I wasn't the first to bed - Rick, J and I stayed up until 4am and closed the bg jamming down. I also managed to catch a bit of blues jamming too which was great.

Our room was right beside one of the workshop rooms, I woke up to the sweet sounds of Windi's mandolin workshop. Here's a picture of a deer outside my window.

Later that day I attended a bluegrass jam. There were already two bass players so Rick graciously lent me his guitar so that I can practice my rhythm playing. He is pictured here on the left playing mando.

Marilyn and friend playing the auto harp and mandolin to ?Somebody Robbed the Glendale Train?.

In the afternoon we practiced some and then decided to go for a walk to the river.

Astrid? Aster? I am so bad with names. Ariel is the camp dog and came with us. She had a great time fetching the sticks that Sheila tossed into the river.

On Saturday night we had an open stage - the caliber of the groups was amazing. The highlight was Sharon singing a hot, steamy and sizzling rendition of "Love Me like a Man". She has a great voice and really let loose. We were perched up on the stairs soaking it all up. She received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Wildwood Flower went up with the help of Charlie and Bryan from the Dirty Hat Band. We performed the song "The Road Into Town" by Chris Stuart. Jeanette did a great job singing melody, she picks the greatest songs to sing.

Jeff Simms performed Train Leaves Here This Morning and I backed him up on bass and harmony.

I also went up with the Dirty Hat Band to help with one of Charlie's original songs. That was quite a thrill for me (I look so serious though on stage - you wouldn't know how much fun I am really having!)

Snack time and mingling before the clogging and fiddle tunes begin.

Sheila, Don, Jeanette and me

After the concert there was of course more jamming, I went to a singer-songwriter jam, a 60s folk jam and then headed back to the Cougar Cabin for more bluegrass jamming. Unfortunately it was getting late and the jam was breaking up so a bunch of us grabbed some snacks, listened to a Tom Jones 8-track (what's new pussycat?) and chatted before we crashed too.

Sunday goodbyes

Charlie and Bryan

Windi and Jo. Jo graciously took photos of us when we were on stage and went around and took lots of other shots too- thanks Jo!

Sheila and J-bird

Barry Luft. He did a great version of Shenandoah were he had invited about 2 dozen of the men in the group to come up on stage and sing. All those manly voices sounded wonderful together.

Don

Edmonton folks group shot

It was a great weekend. Very relaxing and fun. I think I have the music bug and will make the FAMI camps part of my yearly events.

Gonna hit the books first though and continue preparing for the 70-316 exam - C# yummy.

One last jam session before we go.

Jamming

The birthday boy with near beer, a guitar and shacking up with 5 babes. Can it get better than that?

Wildwood Flower with Charlie Ewing (one of our instructors)

Al's bass class with the fiddle class performing at the Sunday night concert

More jamming

Only 3 more sleeps until Bragg Creek.