Folking Around

In 2005, I went to my first Philadelphia Folk Festival.  It was amazing.  It was one of the best times of my life.  The friends, the strangers, the music, the RV camping, it was all amazing!  Since this trip, I have always thought of Folk Fest as one of my Happy Places (the other being Odyssey of the Mind World Finals).   

The following year, the same friend and I went and volunteered, and it was just as crazy fun.  It's always hot but there are always exciting way to cool off.  Like walking to the nearby creek, playing by the water pumps, or starting or finishing a water fight.   Also, this time, we camped for real!

The year after that, my friend and I went again, this time we brought our boyfriends.  Another good time.

Now, it's 2011 and I haven't been to Folk Fest in four years.  I can't believe it's been that long!  Time flies.  It's depressing, really.

At any rate, I'm itching in the worst why to go back to Folk Fest.  This time, I'm bringing and playing an instrument.  My ukulele of course.  I think I've settled on Karma as a name for her.  With this dream to head back to the promised land of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, I've formed a goal to save up some money (mostly so I can afford to miss five days of work) and to learn and memorize 50 songs on the uke before my journey.  I've learned eight so far.  Not too shabby.

I've made a list of all the songs I want to learn.  I'm not writing them all out here though.  But, here are the songs I feel pretty good about, more or less in the order I learned them:

1.) First Impressions (Julia Nunes)
2.) Walkin' After Midnight (Patsy Cline)
3.) What's Up (Four Non-Blondes)
4.) Science Fiction/Double Feature (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
5.) Rainbow Connection (From The Muppet Movie)
6.) Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (Burt Bacharach and Hal David - B.J. Thomas)
7.) Nowhere Man (The Beatles)
8.) You're the One That I Want (From Grease)