Bloggerhythms

There aren't very many posts on this blog that mostly appeal to the local audience of the Philadelphia area and that's deliberate because this site is part of the "worldwide" web. If I wanted to "narrowcast" only to a defined geographic area there would only be about three readers visiting here regularly and you probably wouldn't be one of them. However, because of the recent news about the demise of my favorite, outdoor, summertime, music event, the Appel Farm Arts & Musical Festival , I'm making an exception today. In all but one of the last twenty-five years Appel Farm Arts & Music Center , located just about an hour from Philadelphia in the very rural town of Elmer, NJ, held their festival on the first Saturday of June as a fund raiser for their 176 acre, non-profit, arts camp for children. The day usually featured around a dozen artists on two stages. Beginning in 2000 my wife and I volunteered at every festival except for one. ...

Dawes Beginning in 1989, with the exception of one year, Appel Farm , a non-profit arts and music summer camp for children, located in the rural outpost of Elmer, NJ, has hosted a one day music festival whose lineup has always been loaded with adult alternative artists. Past headliners have included Jackson Browne, The Indigo Girls, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Avett Brothers, Rufus Wainright, Fountains of Wayne, and Trombone Shorty. Other favorites who have played there over the last decade are Los Lonely Boys, Madeleine Peyroux, The Smithereens, Josh Ritter, and Roseanne Cash. This year's headlining act was the critically acclaimed jam band, The Tedeschi-Trucks Band. The festival almost ended a few years ago due to financial concerns partially caused by several years of inclement weather but this year it came back with a vengeance as 2012's advance ticket sales outnumbered the total gate receipts for last year. Terrific weather and a stellar lineup helped Saturday beco...

For the sixth consecutive year my wife and I volunteered at The Appel Farms Arts & Music Festival in Elmer, NJ where we have witnessed some great music. In the past Appel Farms top notch lineups have included Mary Chapin Carpenter in 2000, Jackson Browne in 2002, and Los Lonely Boys last year. In return for volunteering admission is free for the all day lineup of musical events. Our shift schedule and the weather have often prevented us from participating in the full day of concerts but this year we saw more music than ever before. The weather was on our side. The first concert we had the pleasure of seeing was a solo acoustic performance by folk singer John Gorka , someone we both have seen at least five times before. Gorka is one of the few folky troubadours I really enjoy and that is because of his deep golden baritone and his imaginative lyrics. Because Gorka possesses a truly great singing voice his songs are far more melodic than most singer-songwriters and therefore imm...