Neighbourhood Folk - Sep 7 - 2025 09 07

 

The house is ready to host another Sunday afternoon of Neighbourhood Folk. Every month I re-arrange the furniture to make sure there are enough places to sit, there are enough music stands, and the house is somewhat clean and presentable.

Today was our 12th month of Neighbourhood Folk. There were 12 of us, which turns out to be about the right number of people. There are enough chairs for both instrumentalists and non-players, we were pretty comfortable.

We are scheduled to start at 2 pm - that is, people start arriving at 2. Today we started playing at 2:20, after everyone got settled. We had some new people today, so we started with introductions, sharing our names and what brought us to this gathering. I made some introductory remarks, tracing my interest in Neighbourhood Folk back to my coming of age in the early 1970s and the back-to-the-land movement. The desire to be part of a community with a shared purpose, a trustworthy group, a place to share creative works that are less than perfect, but, at the same time, priceless and important to experience together.

The dogs were tucked into their crates behind the drum kit with their chewing bones to keep them busy. 

We played straight through to 5 pm, making it through the whole group picking a song or reading a story. With each song or story, there was time to reflect and discuss personal experiences that relate to the songs and stories. Michel read from his book, an excerpt describing in detail the work of his father on a salmon trawler in the mid-1960s on the west coast of BC. It was a fascinating explanation of the work of the fisherman, the danger, and the tedium, as well as the adventure of being out on the water.

We sang "Piney Wood Hills" by Buffy St. Marie, a nostalgic song of longing to return to nature. 

There are two songs by Johnny Flynn that have caught our attention this year, "Detectorists" from the tv show, "The Detectorists", and, "Raising the Dead". It is gratifying to spend time learning new songs and then being able to play them together. These songs evoke an other-worldly picture of treasure hunting and ghosts in our lives. 

A number of us have been learning to play a powerful anthem written by my brother, Leif Arntzen, called "Oh Canada Abides". We were able to make a video of our latest version. 

Neil Young is in Vancouver playing a series of concerts and several of our Neighbourhood Folk had attended his concerts or were planning to attend in the next few days. We sang Neil Young's song, "After the Gold Rush". We marvelled at the beautiful melody crunching harmonically with the simple chords of the song.

There are many ways to approach songwriting. One method is to use a melody that is familiar, and then write new words to it, providing a way to express an experience through music without needing a sophisticated knowledge of songwriting and music theory. We sang a song written about refugees of a wildfire that destroyed a small town in rural BC. When I first heard this song played at the 411 Coffeehouse open mic, I was immediately captivated by the experience described in the song. I asked permission to see if I could set the story to a new melody and was given the go ahead to try.

I had never tried this approach to songwriting, after all, I have not lived through a forced evacuation due to wildfires. However, I did have familiarity with the region, having spent many days and nights living in our old Dodge delivery truck in the early 1970s, searching for a place to land to make a home and raise our baby. I wrote, "Old Lytton", to capture both that time in my own life, but also the finality of natural disasters that can force us out of our homes. We sang together the closing refrain of the song, "... don't look back..."

We played through "Roseville Fair" by Bill Staines, a love song speaking of the magical moment when we first laid eyes on our true love and the way that love grows over the years. No matter the trials and tribulations we endure, when we have each other we will be all the better.

We have been working on, "No Hard Feelings" by the Avett Brothers. This song addresses the inevitable moment when we are no longer part of this earth and our spirits transform to the ether of eternity. At Neighbourhood Folk we create a no pressure zone for singing, playing and reading. We get to hear voices singing that have never been heard before. It is so special, to hear a voice that might have been silenced by a thoughtless elementary school music teacher. To hear those voices quietly, bravely, singing for us, leading us in song.

We were treated to a second story as the afternoon drew to a close. It was a story from the late 1960s, in Belfast, during the Troubles. It was the story of a young teacher, on her first teaching job, that took her through the dangerous territories divided by religion and violence. It was a story about fashion and becoming our own person as a young adult, even as we learn to be careful not to be killed walking down the street. It was a story about a student, deemed sub-intelligent by the school system, who gave her teacher street-wise advice to stay alive.

By the time everyone had shared one song or story, it was time to stop and have dinner.

We were lucky to have fresh wild salmon for dinner, along with fresh cherry tomatoes from our neighbour's garden and poached perogies. For desert we were treated to homemade apple cake made from a neighbour's windfall apples, and, homemade nanaimo bars.

There were eight of us for dinner. We ate and talked, learning more about each other's lives, surprise life connections across decades, and new tips and tricks for improving gardening results.

We said our farewells around 730 pm. It was a great way to get the month of September off to a good start.