Granger plays the hang, which means "hand" in Bernese, in... (Sun-News photo by Shari Vialpandos)
LAS CRUCES — Touring with exotic instruments can be a challenge for award-winning musician and vocalist Randy Granger.
Recently, he was attempting to get to a gig with his collection of hand-crafted flutes.
"I was at the El Paso airport and the security people thought my Native American flutes were some kind of weapon. I finally had to put the flutes together and play them to show that they're just musical instruments," Granger said.
He might trigger some Extra-Terrestrial interest with his latest musical experiments with new sounds.
"I have a new instrument in addition to my Native American flutes, singing and guitar. It's called the hang steel hand drum. It's shaped like a UFO, or two woks glued together, and it is played by hand. The sound is mesmerizing, a cross between the Jamaican steel drums and the Ghatan, gongs and Chinese bells."
Granger played a few ethereal riffs, and explained that hang (pronounced "hung" or "hong" in the Swiss Bernese dialect) means "hand."
He said the unique instrument, recently invented in Switzerland, has become an international sensation among musicians.
"The creators kept refining it and now they've taken a break. Only 5,000 were produced by Panart. It's very cool,
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very fun and impossible to get right now. People go crazy over it. The first reaction when I play is usually, 'I want one!'"
Granger invites the curious to hear the drum in recordings, online or at live performances.
"I've recorded some tracks, including a cover of Sting's 'Every Breath You Take' and my own composition 'Redwood and Steel' for my newest CD, 'Cloudwalker.' The two Hang and flute tracks can be heard or downloaded for free at http//www.myspace.com/randygranger."
The combination of Native American flutes and an instrument that looks like a flying saucer seems like a great fit for a musician who was raised in the Land of Enchantment.
"I grew up in Hobbs, banging on pots and pans," he quipped.
"I got a degree in journalism at New Mexico State University and worked for a newspaper for about a year and then went to Los Angeles. But I found it was increasingly violet there. I like this area. I love the people and the food and hiking in the Organs. It's peaceful here."
He eventually returned to Las Cruces and, through music, began exploring his heritage.
"My grandfather was in the Tarahumara tribe. There are also some German, Spanish and Sephardic Jewish ancestors and it looks like there are some Comanches and Apaches. My ancestry reflects resilient peoples and cultures. I'd like to think they all meet in my heart and that is where the music is made," Granger said.
The singer-songwriter's style has been described as "new Southwest folk," "desert blues" and "Neo New Mexico."
He has recorded several CDs and toured throughout the United States. Recent honors include a New Mexico Music Industry Award for Best Folk Song and third place at 2006 Musical Echoes flute festival and competition in Florida.
"I'm recording a CD of seasonal Native American flute music, which will be out soon. I've done sets with the hang at festivals and the Mesilla Valley Hospice center, at parties and the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market. I'm also working on a solo hang CD," he said.
You can also catch him at the Renaissance ArtsFaire today at 2 p.m. on the Main Stage.
"I'm going to be playing with Yolanda Martinez and Legends Alive," he said.
Upcoming appearances include a "Winter Concert" benefit performance for KRWG-FM at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Rio Grande Theatre, also the site of an Every Other Tuesday Concert Series appearance at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 30. He will play at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 17 at Unity Church of the Mesilla Valley, 125 Wyatt Drive.
His latest CD, "Cloudwalker," is available at regional appearances or online at www.cdbaby.com/cd/randygranger.
For more information about his work or upcoming appearances, e-mail lonegranger@netscape.com or visit online at http://randygranger.net
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
If you go
Hear Randy Granger:
# Doña Ana Arts Council Renaissance ArtsFaire, appearing with Yolanda Martinez and Legends Alive
Where: Young Park
When: 2 p.m. today on the Main Stage
How much: RenFaire admission: $5 donation
Upcoming performances:
# "Winter Concert" benefit performance for KRWG-FM, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2, Rio Grande Theater, Downtown Mall. $12. Info: www.krwgfm.org
# 10:30 a.m. Dec. 17, Unity Church of the Mesilla Valley, 125 Wyatt Drive. Free. Info: www.unityoflascruces.org
# Every Other Tuesday Concert Series, 5:30 p.m. Jan. 30, Rio Grande Theater, Downtown Mall. Free
# Granger also plays regularly at the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market Saturday mornings on the Downtown Mall and Wednesdays at Mesilla Valley Hospice/La Posada
# CDs: purchase at www.cdbaby.com/cd/randygranger
# Sample: http//www.myspace.com/randygranger
Info: Randy Granger, e-mail lonegranger@netscape.com http://randygranger.net 571-1656 cell
About the hang steel hand drum:
Hear and learn more about the unique new instrument at these sites:
# Randy Granger's songs will be featured during November on the Hangbox Hang Drum Jukebox at http://www.hang-music.com
# You can play a virtual hang drum at this site: http://hangfan.co.uk
# http://www.oddmusic.com
/gallery/om16250.html
Desert Exposure May 2006 Feature Article "Magic Flute" -by Jeff Berg
D e s e r t E x p o s u r e May 2006
Desert Exposure
Website by
Authors-Online
Magic Flute
In just two years, Las Cruces musician Randy Granger
has played his way to the top of the Native American flute world.
By Jeff Berg / Photos by Maria Kruse
My first experience with Native American flute music occurred about 20 years ago. Traveling south from my then-home in Montana to Utah, my goal was Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. I had not been there before, and felt that it was certainly a place that I needed to visit.
Native American flute player Randy Granger.
Several days of driving brought me to the visitor's center on a beautiful autumn day. Upon entering, I was immediately embraced by the gentle trilling of a flute. I recall the moment vividly, and was completely transfixed by what I was hearing. It turned out that it was a solo by noted Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai. He is probably more responsible for bringing this genre of music back to us than anyone else, although there are a number of other notable flute players including New Mexico's own multitalented Robert Mirabal (Taos Pueblo), Joseph Fire Crow (Northern Cheyenne) and Bill Miller (Mohican). Other talented flutists nationally include the duo of Coyote Oldman (Michael Graham Allen and Barry Stramp) and Douglas Spotted Eagle.
Soon, fans of Native American flute music may be adding the name of Randy Granger of Las Cruces to that list. He is one of five finalists in this year's Musical Echoes Native American Flute Competition in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., which was being held as this issue went to press.
If you've heard Granger at his recent performances—at the Las Cruces Museum of Art, the Organ Mountain Cafe, the Farm and Ranch Museum, or last month preceding the Mesilla Valley Film Society's screening of Trudell—or heard his latest CD, "Mourning Dove," you'll know why he's a rising star in the Native American flute universe. If you haven't yet had the pleasure, you're in luck: This month Granger will perform at the Birth and Wellness Fundraiser at the Blue Teal Winery in Las Cruces on May 6 (see Body, Mind & Spirit section in this issue) and at the Normal Heart Fundraiser on May 27 (details to be announced). On June 9 he'll perform at the Albuquerque Pride Festival.
I first met Randy Granger about six months ago at one of those many events at which he performs—prior to a special screening of a film called Christmas in the Clouds last November. The audience of 300 (give or take) was thoroughly taken in by his talent.
Yet Randy Granger is a newcomer to the world of flute music, having only been playing the instrument for about two years. His musical background extends far back before that, however. He's earned several music scholarships along the way. And during high school and college, he taught drum and guitar.
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Originally from Hobbs, Granger first came to Las Cruces to attend NMSU, after graduating from Hobbs' College of the Southwest with an associate's degree. "I was a journalism school major, but never used my degree," says Granger, who looks a bit like Paul Simon. "When I went back to Hobbs, I worked for the daily paper there for a while, the News-Sun. But it was in circulation work, not in the newsroom."
As anyone who has worked in the circulation department of a daily newspaper knows, sooner or later, no matter what your position, you end up helping to deliver "down" routes, paper routes temporarily without a regular carrier. That not being a career of choice, Granger began to concentrate more on his lifelong interest in music.
"I was fortunate enough to be part of a touring Jazz group, and we went to California. I was a drummer and singer, and also did some choreography, and we ended up at a Disneyland-type venue. After the tours ended, I went back to California with some cousins with the idea of really getting involved in the music business."
But that turned out to be a negative experience, Granger says, as his time in California became one humiliating incident after another. "We had to pay to play in Los Angeles, and it was really disheartening to learn that the music industry is the way that it is.
"I soon ran out of money, and moved to Albuquerque. I did small tours, did some recording of my music, in a modern rock group called Peat. We did fundraisers, festivals, and rallies, too. While in Albuquerque, I went on a lot of sojourns to El Paso to play."
Perhaps surprisingly for someone who makes liltingly lovely music on the flute, Granger admits to being a big fan of the rock group KISS. Other influences or admired musicians include Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Steve Earle and the late, great Warren Zevon.
"I also play the didgeridoo now," Granger says. The didgeridoo is a wind instrument thought to be developed by indigenous Australians more than 1,500 years ago.
Even as a rock musician, Granger had a great interest in other genres of music, including mariachi and cowboy tunes, and he has even sung opera professionally. But now he mostly concentrates on his own music.
But as the old joke goes, what do you call a drummer without a good friend? Homeless. Granger soon learned that even though he wasn't exactly homeless, he did need to have a day job to supplement the bit of income from his musical ambitions.
"I ended up working at the All Indian Pueblo Council office in the drug treatment centers," he recalls. "I would travel to the pueblos doing HIV education, and became an HIV counselor and coordinator. I got involved with the different pueblo health boards, and as I was going to the different places, I would hear the flute music.
"I was struck by the stillness, peacefulness and stately silence of it. Just driving into the Jemez or Isleta (Pueblos in northern New Mexico), I would be in the middle of a lot of housing with a lack of electricity and a lack of Wal-Marts, and I was aware of this sense of peacefulness."
Granger also worked at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. But he hadn't thought much about his own Native American heritage, until a Zuni friend stayed with his family for a time.
"He introduced me to Native thought, culture and so on. As it turns out, I am part Native American, but it is of undocumented ancestry. The confusion is similar to that of (American Indian activist) John Trudell. My great-great-grandfather on my Mom's side was Tarahumara (a Native Mexican tribe who mostly live in the Copper Canyon area of Mexico). But he found someone else with his wife one day, killed him, and fled to the United States. My Dad's side probably has some Apache in it."
Granger discovered all of this after having a DNA test done because he couldn't get a straight answer about his lineage. Besides being part Native American, he has German, Spanish and Asian ancestry. "It also showed that I had two percent Saharan African," he adds.
Granger was so fascinated at what he learned that he now encourages those around him to get a DNA test to help identify their ancestry.
His parents and ancestors were not on the Dawes Rolls, named for Massachusetts Sen. H.L. Dawes, which record land allotments given to Native Americans after 1887 and remain a key genealogical resource for those seeking to prove their Native ancestry. "And I still don't have a clear idea of which part is Native American, but I think the largest place that it lives is in my heart."
Life in Albuquerque started to turn sour for Granger after a few years. "I was involved in everything (musical) in Albuquerque and also worked in some clubs in Santa Fe," he says. "But the city started to become too violent, and I moved to what I thought was a better part of town. But my neighbor's house was robbed, and I started to think, 'This is crazy.'"
Another time, while sitting in the world-famous Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque, Granger watched as a man involved in a fight fell into the window of the restaurant.
But the last straw came when Granger was standing in line at a video store in the city. "A guy comes in and just starts yelling at the clerk: 'DO YOU HAVE BOOGIE NIGHTS?' He is screaming at her, so I said, 'Maybe after she is through helping that customer, she can help you.' The guy goes out to his car and pulls a sword! A sword! He followed me out of the video store and to a Walgreen's."
All of Granger's limbs appear to still be attached and in working order, so apparently the guy left to go find his video.
"Having a saber pulled on me over Boogie Nights. . ." Granger shakes his head.
So, it was on to Las Cruces.
Here Granger has managed to combine his other skills with his music to make a living. He has also been a licensed masseuse for 15 years, a Web designer, a published poet and a writer. Cooking is something he enjoys doing, but has not tried to do so professionally yet.
But he admits, "Everything I do has a creative edge to it."
Certainly that's true of the story of how Granger came to learn to play the Native American-style flute. "I had a dream one night, and in that dream, I was shown that in the middle of the Earth, that Native people were playing the flute. One woman was playing constantly, and if she stopped, people all over the world would stop.
"If you could hear how the universe would sound, it would sound like a flute in the key of F."
Ordering his first flute just over two years ago has proven to be a life-altering experience. He was invited to play at a festival in Zion National Park, Utah, a while back, and late last month he performed with the aforementioned Bill Miller and Coyote Oldman at the Musical Echoes event.
Granger's unique style often blends two very traditional types of music—the Native American flute and traditional Americana-type songs, such as "Shenandoah" and "Amazing Grace."
"You cannot play the flute unless you are in a peaceful state," he says. "The flute can't disguise what you are feeling, since it affects your breathing. I have to be in a calm state, and the flute forces me to be present, to be in 'pure vibration.'"
Many flute players make their own instruments. Granger has no interest in doing so, he says, "but everyone always asks me that."
Granger is also very aware of issues that are facing Native people across the country. He is not currently as active as he would like to be because of other commitments, but his songwriting often reflects this awareness, such as these opening and closing verses from his song, "One Little Indian":
"I was there when the when the Earth
Took her first breath
I saw Grandmother Spider spin her web
The wind gave me my name
Not 500 years of shame
The Elders say our time will come again
The SUV Crowd laughs
Says 'Could you pose more like an Indian
For my photograph?"
I will when you get those Heads
Off my Black Hills
And put Geronimo
On the $50 bill."
(Lyrics copyright 2005 by Randy Granger)
Contact information for booking and for buying Randy Granger's CDs is
available at his Web site, randygranger.net, where you can also hear
LAS CRUCES — Music has the power to soothe and heal. When Chris Sanders sits down at the piano to sing and play, the adobe halls of Mesilla Valley Hospice's La Posada begin to seem less like a medical facility and more like a cozy, comfortable home.
At least twice a week, volunteer musicians visit and the whole atmosphere changes, said Vickie Avery, activities director for La Posada, MVH's in-patient residence.
"It affects everybody: family and residents and staff and others who are visiting. The hustle and bustle just stops. I see people go by and hear the music and they pause for a moment and you can just see them go, 'Ah.' It touches people and causes a very positive reaction," said Avery, who coordinates the program that brings music volunteers to severely ill residents.
Among fans of the program is Brian Wiegand of Las Cruces, who comes to visit his grandmother.
"She hears it and it has a soothing effect. She likes all kinds of music. She's not choosy," said Wiegand, who added that members of the family who visit appreciate it, too.
"Music is the universal language. I think it speaks to a person's spirit and soul," Avery said.
She said locally based singer-songwiter-musician Randy Granger was the
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first to suggest the program.
"I'd played flute for an annual memorial for hospice. It was beautiful and I decided I wanted to be involved in some way," said Granger, who is a regular volunteer.
Sometimes, he said, he tries out new material.
"Original music is always nice. That way, people don't get locked into a memory and it helps them relax," he said, but he also comes prepared to play familiar tunes and requests.
"When I played 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' a woman told me it was her husband's favorite song and said he smiled for the first time in five months. I try to play music that is not too fast, not too rocky, though you never know what people will want. Once I was asked to play 'Stairway To Heaven.' That's not easy on the flute."
He said people sometimes sing along and can be moved to tears.
"There are studies that indicate people on pain medication seem to need less when they are listening to music. There are documented changes in brain activity. Some of the staff have told me that patients who are really close to dying manage to finally relax and let go when they are listening to their favorite music," Granger said.
Sanders, who plays Thursday evenings at La Posada, said she recently learned a man had died peacefully during a performance of "Danny Boy," later revealed as his favorite song.
She said she and her family personally experienced the healing benefits of music when her son was diagnosed with cancer at age 7.
"I remember listening to Elton John and 'The Lion King' when we went for treatments in Albuquerque. Elton was a favorite of mine as a teenager and it was healing just to listen to him when we were driving home. My son is a sophomore in college now, so our story has a happy ending."
Even when the "happy ending" is a funeral, she believes, music can be an important factor in grieving and healing.
"It can be a refuge and take people to a very sacred place," she said.
Sanders is often billed as "Chris and friend," because she brings different musicians to play with her, said Avery.
"We play everything from Beatles to jazz. And there's something about the energy of live music that is somehow different from recorded music. Maybe it's the human vibration. There's something that happens when people come together to make music," Sanders said.
Many others have come forward to help.
"A church choir sang and a couple of individuals have stopped by and we've had an evolving group of regulars. Nancy Richie, director of the Mesilla Valley Choir, Bob Hull, Elena Armijo, Bob and Melody Burns and others," Avery said.
Musicians who would like to volunteer and those who would like information about the hospice music program may call Avery at 523-4700.
In recent years, studies have shown that music can impact everything from successful weight loss diets to test scores
Music programs, often organized on an informal basis with volunteers, like the program at MVH, have become common in hospice programs and hospitals in recent decades.
The American Music Therapy Association has an informational program for those who want to learn more about therapeutic applications and benefits and music therapist certification programs.
According to a history prepared by the group, "The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is as least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th century discipline began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to veterans' hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients' notable physical and emotional responses to music led the doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals."
The AMTA, founded in 1998 as a union of the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music therapy, reports that the first music therapy degree program in the world was founded at Michigan State University in 1944.
Among those who can benefit from musical therapy programs conducted by certified professionals, according to the group, are "children, adolescents, adults and the elderly with mental health needs, developmental and learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease and other aging related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities and acute and chronic pain, including mothers in labor."
For more information about music therapy and the ways it is being used in hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other settings, visit online at www.musictherapy.org
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.comVolunteers soothe patients with the gift of song
Artists with local connections produce 'serene' holiday offerings
S. Derrickson Moore Sun-News reporter
LAS CRUCES — If you'd like some home-grown sounds for the holidays, or a gift that shares Southwestern ambiance with someone far away, you might want to pick up two holiday CDs with local connections.
Indian and ethnic percussion instruments combine with American Indian flutes, vocals and acoustic guitar on Randy Granger's "Winter Colors" CD.
The 10 tracks include tender, unique takes on Christmas classics, from "What Child Is This (Greensleeves)," "Silent Night" and "Oh Christmas Tree" to haunting renditions of lovely, rarer hymns like "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel," "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," "Lullay Lullay" and "I Wonder As I Wander."
If you're less than fond of the ubiquitous "Little Drummer Boy," you could change your mind after hearing an American Indian drum and flute version. Granger's original offerings, "Calling Snow" and "Snow Geese," conjure images of winter in Southwestern high desert county.
A CD Baby critic called Granger's holiday CD, "a must-have seasonal gem ' It will be difficult if not impossible to set a more serene mood for this holiday season."
It's available for $10.97 at www.cdbaby.com/all/lonegranger, at Amazon.com and itunes. For information, e-mail lonegranger@netscape.com
Former Las Crucen Steve Eckels has another serene offering: "Comfort and Joy." The nine classical guitar tracks include three featured on Granger's CD: "Silent Night," "Jesu" and "What Child," plus "Carol of the Bells," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and "The Holly and the Ivy." For classical fans, there's Corelli's "Pastorale" and Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major." A Christmas medley includes "Oh Tannenbaum," "Noel," "Midnight Clear," "We Three Kings," "O Holy Night" and "Gloria."
Another nontraditional holiday pick is "Woodland Winds" a re-released CD by the Woodland Consort, featuring Eckels on classical guitar, Frank Anakwad Montano on woodland Indian flute and Eric K. Sorensen on folk harp.
Eckels describes it as "a blend of three different musical traditions — classical, folk and Native American."
The CD was inspired by Indian teachings on the four orders of creation. "Earth Anthem" recognizes "the physical world of earth, water, fire and air, 'Woodland Winds,' the plant world, animals, birds and fish in 'Feather Song' and human beings in 'Homesteader's Waltz.'"
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
How to get it
What: "Winter Colors"
Who: Randy Granger
Includes: Traditional and new holiday music on Native American flute, voice, guitar, percussion
How much: $10.97
Info: www.cdbaby.com and Amazon.com
and iTunes, e-mail lonegranger@netscape.com
What: "Comfort and Joy"
Who: Steve Eckels
Includes: Carols on classical guitar
Plus: Eckels' "The Woodland Consort" by Woodland Winds, a blend of classic, folk and Native American styles
The innovative "Hang" drum along with a fluttery flute propel this New Mexico songman, but if his takes tend toward ephemeral New Age, the songs he covers are of this earth. If you thought Diddy's version of "Every Breath You Take" was haunting and ambitious, wait till you hear Granger's.
Biography
Randy Granger is an Emo-Southwest musician. So called for his emotional and expressive style of playing the Native American flute and rich, haunting singing voice--somewhere between Josh Groban and Lisa Gerard of Dead Can Dance fame. Granger has toured and recorded as a singer-songwriter and has been recognized for his songwriting and production skills.
Festival brings the sprites out of hiding and reveals their secrets (who knew they loved pickles?)
By William Hageman
Chicago Tribune reporter
August 17, 2008
On a beautiful summer weekend, under a canopy of oak trees at Vasa Park in South Elgin, the fairy people gathered.
Hundreds of them, many of them winged, some wearing pointy ears, others with curly-toed footwear.
Welcome to the World of Faeries Festival 2008.
"We tell people, it's a fantasy festival, so come in your Renaissance or fantasy gear," said Dave Yaeger of Crystal Lake, who with his wife, Gloria, puts the annual event together. "It's not a must, but I'd say 15 or 20 percent come dressed."
The Yaegers were inspired by a Pennsylvania event, the Fairie Festival, which has been celebrating all things fairy for two decades. The Yaegers' business, The World of Faeries (theworldoffaeries.com), specializes in fairy statues and Celtic jewelry, and they thought that a local festival would enable them and other vendors to reach a new audience. The first one was in 2005, and it has grown steadily in size and scope.
"We get a little of everything," Gloria says. "Some [visitors] are just curious. They don't know what this is all about. I tell them it's a little like a Ren [Renaissance] fair. But just a little. Ren fairs don't have people dressed in costume like fairies."
And how many Renaissance fairs have a pickle guy? Dressed as a pirate, no less.
A.K.A. John Folan of Chicago, he set up his barrel at the far end of the park and hawked his crunchy green wares to all within earshot.
"Icy cold, fresh, delicious, nutritious ... a bill a dill!"
"How about a pity sale? I'm a grown man, for Pete's sake."
And "There's no breath like pickle breath!"
Folan said he started dealing pickles back in college some 20 years ago.
"It helped get me through school. You do a big fair, you could make $500 in a weekend. That's a lot of pickles."
He left the pickle biz a little over 10 years ago but came out of retirement for the weekend. "My wife is the artistic director—or something—with the fair, and she shanghaied me."
The pickle-pushing pirate was just one of the fest's interesting cultural overlaps. There was Mother Goose, standing next to another pirate, not far from a balloon man in a leprechaun get-up. And flitting about the grounds were visitors, especially young visitors, in all their fairy goodness.
Paula Hutson of Crystal Lake was soaking it all up with daughters Emma, 6, and Audrey, 4, and friend Leslie DeWitt of Carpentersville, and her daughter, Stephanie, 3.
"I said, 'You guys want to dress up?' And they were down in the basement getting their stuff," said Hutson, holding two half-eaten pickles that her daughters had temporarily abandoned.
The girls—heavily into pink girly-girly outfits, with wings, of course—were busy interacting with some of the 30 or so entertainers sprinkled around the grounds. At the gate, each kid got a sheet listing various activities (make a craft, tell a joke, etc.); as they accomplished each task, it was marked off. A sort of scavenger hunt.
That hunt eventually took the kids to the throne of Queen Belladonna of the Unseelie fairies, enchanting in her blue and purple wings and seated amid pillows and flowers under a Sports Authority canopy.
"They come to bow or curtsy to a queen of the fairy court," she explained, handing a half-eaten pickle to her handmaiden as a group of children approached.
In addition to some 30 vendors—offering coat-of-arms T-shirts, body art and crystals as well as soy candles and jewelry—the fest offered two full days of entertainment.
There was the unusual, like the Swords of Valor, where performers flailed away at each other with swords, a giant mallet and shields as the crowd offered encouragement ("Kill! Kill! Kill!" they suggested). Just as entertaining was the music.
"This is my first fairy fest. I didn't really know how to dress," said musician Randy Granger, who performed on the Native American flute and hang drum both days. "I sort of Googled 'male fairies' and got all kinds of hits."
Pause. Laugh.
"From what I could tell, it's much like a Renaissance or medieval festival. And it smells good —soaps and patchouli."
His performance on the hang drum, a Swiss instrument that sounds like a steel drum, added an other-worldly sound and atmosphere to the weekend. But that's what these events are all about.
"I think the common thing about fairy festivals is an honoring of the spirit," said Samantha Stephenson, half of the duo Gypsy Nomads, who also performed. "I grew up in England, and the fairy thing is very British. It's the child's spirit we all have, and it comes out in these festivals. There's a big emphasis on music and playfulness."
