PORCHFEST!

PORCHFEST AT ITHACA

September 14th, 2014

Folk band I noticed playing in strophic form.

On this perfect, sunny, fall day I ventured down to Ithaca Commons. From the Commons I walked down the streets near the bus stop. As soon as I started walking towards the neighborhoods on West Buffalo Street and the surrounding streets, music entered my open ears. When I heard the music I walked towards it and that started the journey of my Porchfest experience.

Porchfest wasn't anything I've ever musically experienced before. The idea of local artists performing on their porches would be a crazy idea in Portsmouth, NH but it made me realize how much of an artistic town Ithaca is. Not only did I feel the sense of community on the streets, I saw it too. There were children that had lemonade stands and cookie stands and I even saw a couple of yard/garage sales. It felt like I was back home in my own community. I know I am now technically a resident of Ithaca, NY for the next 4 years but it's not my home and it was very cool to see the locals of Ithaca supporting their community in their town. 

As I walked down the streets of Ithaca I ran into porch after porch of varying musical styles. To me, the concept of this is so interesting; how each porch I went to, whether it being a few houses down or blocks away, the style of music was different. There was a vast variety I got to listen to and watch. I noticed that some porches did covers of songs, some were instrumental and others did their own music. I listened to Led Zeppelin, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", altered/funky instrumental music (I'm not exactly sure how to describe it), blues and folk. 

I walked over to a porch playing folk music. I could recognize guitarists, a banjo and an upright bass. I started to pay attention to the style they were playing and I could tell that they were playing in strophic form (AAA). They music repeated itself but the lyrics were telling a story about a guy loving a women who had just gotten married. Although it's tough doing it live, it was awesome to relate what I was learning in class to what I heard at Porchfest. 

There wasn't just older bands, there were younger bands and soloists too. The first band I ran into was a young group of boys playing Led Zeppelin. They were singing covers of rock songs and weren't afraid to put themselves out there. I ran into an older band playing the blues and I could distinctively point out that it was the blues because they were play a 12 bar form of it and I had learned that on the guitar a couple years ago. 

I don't think that hearing the cadences and the forms of the music made me have a deeper appreciation for it but it definitely made me open up my ears more to what I was listening too. I loved my experience at Porchfest and it's definitely something that I will attend in my future years at Ithaca College.