I Get A Taste of the Alaska Folk Festival

Wednesday evening I got to slip into Centennial Hall to catch a bit of the Alaska Folk Festival in downtown Juneau. 

The Empty Oil Barrel Band played and sang politically themed satires.

The festival program remembers Buddy Tabor and Barbara Kalen.

From Tom Begich's blog  we get a more personal reflection on Tabor.  Here's a short excerpt.

February 6, 2012 - Last night, perhaps around 8 PM, Buddy Tabor quietly passed away. A singer/songwriter with a direct link to the soul.  Alternately irreverent and loving, apolitical and revolutionary, album after album cut through to your heart and your head in simple tones and a gravel voice. Weary without giving in, spiritual without putting it on. Aware. Conscious. The words of a poet, the soul of a dreamer, the hands of a housepainter. Buddy Tabor was complex in his thoughts, simple in how he executed them. His body of work pearls worth holding and remembering, just as he is.

 This festival has a lot the feel of the Anchorage Folk Festival and the man sitting in the aisle seat of my row on the flight home today had played at the festival.