At the Cajun Week Music Camp in Elkins, West Virgina

Above is a a scene of the view from Davis Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. So here I found myself with Carole at Cajun Music Camp, at the Augusta Heritage Days in the mountains of West Virginia at David and Elkins College, where I took beginner Cajun fiddle lessons  and Carole took guitar and voice.

This was my instructor, Al Berard, a wonderful, warm and very talented guy,  and a well known  guitarist and fiddler in the Cajun community. 

 

Every day there were concerts by the instructors, some of whom are quite famous. Here on the left is Bill Kirchen, originally of Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, and the writer of the song "Hot Rod Lincoln and listen to him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGpr-Zy_wRs

Here we are in the Ice House, a multi-story former ice storage building with three floors for dancing and partying. This is a self-portrait of the both of us with the camera resting on a table.

Megan was a student in my class on a scholarship. The Augusta Days Festival   provides tuition scholarships for aspiring students that need funding. She was  an extremely versatile scholarship student studying fiddle with me in my class with Al Berard. Here she is playing the contra bass. 

Scene on the dance from in the Pavillion where we had nightly dances to Cajun, Country and Zydeco music. You can hear and see a sample of Cajun Music here, from an event at Glen Echo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhbdtzkmGdU&feature=related. Below, the Dance Pavilion at Cajun Week in Elkins, WV.

This dapper gentleman was looking down on the Ice House Dance.

Dance scene with Zydeco dance band Gerald Delafose and friends.

Hallehurst, a grand old buildiing where my classes were helding in the "Parlor".

A portrait of me Carole shot.

  

Jamming with accordian legend Walter Mouton, left, and friends, including fellow students Ashby and Christopher.

Carole eating homemade gumbo at Fais DoDo, a Cajun dance party.

Here we are at Fais Dodo. Photo by Christopher King.

 Cajun Dance at the Pavilion. We had dances just about every night with the top musicians at the camp: Walter Mouton, Al Berard, Courtney Granger, Ed  Poullard, Blake Miller, Jason Frey, Randy Vidrine, and friends. Great music to dance to.

Carole spotted one of these owls swooping  down right in front of us, then fly back up to his perch on the wire. Not exactly sharp  but acceptable enough to see their faces.

 

At one of the daily performances, we saw Kathy Fahey with her shadow puppet show and a "cranky". This was a form of entertainment in the 19th ? century whereby a story is drawn on fabric and then "cranked" along as the narrator tells the story.

 

This is the Graceland Inn [not to be confused with Graceland, Elvis' home in Tennessee], where we stayed for the week. A historic mansion converted to an inn with a magnificent view of the mountains.