Two community parties focused on the art of songwriting — and including a raft of local music-makers — are set for Port Angeles and Port Townsend this weekend.
Songwriting Works, a nonprofit collective that has held songmaking workshops across the North Olympic Peninsula, will first host a concert of music from those sessions at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., at 7 p.m. Saturday.
The party will move to Port Townsend’s Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., where the Community SongFest will go from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. Sunday.
Admission to either show is on a sliding scale — $12 to $25 for general admission.
Everyone welcome
No one will be turned away for lack of funds, said Judith-Kate Friedman, Songwriting Works’ founder.
Tickets will be available only at the door of both venues.
Friedman, who began developing Songwriting Works back in 1990, has traveled around the nation, making music with people who, until her workshops, had never written songs before.
She began holding songwriting sessions in Clallam and Jefferson counties — Sequim, Port Angeles, Chimacum, Port Town-send and Quilcene — 18 months ago.
In these gatherings, Friedman has collaborated with some 200 people, from 25 to 95 years old.
And the music they made, to be heard Saturday and Sunday, is “joyful, honest and inspiring,” Friedman said.
The songs go just about everywhere, from tuna fishing to raising a family to post-wartime homecoming, and they come in many flavors: country, folk, jazz, rock, chorale cantata.
Saturday night at the fine arts center, the performers include Friedman and Matt Sircely, a multi-instrumentalist known for his playing with Hot Club Sandwich and other bands; singer-storyteller Daniel Deardorff; and singer-guitarist Keeth Monta Apgar.
On Sunday at the maritime center, those musicians will be joined by the Musical Instigators, a local choir, plus the PT Songlines choir led by Laurence Cole.
The Port Townsend event will wrap up with a community potluck starting at 5:15 p.m. Sunday.
Veterans’ stories
Friedman, describing one of the community songwriting workshops at Sequim’s Dungeness Courte home for people with Alzheimer’s disease, recalled how four World War II veterans shared their stories of homecoming.
“We were soon writing a song about their experiences in the Marines,” she said. “The women chimed in about being on the home front waiting for their men’s return.
“One man, who due to Alzheimer’s could no longer finish a sentence, was still able to contribute 70 percent of the melody for the haunting song.”
The songwriting program was funded by Washington Health Foundation’s Rural Health Initiative.
It gave elders a new voice, added Dungeness Courte administrator Kathy Burrer; composing the songs also helped their loved ones learn new ways of listening.
Through song, “families are able to share laughter and joy again,” Burrer said.
None of the elders in the workshops had ever written songs before, Friedman said.
“But music is naturally a part of us. When given the opportunity, we can all compose.
“If you want to have your mind blown and your heart opened, like we did” in the workshops, “come hear the stories they had to tell and the music that came out.”
To learn more about Songwriting Works, visit www.SongwritingWorks.org or phone 360-385-1160.
Information about Saturday’s concert and other activities at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is at PAFAC.org and 360-457-3532, while the Northwest Maritime Center is at 360-379-2629 and NWMaritime.org.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
