PORT TOWNSEND — With singers from across the West and songs about life and love, the third annual Community SongFest will fill the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., today (Sunday).
The Port Townsend-based nonprofit Songwriting Works hosts the gathering, whose theme is “Life’s a Song — Be a Part of It,” from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., with local singers and players as well as Salt Lake City’s Anke Summerhill and Seattle’s Orville Johnson.
Interactive, spontaneous
This event will start with interactive singing, spontaneous songwriting and improvisation led by Judith-Kate Friedman, Songwriting Works’ founder, and Laurence Cole, founder and co-director of PT Songlines Choir.
Tickets are $12 for elders, youths and those on a fixed income; $20 for general admission; and $50 for “VIP/Very Interested Person” preferred seating. Those are available via www.BrownPaperTickets.com and at the Port Townsend Food Co-op, 414 Kearney St.
Tickets also will be available at the door, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds, Friedman said.
From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Songwriting Works’ touring ensemble — Friedman, Matt Sircely, Keeth Monta Apgar — will join Summerhill, Johnson, Cole, Daniel Deardorff and Joe Breskin for more singing.
SongFest’s last hour will be given over to the launching of Songwriting Works’ “Life’s A Song” CD fundraising campaign. There will be cake for all, added the event’s publicist, Danny Milholland.
More than 200 elders, friends and family members from Port Townsend, Sequim and Port Angeles created the songs for the CD, Milholland noted.
These songs are “brimming with local stories, history and humor,” he said.
Johnson, the Seattle multi-instrumentalist well-known here for his performances at the Key City Playhouse and Centrum Acoustic Blues Festival, collaborated this past spring on the CD’s 12 songs. They range in style from folk and swing to ballads and a story of homecoming after World War II.
Oral history
“This collection of songs illustrates that there is a way to bring out oral history [that’s] not just someone sitting and talking and telling you something,” said Johnson.
“A musical setting makes it more memorable. You can hum it, and you can whistle it as well as listen to it.”
“Songs light up the brain and heart like almost nothing else,” added Friedman, who works with older adults to compose and perform their own music.
For more information about the SongFest and Songwriting Works, phone Friedman at 360-643-1961 or visit www.Songwritingworks.org.
To volunteer at Sunday’s event, phone Milholland at 360-385-0519 or email danielmilholland@gmail.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
