4.18.09 Saturday

pretty Image intensive--

Our trip around the world---OK not really we went to the festival of nations at Dollywood. We got to see all of the shows we wanted to see.... which was pretty amazing. We sawthe Jennifer Roland band from Nova Scotia--she sure can fiddle and dance. She was backed up by several men but i couldn't get their pics

The next group played something called a Hang-Drum. the group name is Keona--thought i would remember what it meant---but i didn't. It is apparently one of the newer instruments on the market. Makes a uniquely eerie kind of neat sound. It is a percussion instrument with something added. This group is from France and England... pretty cool http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_(musical_instrument)

hear it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQXn5ba0aT8 Ann Marie--I thought of you several times during the day with all of the musical experiences we were having.

next was back to the Zambians--for a look or two---went to their show twice more actually

Mexico--Calpulli Dance Co---from NY????

Lithuania--Dainava--folk music--- the ladies had beautiful voices. 'Course we didn't understand it--but it was beautiful The dancing reminded me of American old folk dances

Belgium-Royal Stiltwalkers of Merchtem---- 12 feet tall. Didn't realize how little they had to move to get the stilts to move in great leaps. pretty cool

4.4.09 Saturday

Today we went to Dollywood to the Festival of Nations and had a wonderful time as usual. We saw both shows of the Cirque D Imagine. it was great --show A was better than B just in case you get the notion to go LOL
Mr S waiting for the group to start

the best show we saw was The Zambian Vocal Group http://zambianvocalgroup.com/. We loved them last year but this year they were even better. They sing A Capella with beautiful harmonies. They sing Gospel--some in the many languages of Zambia and some in English. The Zambian songs are amazing-- the harmony is so wonderful. Granted we don't understand any of it but they tell you what the song is about and you can just see how beautiful it is. They feel the music so much.

This year the main guy was telling funny stories about the first time they came to the US. the village they come from had no electricity and no running water so they had culture shock major! When they flew the first time they just decided to do the same as the person in front of them. He said they didn't know anything about different foods. He said they didn't know about muffins.... he said they ate them and ate them and ate them LOL (along with the paper wrapper) he also said they didn't get much chicken in Zambia because it is so expensive.

The first thing they ordered in a NY restaurant was buffalo wings because they thought that would be plenty big and they were hungry...LOL they were stunned when "buffalo wings' were so tiny. and then there were the ....chicken fingers.....he said it was amazing Buffalo wings were so little and then who knew that chicken had fingers in the US LOL--so here is some pics of the guys in the vocal group.

the main thing is that the money they raise goes to a school they have in Zambia in their village...where they grew up. They were orphans too....their story is great