Wednesday, September 9, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
13
DEEP ROOTS
Dave Carter
won the 1995
Sisters Folk Festival
Songwriting
Contest with
his song
“Gun-Metal Eyes.”
The Festival helped
launch Carter into
a significant career
in folk music
before his untimely
death in 2002.
Continued from page 12
Cornelius added, “The
second year we each booked
one of our music heroes. We
booked in Ian Tyson and
Guy Clark. We took a big
jump into nationally rec-
ognized artists. It wasn’t a
regional festival anymore,
which is a bold step.”
Tisdel submitted the
same song again the second
year and became a finalist
again.
“I think that year I lost to
a guy named Daryl Purpose,”
Tisdel said, chuckling.
He added, “In the mid
to late ’90s, I was pursuing
music pretty hard profes-
sionally, as a songwriter and
a performer, and I was play-
ing to make my living. I was
living in Seattle and Portland
kind of in between and doing
gigs at Black Butte Ranch in
the summertime where my
folks had a place since we
were kids.”
Tisdel loved working
with kids and had a con-
sulting business, Creative
Educational Resources. He
attended SFF in 1997 and
in 1998 he moved to Central
Oregon.
“I had already started
working in the Sisters
schools since I had lived
part of that time in Black
Butte Ranch in the mid
’90s,” he said. “I connected
with Debbie Newport, for-
mer SFF board member, and
we created an eighth-grade
leadership retreat. Then I got
involved with the sixth-grade
outdoor school.”
In 1999 the SFF organi-
zation took the year off after
a financial loss.
Cornelius noted, “I think
both Dick and I realized
that we needed some people
with expertise in developing
a program and bringing in
sponsorships.”
Sandvik added, “We really
needed to somehow tie the
festival to the community.
And it turns out the best
way to do that is through
education.”
The organizers of SFF
did some restructuring and
Kathy Deggendorfer came
on board.
Cornelius noted, “Kathy
was key in making things
fly.”
“The festival was on rocky
ground,” Deggendorfer said.
“I didn’t want to see it go
away and decided to help
with sponsorships after they
had pretty much decided to
shut the festival down.”
Tisdel was approached by
Deggendorfer and Sandvik
with the idea of connect-
ing the festival to the Sisters
School District.
He said, “They came up
with the name of Americana
Project and Dick’s hope was,
and I think it was probably
Jim’s influence too, a his-
torical cultural perspective
of roots music and what that
means to society today.”
In 2000 the first SFF
poster image by Dennis
McGregor was created, titled
“Hands.”
McGregor said, “That
first poster featured a gui-
tar with several hands on
the neck. The neck was of
Breedlove Guitars, newly
sponsoring the festival. The
body was an old Martin,
belonging to Dick Sandvik,
co-founder. The past and
the future were symbolized,
hopefully giving identity to
Storyteller Susan Strauss
enthralled the
audience at the first
Sisters Folk Festival.
PHOTO COURTESY SFF
PHOTO COURTESY SISTERS FOLK FESTIVAL
the musical style the festi-
val was featuring. The hands
belonged to local friends,
including Jim Cornelius
and Valorie Wells Kennedy.
The hands went from old to
young, also symbolic of the
music to be presented.”
In 2002 Painted Strings
was created, which was the
genesis of My Own Two
Hands (MOTH).
Tisdel explained, “I was
working with Kathy and
we were trying to develop
our ideas in the organiza-
tion the best way possible.
Painted Strings was a bunch
of unplayable guitars that
I had found at a place in
Redmond, in a pawn shop.
I bought them with the
thought of fixing them up to
let the students play. Kathy
had just gotten back from
the Albuquerque balloon
festival and said, what if we
took these and made them
into art pieces and had kids
as well as professional artists
make them and then we’ll
sell them.”
The Festival has evolved
with the expansion of many
outreach programs.
The local nonprofit
supports The Americana
Project, The Americana
Song Academy, the Sisters
Americana Community
Luthier program, MOTH
(a regional celebration of the
arts and one of SFF’s larg-
est fundraisers), The Song
Academy for Youth and The
Winter Concert Series.
The SFF brings attention
to the rich mix of arts and
culture that can be found in
Sisters throughout the entire
year.
Crista Munro, SFF execu-
tive director, told The Nugget,
“One of the things that drew
me to come to work for
Sisters Folk Festival is the
amazing history of the orga-
nization — a 25-year history
that was built over the years
by a dedicated community of
music lovers under the vision
of a few key dedicated folks.
“I love to stand in front
of the wall in our building
where every festival poster
is hung — 24 years’ worth of
them. Seeing how the event
has grown and evolved since
1995 provides the inspiration
to forge a path forward that
builds on and honors the fes-
tival’s history.”