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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2000)
The folkies are coming, the folkies are coming! The University hosts the Willamette Valley Folk Festival, which this year offers a children’s stage Rory Carroll Oregon Daily Emerald This weekend, three music stages, a live broadcast on KLCC and the Eugene folk community will all merge on the East Lawn of the EMU for three days of a gala. Celebrating its 30th year, the Willamette Valley Folk Festival returns with a strong musical line-up and some new additions. All this adds up to be quite a juggling act for Launa DeGiusti, heritage music coordinator for the cultural forum. DeGiusti said that she is trying to improve on the already popular festival. MacKenzie Banta and Britt Tvenge, students in the art and administration minor at the Uni versity, are in charge of providing entertainment for the youngest population at the festival. For the first year, a children's stage will be operating. The children’s stage is DeGiusti's attempt to make the festival an event providing some thing for everyone. “I wanted to see the festival as something for all ages,” DeGiusti said, who has been involved with the festival for three years. “I’ve seen children on the side of the hill, playing in whatever mud they can find. 1 saw the need to have a place where there was children’s activity.” Banta and Tvenge have em braced the chance to gain experi ence in festival coordination while undergraduates. “It has been very intensive,” Tvenge said. “It has been a crash course in learning about festival management.” DeGiusti said that the learning experience has been amplified by the fact that Banta and Tvenge are creating something that has nev er been there before. “The Folk Festival has been around for 30 years, so people are familiar with it and they want to play it,” DeGiusti said. “With these guys, they’ve had to create something that is new. It’s more of a challenge.” The children’s stage, which Banta said aims to entertain par ents and children alike, will have performers from 11:00 p.m. till 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 11:00 p.m. till 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. “There will be art booths for the kids to have a good time in,” Banta said. Music, juggling and magicians will all be performing on the kids stage. Besides children’s activities, the Folk Festival boasts an im pressive and eclectic line-up. Na tionally and internationally known latin, reggae, gospel and bluegrass groups will meet local favorites like Justin King and Sugar Beets. This variety is arranged into a different theme each day. Friday’s theme is inter national music. Headliner Omar Torrez will bring his unique blend of Latin, flamenco and funk to the stage. Saturday will be more traditional folk, with the critically acclaimed California Guitar Trio headlining. Sunday’s theme is gospel and blues. Al though DeGiusti admits that Pink Martini is neither gospel nor blues, she said that she expects them to be a favorite among stu dents. Pink Martini headline Sunday night. Norma Fraser, a reggae legend who will be performing at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, said that she really likes playing music, and living, in Eugene. Growing up in Jamaica, her parents hoped that she would choose to become a doctor or a lawyer, but she had other ideas. Her driving, supple voice caught the eye of Studio 1 producers. Shortly thereafter, she was touring with the likes of Bob Marley and The Skatalites. She moved to Eugene almost a year ago and said she loves it here. “I had never heard of it before. I’ve been all over the world and I love it here,” Fraser said. She added that there are "good music lovers" here in Eugene. “It’s a small town with big minded, big hearted people.” Fraser regularly performs two Marley classics, “No Woman No Cry” and “Stir It Up,” and will likely play one or both of these on Friday. She said that she remembers Bob Marley as a selfless humani tarian. ‘His word was his honor," she said. “If he was alive, he would say, that he wanted nothing for himself, just to give.” Complementing the festival, The Buzz Coffeeshop in the EMU will offer entertainment on Satur day and Sunday organized by the Folk Alliance and Folklore Soci ety. 'Monroe and 008411 keep in touch www.dailyemerald.com Norma Fraser want to play it With these guys they've had to create something that is new. It's more a of a challenge. Launa DeGiusti heritage music coordinator for the cultural forum 11 B f. M. A U R A t Pearl Jam: Nine years after ‘lee’ ■ Pearl Jam’s latest CD sounds good — even though they continue to I party like it’s 1992 | By Joe Walsh , Oregon Daily Emerald I Grunge is dead, but apparently nobody bothered to tell Pearl Jam. Seattle’s post-punk, alternative rock scene has come and gone, leaving nary a memento other than its invariable fingerprints set ! deep into today’s musical land scape. But while the likes of Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgar den have all faded away, Pearl Jam remains. Why? With its sixth studio album, “Binaural,” Pearl Jam sticks with its recipe that has worked for nearly a decade: take a few Led Zeppelin-inspired guitar riffs, add some metal noise and some thoughtful, soul-baring lyrics with a touch of rage and self-pity. Mix in a penchant for experimen tation that, while alienating many listeners, keeps the sound fresh and original, and you get Pearl Jam. For better or worse, “Binaural” offers no surprises. It’s vintage Pearl Jam. It starts out fast and heavy with the first three tracks then quickly slows down, as the band shifts into a mellow and self-reflective mood. It’s a logical follow-up to the last studio album, the gener ally restrained “Yield” (1998), but is even more subdued. There are no tracks like “Evolution” to kick if in the ass halfway through; once it slows down it never picks up. And that’s OK. With tracks like “Nothing As It Seems,” “Light Years” and “Of The Girl,” the album sails through the sea of tranquility that often brings out the best of Pearl Jam (see also “Black,” “Yellow Ledbetter,” “Elderly Woman Be hind the Counter in a Small Town,” etc.). Sober lyrics of lost loves and past mistakes compli ment the pace as well, a refresh ing change from previous albums where an attitude of angst domi nated. Perhaps the only complaint worth mention is that a calm, nearly emotionless Eddie Vedder is not always the best Eddie Ved der. There are none of his quin tessential screaming-with-the crazy-eyes-and-a-crease-across-hi s-brow moments. He almost sounds normal, and rock stars aren’t supposed to be normal. But Pearl Jam does retain a trace of its craziness, although it never comes close to anything like that in “Vitalogy.” There’s one track, “Soon Forget,” that oddly features only Vedder and a ukulele. There’s also a track that leads with 25 seconds of nothing but noises from a snarling dog. Strange stuff, but it’s nothing that would totally alienate a signifi cant portion of the fan base like tracks in the past. And in the end, nothing will change. The real Pearl Jam fans will buy “Binaural” and the people who only liked “Ten” won’t, just as with all the other albums. 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