The Corning Farmers Market is a small gathering of vendors with canopies set up on both sides of a brick sidewalk lined with trees and flower beds, in a park between the river and a street.

We set up between an organic produce farmer the washtub bass player knows and a representative from a winery near the border of Canada (their Vignoles was lovely). A fellow who plays harmonicas, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, and some percussion joined us a little later.

We managed to find enough things we all knew or could sort of follow along on, so musically we had a pretty good time, and the vendors and customers seemed to enjoy it as well.

I got a little nervous and insecure on things I didn’t know, because sometimes it’s hard for me to hear what the chords are and sometimes even when they’re changing (one tune was all Am and Em and for some reason those two chords sound too similar to me). Sometimes it was also hard to hear clearly when the autoharp or mountain dulcimer was taking the melody. (Jam etiquette requires that when one instrument is taking the melody, the others should back off and play supporting parts.)

Most interesting was a group of three teenage boys who kept coming back to watch and listen. One of them, wearing a Rage Against the Machine shirt, said he couldn’t believe how much he liked this stuff, since it was far outside his usual listening repertoire. It’s exciting to see younger folks enjoying this music.