Renaissance Faire News - Sharing the Joy of Faire, one post at a time at FaireNews.com!!

Have you met The Harper and The Minstrel?

Softly, the harp and flute played in the lanes of the Kiwanis-Lee County Medieval Faire, a lilting voice beginning when the flute stopped. I followed the sounds and spied the couple sitting in a shady area between two merchants. Both were dressed in green, he blond, she a brunette, and they played and sang to those strolling through the faire. Let me introduce you to The Harper and The Minstrel.

Jay Michaels, The Harper, has played faires since the mid 1990’s, having decided that he wanted to do something different. He had been playing and teaching guitar on Cape Cod, primarily acoustic rock with various ensembles. With a degree in music and a great love for Renaissance, Baroque and Celtic music, the harp held an appeal and he learned to play both the nylon and wire-strung Celtic Harps. The guitar is still part of his repertoire and he sings. The first faire Jay performed at was the King Richard’s Faire in Carver, Massachusetts and he met Abby in 1998 at a faire held on the grounds of Hammond Castle in Gloucester, MA.

Abby Michaels, The Minstrel, began playing at faires with Jay in 2002. Also degreed in music, she sings and plays piano, guitar, clarinet, flute, recorder, pennywhistle, and bowed psaltery, but no brass instruments. Abby explained that she doesn’t do brass because she doesn’t phhhbbbtttt well, blowing a raspberry and causing us all to chuckle. Abby came to faire when a sibling was awarded an internship at King Richard’s Faire. While her sister didn’t stay with it, Abby never stopped going, playing dress up and loving being someone else for the day. She and Jay were married in 2005.

Their daughter is traveling with them this year with Abby homeschooling her. Both of her parents expressed amusement at some of the things the young one is learning. She has even had an offer for lock picking lessons after someone in the campground found out she had lost the key to her strongbox. During faire hours, the young lady often assists several merchants in their booths, helping to set up, run errands, etc. She has good reason to want in to that strongbox, having been promised discounts on several much-desired items.

The pair are full time performers, but not just at Renaissance and Medieval events. Though they seldom play at pubs, as their style is too mellow, they are occasionally featured as dinner music. Folk music festivals, weddings, farmer’s markets, and nursing homes are their preferred non-faire venues. Their blend of Renaissance and Celtic music does well in those venues, and sometimes getting to play dress up adds to the attraction. Abby expressed a particular fondness for farmer’s markets, where they play all day, are paid and presented with a box of vegetables before leaving. The markets have the additional advantage of going on every weekend and sometimes during the week.

Between them, they estimate that they know around 400 songs, playing about 150 at any one time. They write some of the songs that they play both lyrics and music. In fact, Jay wrote the title song on their “Circle of Fae” release, a thematic CD all about faeries and elves and other magical beings, several years ago as a poem. They wrote music to go with that poem and approximately a third of the other tracks. When I asked them about inspiration for songs, Abby chuckled and told me that Jay wrote “The Hobbit Drinking Song” from their “The Last Day of the Faire” release during a fever delirium brought on by pneumonia. Another, “Five and Seven” from the “Circle of Fae” CD was Jay’s first anniversary gift to Abby. They include many of these stories in the liner notes of their CDs, which are available from CDBaby, either directly or through a link on their website.

At faire, Jay and Abby look for quiet places on the street where they can play and sing, preferably a shady spot. If the faire in question has stage sound systems, they always hope that they are setup in a way that only project to the back of the audience, not beyond. Abby looks forward to the great people they’ve met, the friends that get together in the evenings to jam. The thing that Jay looks forward to surprised me but after he explained, made sense. He looks forward to getting there, to the trip being over, to being able to unpack and be settled. He looks forward to being able to practice again, saying that he really misses it if he can’t practice every day. Abby giggled when he said that and agreed, saying that he gets cranky when he can’t practice.

Based in Massachusetts, they will be away from home for the first three months of 2008 with this year’s Florida faire schedule including the Kiwanis-Lee County Medieval Faire, the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, and the Florida Renaissance Festival. They will return to the Boston area in time for the 2008 New England Spring Flower Show March 14-16. Later in the year, they will appear at the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Faire in Charlton, Massachusetts, the Southern Connecticut Renaissance Festival in Ansonia, Connecticut, and the Festival of the Lion in Grafton, Massachusetts.

After each show, the call to action goes out using familiar words, “Take us home with you, we’ll play for food,” usually as a lead in to offering one of their seven CDs for sale. Occasionally fortune smiles, as it did last year at both Hoggetowne in Gainesville, Florida, and The Florida Renaissance Festival in Deerfield Beach, Florida. In both cases, members of the audience said, “OK, come for dinner; want to bring your laundry?” Abby and Jay both agreed that these have lead to some of their best memories and to some great and ongoing friendships. After dinner, while the clothes cycle, they get their instruments and play, having so much fun because they can play they can play more than just Renaissance music. Music is rearranged; the tempo sped up or slowed down to their own interpretations as they play pieces by such artists as The Police and Black Sabbath.

Both Jay and Abby expressed their appreciation for the people who enjoy them at faire. The interaction between themselves and their audience is one of the things that keep them coming back. The other is the wide-eyed magical look from the kids who find their costumes and unfamiliar instruments amazing. They both agreed that it’s a wonderful journey. The pleasure the pair felt was obvious as Abby told me that, though there have been ups and downs, it’s a wonderful journey and being together makes it better. Jay said that even bad days at faire are better than 9-5 days where you never got to stick your head out of a cubicle. I look forward to seeing them for years to come.

Websites of The Harper and the Minstrel:

The Harper and The Minstrel
The Harper and The Minstrel on MySpace
The Harper and The Minstrel at CDBaby.com

January 23rd, 2008 Posted by Escarlata | Have You Met? | 5 comments