Searching for an honest Song Circle

As my time of being split between Gates, Oregon and Paramount California is coming to an end, I am trying to work out what I want to do in terms of music. I've been able to participate in several Folk Jams, Ballad Sessions, and Song Circles down South, but my chunk of Oregon (within, say, 50 miles) is mostly populated by groups that describe themselves as "Hard-Core Bluegrass" or "Hard-Core Old-Timey."  Nothing wrong with either, but the definitions and "guidelines" are not consistent, and, particularly in Old-Timey, tends to ignore much of the heritage. So that story is at an end.

And what's left? I had thought about going back into liturgical music, just to keep playing, but the bulk of  the Contemporary Christian catalogue tends oscillate between recycled 1980's stuff (mostly re-arranged into the "sing to the Lord a self-impressed song" modality) and the "sit back in the pews and listen in awe" stuff most of the rest of the liturgical world left behind some years ago.

Personally, I believe the post-council document put out by the Second Vatican Council spelled the purpose of liturgical music: "to provide a setting for the liturgy, and to draw the congregation together through music and song." After centuries of sitting passively in the pews, a great number of faiths took a cue from groups as diverse as American Charismatic Protestants and Lubavitch, and recognized the value of joyful music in worship. But that was Zen, this is Tao (sorry, old liturgist joke -- you had to be there).


I suppose I could start my own Personal Revalation Theology based group. My permanent home is in Western Oregon, where we have one of the highest per capita rates of such groups .... also the undisputed highest per capita rate of strip clubs. I've often wondered if there was a connection. I do recognize that most of the Personal Revelation Theology groups pretty much make it up as they go along, and cherry-pick the life our of the various holy books, but it would give me a place to play on Tuesdays ......... that's the day sacred to the fewest faiths, and it really could use the attention.

No 30 on this piece, more to come.