Sweet Chariot Family

Three hundred people live on Swan's Island year round but in the summer it's more like a thousand.

Imagine this - the Odd Fellows Lodge just off Burnt Coat Harbor hosts an annual music festival of local and imported acts. The local musicians on Swan's Island have been at this for 28 years.  The show was sold out, but we took a chance on some last minute tickets and through a twist of fate we were in.

First, the cast tours the harbor on a schooner singing chanties. Later in the evening, 225 guests packed into the lodge on fold-up chairs.

We heard a couple of young local acts, lots of sing-along sea chanties,  Irish folk music,  girl power African drumming, and a family act complete with a daughter swinging/dancing from a long scarf hanging from the ceiling.  It all concludes with a bluesy rendition of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot."

Musical happiness is contagious, and the whole room had great fun.

Sweet Chariot Music Festival:
http://sweetchariotmusicfestival.com/

Geoff Kaufman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IEDvqsBh-A

Sidenote: Swan's Island is dry,  so we snuck in a water bottle full of Pinot Grigio.  They did not sing..."What do you do with a drunken sailor."