These marching Worms gave a spirited preview of this weekend’s New Haven Folk Fest to a guests at an Edgerton Park garden party on a glorious Thursday evening.
The Worms’ full name is “The Arrogant Worms,” the leading Canadian comedy-folk trio to perform in New Haven in… well… quite a while. The Worms are one of many acts playing Friday and Saturday in Edgerton Park at this year’s folk festival. They gave a half-hour preview concert at a wine-and-spanikopita party outside the park’s Carriage Festival just after 6 p.m. Click here for details on the the festival. Click here for a story on the cool environmental part of the fest.
The Worms didn’t only march. Beginning shortly after 6, they wiggled, strummed, and harmonized their way through a set of wacky songs about all the trees and rocks in their native Canada, violent save-the-veggies activists, and fat roadies who can’t count to 2. They were a hit. They saved some of their more popular songs for their performance at the festival Saturday night.
Local guitarist Robert Messore serenaded the guests before the Worms performed. Click here to watch and listen to his beautiful, free-flowing open-tuning finger-picking.
Jane van Pelt of the New Haven Folk Alliance, which puts on the festival each year, introduced the Worms.
She also paid tribute to the Alliance’s gray/white eminence, Steve Winters. By day Winters is the editorial page editor of the Connecticut Post. By (Friday) night, he hosts the long-running “Profiles in Folk“ program on WSHU-FM. He has hosted the show for 33 years.
Local political activist Paula Panzarella was there.
So was Tricia Caldwell of the Community Foundation, one of the sponsors of this year’s Folk Festival. A delightful time in the garden was had by all.