Big Summer Classic-Ben Harper

Since getting laid off a couple years back I haven't been going to too many shows besides my annual trip to the Evolve Festival in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

Last night I went to see Ben Harper at the Avalon in Boston. Good show. Blues harp great Charlie Musselwhite joined Harper for a bunch of tunes. Harpers first set was with the band and then he did a wicked little acoustic set and finished the night off with another set with the band & Musselwhite. I'd only seen Harper once before, opening for Dave Matthews back in the day.



Saturday I went to the Big Summer Classic at Great Woods/Tweeter Center in MA. I'd seen Keller Williams and Spearhead before and thought they were both great. It was my first time seeing Yonder Mountain String Band and String Cheese Incident but I was already a fan of both. Umphreys McGee was completely new to me and blew me away. Great drummer and some crazy ass guitar protechnics melding Satriani, Zappa, Yngwie etc. Interesting stuff IMHO. String Cheese were damn good.

Cliff McGann The Folklore Man Blog Entry #1

During the late 90's into the early part of the 21st Century my life had become the biggest nightmare I could have imagined. I had become a fat apathetic American working for one of the many fortune 500 corporate whores that own Warmerica.

I had a miserable 9-5 job that made me feel less than alive and I hated the ship of horrors my life had become. After 9-11 I decided to take control and live life to the fullest.

I would need a push out the door,Thanks Krissie!!, but I had already lost 70 pounds by that time, become vegetarian and had a plan. Unfortunatelly my plan didn't involve getting laid off a month after buying a house in a Boston suburb whose name ends in -ord. I was in a ball on the floor for 2 days after and then I remembered my plan.

Become a profesional storyteller.

It sounds ridiculous I know but since my life already had plenty of ridiculous in it, a Masters Degree in Folklore, I decided what the hell and began planning for world domination using the ancient art of storytelling.

I play a bunch of different instruments, make documentary films, tell stories to children of all ages at libraries, schools, senior centers in the New England area and beyond. I also drive one of the craziest camaro's your likely to ever see. More on that later.


If your 9-5 makes you feel less than alive my advice it to start hashing your own plan.

Cheers, Cliff

Cape Breton Side Trip

I only got up to Cape Breton for two days during my July trip. I've been going up to the Sydney, Nova Scotia area more frequently lately as I've been working on a documentary film on Woodcarver Murray Gallant.

I got to see Murray and spend a bit of time chatting with my friend David Stephens who painted Seaflower. I always stop with Seaflower at Wilsons Gas Station on the MikMaq reserve in Cape Breton. They just love it and I love the cheaper gas.Seaflower and I

Return Trip from Nova Scotia in Seaflower

I just got back from a trip to Nova Scotia in my art car Seaflower. On the return trip my purebred Minitaure Daschund Winston, whom my wife and I got from a shelter, was propositioned for sex.

A gentleman pulled up beside while I was walking Winston during a driving break and asked if he was purebred and if he was fixed. He then asked if I lived handy as his female was in heat. I had to get back on the road so I jsut couldn't do it. As I was walking Winston down the road I kept apologizing to him saying I could have got him laid when an elderly woman comes around the corner walking her terrier and giving me the dirtiest look.

Crossing the US border in Calais, Me was breeze. Under a minute. You'd think it would be harder in a car with marbles and dice all over it but its been easier. As I pulled away from the guard shack I looked into the customs building and 3 officers were looking at the car when the largest and most tattoed one says, "awesome ride man."


No speeding tickets this time coming home. $185 speeding ticket on the way up for being colorful. The cop was curious and from appearance alone was apparently inbred.

We, in the US, live in a police state that isn't about protection but profit. If it was about protecting and serving I'd be all for it but it isn't. Insurance agencies help fund police so they can get the latest greatest speed detection hardware which helps states make more $ and insurance agencies reap the benefits when they increase your premium.

In Canada I drive 90mph, am always in control, and have never got a ticket. Once you cross the border into the US it seems like you could drive down the highway with guns blazing but as long as your not doing more than the legal limit the cop, whose hidden down an embankment behind an underpass, isn't going to catch it with his laser.

I recently found out that most Laser manafacturers in the US actually give away their product to the police and only bill them after the police have written enough tickets to pay for them.

In the US we pay $35 billion a year to keep our prison system going while it has turned into another cash cow driven by profit with 1 in 150 US residents now in prison.

US Prison Facts