Back to the dulcimer

In the summer of 1967, betweeneighth and ninth grade, young Wanda Degen decided to have a hippieparty. She went to a head shop in her little hometown of MontagueWhitehall, on the dunes of west Michigan, and fell in love with atrippy poster for a Jefferson Airplane show at the Fillmore in SanFrancisco.

She taped the poster to a lot of walls over the years until it got too tattered to save.

By the time Degen settled in East Lansing in 1971, theposter’s days were numbered, but the spirit of Fillmore rock impresarioand scenemaker Bill Graham was with her — in a gentle, mountaindulcimer sort of way.

In her 25 years as performance coordinator at the EastLansing Art Festival, Degen booked over 200 acts, drawing national andinternational names and keeping the evergreen local folk-rock-jazzscene watered and fed.

In August, the festival’s board of directors voted to cut costs and eliminate Degen’s position.

This weekend, Degen will return to her first love —playing her self-made mountain dulcimer — at two area appearances, andshe’ll attend a reception in her honor at Beggar’s Banquet in EastLansing.

Degen was offered the chance to apply for a new stagehost position, at a “huge pay cut — almost one-fifth of what I madeafter 25 years.” That prospect, along with the festival’s shrinkingbudget for performers, led Degen to decide it was time to move on.

“‘Relief’ isn’t the right word, but perhaps there’ll be some time to do something else,” she said.

In 1986, Degen was already a veteran folk performer andmusic teacher at Elderly Instruments. After working with a children’sconcert series in East Lansing, she was invited to build the music sideof the East Lansing Art Festival, then 25 years old.

Starting as a one-woman fundraising committee with abudget of $400, she surely and steadily built what amounted to a musicfestival within an art festival.

In the following years, Degen booked national names such as Tom Paxton, Robin & Linda Williams, Peter Ostrousko, Butch Thompson, Bill Kirchen and Vienna Teng.

Almost every perennial of the Michiganand Lansing music scene, from folk to rock to country to jazz, playedthe festival, including The Chenille Sisters, Da Yoopers, Joel Mabus,the Michigan State University Professors of Jazz, Claudia Schmidt,Kitty Donohoe, Root Doctor and Wally Pleasant.

Degen’s home is graced by framedcollections of festival artist portraits, year by year. She considersthe year 2000 a standout among many. “The Weepers played before TomPaxton, and he invited them to work up a song together — it wasamazing,” Degen said.

The 2000s were Degen’sFillmore-in-Michigan heyday. In 2009, thanks largely to a grant fromthe Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, the budget forfestival performers reached a zenith of $24,000. Singer-songwriterVienna Teng got $3,750, the highest fee ever paid at the festival.

But grants and other funding sources began to dry up after that. When Teng returned in 2011, she was paid $1,750.

“Her agent threw a fit, but (Teng) really liked playing the art festival,” Degen said.

Degen knew times were changing when a board member asked her if she had considered asking performers to play for free.

“There was a little bit of a sinkingfeeling with that,” she said. “I basically said, ‘No, I’m not going tocall a professional act and ask them.’”

By 2011, Degen was down to booking eightbands for the main stage only, from booking over 35 acts on threestages in the festival’s heyday. She thought about quitting before thefestival board eliminated her position. 

Under a new system, Ben Hall, thefestival’s main stage host, will submit information on artists andavailability to a performance committee, which will set up the scheduleand draw up contracts.

Meanwhile, Degen plans to keep up with local music, if only for the pleasure of watching it replenish over the decades.

“It was amazing to me when Steppin’ InIt came on the scene,” Degen said. The eclectic Lansing roots bandreminded Degen’s generation of the Lost World String Band, an old-timeygroup with Elderly Instruments owner Stan Werbin that came out of EastLansing in the 1970s, to national renown, including an appearance onthe Prairie Home Companion.

But the inner muscle that has been oncontinuous alert for potential festival performers for 25 years canfinally relax and concentrate on other pursuits.

Degen has taught pre-schoolers for over20 years and gives workshops to teachers on how to use music in earlyeducation. She plays her self-built mountain dulcimers at a variety ofvenues, including senior homes. These days, she takes care of a familymember with Alzheimer’s, and likes to spend time with her two younggrandchildren.

“So my life has been pretty crazy the last couple of years,” she said. “I can handle having less to do.”

Although Degen is closing the book onthe art festival, she wouldn’t mind coming back to help curate themusic for its 50th anniversary in 2013. 

It’s not a far-fetched idea. Severalyears ago, while visiting a friend, Degen spotted another copy of herold Jefferson Airplane poster. When the friend saw her eyes light up,he gave it to her. It is placed proudly on her dining room wall, nextto two of her mountain dulcimers.

You never know what will come back.

Reception for Wanda Degen

4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20

Beggar’s Banquet, 218 Abbot Road., East Lansing

(517) 351-4573

Degen performances

Christmas Celtic Music;

part of Silver Bells in the City

6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18

Michigan Library & Historical Center, 702 W. Kalamazoo Ave,, Lansing

Christmas music with flutist Dan Giacobassi

Noon, Saturday, Nov. 19

Van Atta’s Greenhouse & Flower Shop, 908 Old M-78, Haslett

(517) 337-2264