Nada Lewis specializes in Eastern European music.

"One of the unique things about Sweet's Mill, and I think this would be shared by almost any musician who has been up there and played, was that at Sweet's Mill, for the first time, I was so high playing music, there was so much of an energy vortex going on, that I would play beyond the point of exhaustion. I would play until I worked myself into a psychic state of playing music. There was such an ecstasy about it, I would play literally until I couldn't stand up. It was wonderful. That was the first place that ever happended to me.

 The other thing was the opportunity to give and share something that would eventually blossom, like this whole Balkan music scene. There are so many Balkan bands now. A lot of people who are in them began learning either at Sweet's Mill or camps that followed from that." --Nada Lewis

Gypsy Gyppo Stringband (l-r) Jerry Mitchell, Jack Link, Warren Argo, Sandy Bradley, Bob Ness.

"The personal ingredient was Virgil and his love for creating a mess of people and then lying down in the middle of it and going to sleep. I think the fact that he liked to do that more than anything in the world probably had a lot to do with the musical and artistic development of Sweet's Mill. It was Virgil inviting people to this special place. The friendships that came from there are my favorite ones." --Warren Argo

Hear Jack and Warren sing with Gyppos (ca. 1975, eephing by Jeff Cherniss, recorded by Evo Bluestein.)

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