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There was a totem pole raising in Pelican, to raise the town's morale (due to the closure of the cold storage plant). The second year, we hired a bigger boat and had three official bands, and a pickup band, leaving room for anything spontaneous to happen. This year we'll have three boats, five bands, and a pickup band, two coffee house concerts and spontaneous music. We'll bring in 160 people or so, and some people come in on their own. We want to keep the festival to the scale of Pelican. It's not about 100 people. There's only one restaurant, the bars might serve some food, only bunkhouses and camping. There's a store, a couple of bars, a saw mill, a marine repair shop and the cold storage plant. No cars or roads.

GW: So you left Detroit, The Motor City, one of the country's largest cities, and went to Pelican. Were your parents long-time Detroit residents, and did they think you were somehow turning your back on your heritage? Was it like Survivor?
CC: Our family had more cars than people -- four cars, three people. Pelican, it's a different scale of reality. The reality isn't any different, but it's a changed perspective. Pelican is a distilled Island of Misfit Toys. Everyone is just real, like -- off the fucking boat. Everyone fits in because everyone's wacked. There was a certain group that was the intelligentsia of the slime line.

"Everyone fits in because everyone's wacked. There was a certain group that was the intelligentsia of the slime line.

GW: What's the dirtiest song you've heard at the dirty song contest?
CC: It's the Filthy Song and Slit Yer Wrist Contest. You can do one or the other. One woman does songs about food, about zucchini and things. The year the totem pole was raised, and one guy did an epic poem called "Pole Raising." I also preformed a song called Eatin and Cheatin', and disputed the epic poem's first prize with the judges, since it was suppose to be a song. Now he does a new epic poem each year, with a drum and bass. Last year I covered a Bad Livers song, I'm Using My Bible For a Roadmap, remade as I'm Using My Penis For a Compass. It had a Tammy Faye and Jim Baker theme, with Jessica Hahn strap-on.