Now playing at the Juneau folk festival: The Alaska House speaker

JUNEAU — Tuesday was a tough day for the Alaska House majority coalition, which abruptly canceled a key committee hearing when debate over its deficit reduction plan went off the rails.

But the gridlock in the Capitol meant that lawmakers had the evening free — which House members from both parties used to walk down the hill for a performance at the Juneau folk festival by one of their own, Democrat Bryce Edgmon.

Edgmon, the House speaker and a lifelong musician, was playing a 15-minute set with "The Speakers" — a band also featuring Fairbanks Democratic Rep. Adam Wool on an electric drum set.

Edgmon was playing bass, since his usual instrument, the guitar, was in the hands of Chris Hladick, the state commerce commissioner. The two have been playing together for decades, dating back to when Hladick was city manager in Dillingham, Edgmon's home town.

[For Bryce Edgmon, first Alaska Native speaker of the House, a budget fix is personal]

The band played three songs — one by folk musician Gillian Welch, another by Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn and a third, "Bristol Bay Summer," by Edgmon himself. The song describes a romance with a dark-haired fisherwoman: "She stole my heart so fast, you know I did not even ask her if she holds a Bristol Bay limited entry card."

Audio From the 1999 CD, “One Heart, Two Worlds.”

The next day, Edgmon was careful to assure a reporter that he would have been in the Capitol had the House been doing business.

"I'm not fiddling while Rome is burning here," he said, mixing his instruments, if not his metaphors.

He's played at the folk festival since he worked as a legislative aide in the 1990s, and called it "a nice breather away from it all."

"I think every legislator should stay true to who they are," he said. "And music is a big part of who I am."