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Mike Agranoff
is equally at home in the contemporary and traditional camps. He is a
fine musician and storyteller. His prime instrument is the guitar and
he also plays concertina, piano, banjo, or sings acapella.
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Ralph Bodington
is a superb performer of banjo tunes and ballads from the old-time
Southern mountain tradition. He has a laid-back, easy style that comes
right out of the old tradition.
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Claire Boucher & Brad HurleyClaire is a native of
Sarzeau, on the Presqu'Ile de Rhuys in southern Brittany, the Celtic
region of France. She sings traditional songs in French and Breton, a
Gaelic language similar to Welsh. Now living in Montréal, Claire
teaches traditional dances from her region and performs occasionally
with the group Pevar. She will be accompanied at the Eisteddfod by her
partner Brad Hurley on wooden flute and voice.
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Andy Cohenis a blues guitarist and historian, especially
involved with the work of Rev. Gary Davis. Andy also plays such unusual
instruments as the dulceola.
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John Cohenplays guitar, banjo, and mandolin. He is a
founder member of the New Lost City Ramblers. His campaign for the
recognition of traditional roots/folk music has led to the production
of fifteen films, hundreds of photographs and sound recordings.
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Jeff Davisis a great singer of material from the mountains
(north and south), the coast, from Canada, very much in the old styles,
and a master instrumentalist on everything that has strings.
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Elias Ladino Ensemble (Joe and Danny Elias and Richard Khuzami)
performs and preserves the music of the Spanish and Middle Eastern Jewish community.
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Jerry Epstein
is a singer of (mostly) unaccompanied traditional song of the Eastern US and Canada, and a pretty fair concertina player.
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Toby Fagenson is a singer,songwriter, parodist and
instrumentalist (on six and twelve-string guitar and five-string
banjo). His songs range from the screamingly funny to the sharply
satirical.
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Alan Friend plays old time music on a variety of
instruments (banjo, guitar, concertina) and is also a singer of
ballads. He is a founding member of the Chelsea String Band.
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Julia Friend sings ballads with a directness and ease born
of long, close contact. Although a young singer she is mindful of the
lasting traditions from which the old songs come. Her repertoire
includes English and American ballads, chorus songs, chanties, and pub
songs. She plays clawhammer banjo.
 Julia has performed at NEFFA and
NOMAD, Richmond Town Restoration, Oberlin College, and at the last
Eisteddfod. She has recorded a ballad as part of the Heritage Muse
Digital Child ballad project.
"Julia is an impressive
performer. She has a great sense of style, and attacks a song with
self-confidence and a sureness of how she wants to express its meaning"
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Howard Glasser
is the founding father of the Eisteddfod and Festival Director
Emeritus. He has also collected folksongs in Scotland and other places.
A noted calligrapher, Howard designed the Eisteddfod-NY logo.
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The Johnson Girls
(Joy Bennett, Maggie Bye, Alison Kelley, Bonnie Milner, and Deirdre Murtha)
perform folk music with an emphasis on songs of the sea and shore. Each
member of the group brings a specialty and style to the ensemble.
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David Jones
is a master of English traditional song, everything from the ballad
tradition to the Music Halls, and an always welcome regular at the
festival.
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Norman Kennedy
is as good as it gets in the unaccompanied Scottish tradition in both English and Gaelic.
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Enoch Kentis the gravelly voiced veteran of 50 years of
Scottish, and some English, song, covering from the old ballads to the
street songs to the songs of struggle for justice.
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Chris Koldeweyhas been singing folk music and sea music in
particular since his early teens. He comes from a family rich in
maritime traditions, and his lullabies as a child were traditional
songs of the sea. Chris has played many concerts and festivals in
states along the eastern seaboard, and internationally, and has led
workshops dealing with a variety of traditional music forms. He
accompanies himself on guitar, banjo, fiddle, and concertina.
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The Manhattan Sacred Harp Group-- a fine group of
enthusiastic singers who have been singing this powerful repertoire of
Southern Shape Note hymns for some years.
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Evy Mayer
sings and plays ukulele, guitar, dumbek and a host of other percussion
instruments. She collects popular songs of the early 1900s, as well as
humorous songs, children's music, plus Balkan and other international
music. She loves to sing harmony and funny songs, and to folk dance.
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Mick Moloney
is a folklorist and a celebrated performer of Irish traditional music.
He sings and plays mandolin and tenor banjo. In 1999 he was awarded the
National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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NexTraditionoffer idiosyncratic renditions of sea songs
and chanteys, gospel and blues, worksongs of the railroads, mines,
prisons, factories, and fields. TNT performs traditional music of
America, Great Britain, and around the world.
Alison Kelley and Ken Schatz both
grew up chantey brats - Alison in New York City, Ken in Washington,
D.C.. She teaches at The Cobble Hill High School of American Studies,
and also performs with Ida Red , The Johnson Girls and The New York
Packet. He acts, directs, teaches, and coaches acting for theatre,
television, and film.
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NYU Ballad Singers are a group of students at New York
University who have been working on discovering, learning, and singing
the traditional ballads of America, Britain, and Ireland, under the
guidance of faculty member Evelyn Vitz
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Barry O'Neill
is the most laid-back, unassuming singer ever to fascinate an audience
with his very unusual repertiore of songs from the streets of New York,
to Eastern Canada, to the Victorian parlor.
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Anne Price
is a versatile and gifted singer born and raised in New York City. She
sings a wide variety of traditional folk songs and many songs from
contemporary songwriters, as well as songs she has written.
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Serre l'Écoute
is a trio: Gabrielle Bouthillier (voice, piano, triangle), Liette Remon (voice, pieds, fiddle), and Robert Bouthillier
(voice, guimbardes, cuillers, and is the father of Gabrielle) that
specializes in French and French-Canadian maritime music. Their music
traces the link between the maritime traditions of France and the Great
Lakes region. They were a great hit at Mystic in 2005.
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Shepheard, Spiers, and Watson
Pete Shepheard, Tom Spiers, and Arthur Watson
will be coming to us direct from Scotland with a terrific set of
Scottish traditional songs and tunes, either unaccompanied or with
fiddle, melodeon, and whistle.
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Louise Sherman
delights audiences of all ages with her inspired storytelling. Drawing
on the traditional heritage of many cultures, and on the best of
today's story-spinners, she weaves enthralling word-pictures,
encouraging her hearers to give free rein to their imaginations. Her
obvious love and respect for her stories is infectious.
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Eli Smith
will be remembered by Eisteddfod-NY 2004 attendees as part of the infections Jug Free America. Eli sings and plays harmonica, guitar, banjo, and kazoo.
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Steve Suffetis best described as an old-fashioned
folksinger. His repertoire is a mixture of railroad songs, trucker
songs, cowboy songs, union songs, old time ballads, blues, ragtime,
Gospel, bluegrass, topical-political songs, and whatever else tickles
his fancy.
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Dick Swain
has a very unusual repertoire, largely from the Eastern US and Atlantic
Canada, ranging from songs of inland waterways, lakes, and sea, to
parlor ballads, to life on the farm and in the woods, and including
broadsides, ballads, and lots of great chorus songs. His settings of
poems have been recorded by Gordon Bok and Dave Webber & Anni
Fentiman among others.
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Triborohails from the boroughs of New York, but looks
beyond the Hudson, to other places and other times, for songs and
inspiration. They are an acoustic vocal trio that applies fine
three-part harmony to an eclectic mix of musical genres - great
old-time, new-time, Carter Family, country, Western, bluegrass and
beyond.
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Heather Wood
is a veteran singer from the English revival for some 40 years, dating
from her days with The Young Tradition. In addition to the old songs,
she has written some dynamite new ones.
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Zie Mwea
(Natural Conditions), is Valerie Naranjo, Barry Olsen, and Bernard Woma.
One of the most innovative percussion trios in music today, they bring
us the extraordinary tradition of northern Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire,
featuring a remarkable marimba-like instrument known as the Gyil. The
vocals are in a West-African call and response style, and the impact of
what they produce is tremendous.
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