Saturday 29 August – Friday 4 September 2015, at Pinewoods Camp, Plymouth MAStaff List |
 |
Sheila Kay Adams is a seventh-generation ballad singer, storyteller, and claw-hammer banjo player, born and raised in the Sodom Laurel community of Madison County, North Carolina, an area renowned for its unbroken tradition of of unaccompanied singing of traditional southern Appalachian ballads that dates back to the early Scots/Irish and English Settlers in the mid-17th century. Adams learned to sing from her great-aunt Dellie Chandler Norton and other notable singers in the community such as, Dillard Chandler and the Wallin Family (including NEA National Heritage Fellow Doug Wallin). In addition to ballad singing, Adams is an accomplished claw hammer-style banjo player and storyteller. |
 |
Anita Best was born in a small fishing village with the fairytale name of Merasheen, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, just before circumstances contrived to bring her native country into union with Canada. Her people came to Merasheen from Somerset in the late 1700s and were engaged in the inshore and bank fishery until Merasheen was depopulated by government in 1968. On both sides of the family there were wonderful singers of old ballads, tragic sea songs and comical ditties, and the occasional storyteller who gathered everyone around on the long winter nights. |
 |
Eliza Carthy describes herself simply as a "modern english musician." Noted as a singer and fiddler, she is also at home on many other instruments. During a 25-year journey/career she has become one of the most dazzling and recognised folk musicians of a generation. She has revitalised and made folk music relevant to new audiences and has captured the most hardened of dissenters with canny, charismatic and boundary-crossing performance. Many of the current crop of young professional folk musicians owe their successes in part to her determination, standard-bearing and campaigning spirit. Yorkshire-born and based in Edinburgh since 1997, Eliza Carthy grew up immersed in the world of traditional English music. She has lived a life based on the philosophy that it is a genre worthy of and equal to any other, and that musicians need no boundaries and deserve no restrictions to what they do as artists. |
 |
Andy Cohen is a blues guitarist and historian who grew up in a house with a piano and a lot of Dixieland Jazz records, amplified after a while by a cornet that his dad got him. At about fifteen, he got bitten by the Folk Music bug, and soon got to hear records by Big Bill Broonzy and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, both of which reminded him of the music he grew up to. At sixteen, he saw Rev. Gary Davis, and his course was set. He knew he had it in him to follow, study, perform and promote the music of the southeast quadrant, America¹s great musical fountainhead. Although he's done other things — a certain amount of writing, and physical labor from dishwashing and railroading to archaeology — playing the old tunes is what he does best. |
 |
Amy Conley is a multi-instrumentalist who has been teaching and performing music in MA and NH since 1986. She has made three recordings of traditional and original songs with many folk instruments. Once an active member of FSSGB, Amy now creates community music programs in southern NH such as the Second Friday Song Circle using Rise Up Singing, music jams, festival programs, and music-related workshops for adults. She started Ukulele Revolution in 2012 to teach ukulele out of her music studio and performs with The Kukuleles, a group that grew from her program. |
 |
Bob Dupré is a fine singer of traditional songs, especially maritime. He is also an accomplished Molly dancer, and provides the vocal accompaniment for the dances. |
 |
Sue Dupré has been calling contra, square and English country dances for over 30 years. She's been a featured performer at various festivals, at many dance weekends, and as a staff member at week-long dance camps. In addition to her work as a caller, she's passionately devoted to the promotion and performance of historic English mummers plays and ceremonial dances in American communities. She is the founder and foreman of Handsome Molly, a molly dance team, and was the foreman for Shandygaff Longsword and Garland and a former member of Griggstown Lock, a rapper sword team. For many years, she has directed and performed in mummers plays in central New Jersey. |
 |
Craig Edwards plays a broad range of American roots music: traditional fiddle styles including Appalachian old-time, blues, bluegrass, Cajun, Cape Breton, Irish, and Swing, old-time 5 string banjo, flatpicking and fingerstyle guitar covering Delta and Piedmont blues, honky-tonk, rockabilly, and swing, Cajun and Zydeco accordion, and solo and group singing. Alone or with other musicians, he plays with the drive and conviction that characterize these musical traditions. |
 |
Grand Picnic combines the rhythmic drive of old-time Southern fiddling with traditional New England and Québécois tunes and band-member originals. The band’s contagious enthusiasm has packed dance floors from Oregon to Massachusetts, Vermont to Florida, and Manhattan to Brooklyn. Grand Picnic is Marco Brehm, Michael Gorin, Jody Kruskal, Bill Peek, and Sam Zygmuntowicz. |
Marco Brehm bass |
Michael Gorin fiddle |
Jody Kruskal Anglo concertina, percussion Jody's website |
Bill Peek piano |
Sam Zygmuntowicz fiddle & mandolin Sam's website |
 |
Bennett Hammond is a superb finger-style guitarist and recent convert to the five string banjo. He names "the three Bs", Bach, the blues and Buddy Holly, as major influences. The New England Folk Almanac wrote, "Bennett is a deceptively inventive and intelligent fingerstyle guitarist — deceptive because, however inventive or finger stretching his playing is, it is sublimely melodic." |
 |
Lorraine Hammond “... is the most versatile dulcimer player I know,” observes North Carolina dulcimer wizard Don Pedi. Lorraine’s numerous credits as a traditional singer, songwriter, teacher, and instrumentalist include her groundbreaking Shanachie release with fiddler Gerry Milnes, Hell Up Coal Holler, a Homespun dulcimer instruction series, and two elegant Appalachian dulcimer books with Yellow Moon Press. Lorraine also plays five string banjo, mandolin, and harp. Her newest CD, The Opal Ring, on the Snowy Egret label, combines the traditional New England ballads of her childhood with her own songs drawn from that childhood in the Connecticut Berkshires. She and her husband, guitarist Bennett Hammond, live in Brookline, Massachusetts. They have performed and recorded together for nearly three decades. |
 |
Scott Higgs began dancing in college, and started teaching soon thereafter (when the knowledgeable dancers graduated !). For many years he has traveled widely (25 states and six foreign countries to date) calling for contras and English country dances. Scott's original dances are presented frequently by callers across North America, and have been reprinted in anthologies in the U.S. and the U.K. Dancers characterize Scott’s contras as “high-energy” and “swingy.” His English dance programs span the spectrum from exuberant to elegant. |
 |
Allen Hopkins plays folk music — American traditional, Celtic instrumental, a bit of Yiddish, blues, bluegrass, old timey, and contemporary. With varying degrees of expertise, he handles guitar, banjo, mandolins of all sizes, autoharp, English concertina, harmonica, bass (acoustic and electric), Dobro, Appalachian dulcimer, ukulele, and other odd instruments from tiple to kalimba. He love choruses, sing-arounds, swapping songs, backing up singers, and late-night jams. |
 |
Hubby Jenkins is a NYC based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter known for his authentic and soulful interpretations of traditional American music. He specializes in early blues, old time, ballads, and ragtime. Hubby developed his style and repertoire from busking in NYC subways and many other cities around the US. Hubby has performed at many NYC venues including: The Jalopy Theatre, The Mercury Lounge, and Joe's Pub and is currently on tour with the Grammy award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. As part of Music Maker Relief Foundation Hubby has performed at the Shakori Hills Festival of Music and Dance and The 5th Annual Congressional Blues Festival. He also performed and participated at the 2nd Black Banjo Gathering. |
 |
John Kirk is known for his lyric voice, good sense of humor and versatile instrumental skills. On fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo, keyboard and tin whistle, John demonstrates a vast knowledge of musical traditions. He is on the music faculty at Bennington College in Vermont and Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. He is also a composer, dancer and dance caller. He and his wife, Trish, have their own recordings and John has contributed to over one hundred more. In addition to his work with Trish, he works with the Susquehanna Stringband, the Dawnland Singers and the Vanaver Caravan. For almost ten years John worked with Walt Michael & Co. He can be heard on TV and recording projects with Jay Ungar, Molly Mason and other notable musicians. The Dixie Chicks recorded his song, "Long Roads." |
 |
Chris Koldewey is a teacher of children, a singer of old songs, sailor of old square-rigged wooden ships, and man of Chanteys at Mystic Seaport Museum. Chris primarily performs US and British traditional music, and he is attracted to the stories behind many of the songs he sings. He has played in concerts and festivals in both the US and the UK, and has led workshops dealing with a variety of traditional music forms. Chris can accompany himself on Guitar, Banjo, Fiddle, Concertina, and other things common to an average garage sale. |
 |
Jen Larson is a Brooklyn-based bluegrass and honky-tonk singer, songwriter, and guitarist who presents original material as well as gems culled from the from the early country/bluegrass/Appalachian catalogs. She has performed widely at regional and national festivals and concerts, and has taught workshops and classes on the history of early country and bluegrass music, duets and trio harmony singing. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine wrote, "She calls on a beautiful blue, throaty quality when the song or the mood requires it and, with ease, shifts to an almost fragile lilt, often within a single phrase." |
 |
Trish Miller plays guitar, banjo, dances and sings traditional and original music. She teaches banjo at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, and with her husband, John Kirk and the band, Quickstep. She has been a touring artist, performing throughout North America and internationally. Trish is a dance caller and country dance choreographer. She has a diverse repertoire of circle, square, contra and mixer dances. As a member of the Green Grass Cloggers, from Asheville, N.C., Trish learned ensemble footwork and toured extensively. Her rhythmic stepping style is rooted in the southern mountains with a mix of traditional clogging and more modern percussive steps. |
 |
Emily O'Brien played recorder from a young age. She studied recorder and french horn at Boston University, and recorder and Baroque flute at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany. She performs and teaches in the Boston area, including the Society for Historically Informed Performance concert series, the Boston Recorder Society concert series, and in fringe events surrounding Boston Early Music Festival, as well as Early Music New York and the NEC Baroque Society. She also works for the Von Huene Workshop and the Early Music Shop of New England in Brookline, MA. In her spare time, she enjoys long distance cycling. |
 |
Caroline Paton draws upon a vast repertoire developed over many years of collecting folksongs, with her late husband, Sandy, throughout the English -speaking world, from the Southern Appalachians to the Ozarks, from Scotland and England to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Sandy and Caroline were the founders of Folk Legacy Records. |
 |
Linnea Paton is the granddaughter of Folk Legacy founders Sandy and Caroline Paton and grew up surrounded by traditional folk music. She developed a love for singing at a very young age. True to her parents' and grandparents' legacy, Linnea is a traditionally-oriented singer of traditional and contemporary songs who believes that singing together is a very important and very human way to connect with others. She is working to establish a stronger culture of singing in her generation and in the new waves of political-environmental movements. |
 |
John Roberts is a superb English singer who plays banjo, guitar, concertina, and hurdy-gurdy, as well as being a fine musicologist and music editor. He sings ballads and songs of the sea, of rural pursuits, of social and sociable situations, of industrial toil and strife, and much more. John is also noted for his renditions of Music Hall songs. |
 Photo: Ted Crane |
Jacqueline Schwab creates spirited and meditative arrangements on traditional and vintage tunes from America, England, Scotland and beyond — spinning out stories, in her variations on the themes. In Ken Burns’ words, “Jacqueline Schwab brings more feeling and intensity to music than anyone I know. Her playing is insistent, physical, heartfelt and ... unusually moving.” Playing with “the jazz/classical improvisational spirit of Keith Jarrett and the touch of George Winston ....” (New England Folk Almanac), Schwab has performed on over a dozen of Burns’ documentaries, including his Grammy-winning Civil War and Lewis and Clark, as well as on The Irish in America and other PBS documentaries. She performed at the White House for President Clinton and with Scottish singer Jean Redpath on A Prairie Home Companion and CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman. Jacqueline enjoys playing and calling for English country dancing and teaching pianists and other musicians to improvise with “heart and soul.” |
 |
Ryan & Brennish Thomson are a father and son duo, and have been performing together for over 10 years. They continue a family tradition of music making spanning many generations. They are multi-instrumentalists, playing between them: fiddle, banjo, accordion, piano, jaw harp, mandolin, wooden flute, pennywhistle, guitar, cajun triangle, bones, rub board, and more. Brennish began playing violin at age 2. He and his dad won a twin fiddle award at Lowell National Historical Park in 2010. His teenage band won first place in the youth division at Clifftop String Band Festival in 2014. Ryan was the Northeast US Regional winner of the National Fiddle Contest in 1977, and toured with a full-time Nashville country band. He has been playing for traditional folk dances for over 40 years. He suffered a right side disability a few years back, could no longer bow his violin, and so has retaught himself to play left-handed. |
 |
Bob Walser is a leading interpreter and scholar of music of the sea whose recordings bring fresh repertoire to the world of maritime music. In addition, Bob is a music educator with years of experience in multicultural movement and anglo-american dance traditions. Bob is working on transcribing maritime songs and shanties from The James Madison Carpenter Collection (originally done on cylinders) and manuscripts, making these gems of the sailors’ repertoire available to modern-day singers. |
 |
Elissa Weiss was trained in voice by Claire Alexander, Shirlee Emmons, Alan Seale, and Myron McPherson. She also studied vocal acoustics, vocal anatomy, repertoire, and vocal health at Teachers College. A soprano and harpist, Elissa created the Everybody Can Sing® voice studio and workshops to help people who are afraid to sing. She has run workshops for the 92nd Street Y, Makor, the Rio Caliente Spa in Mexico, groups of Episcopal seminarians, and in various private settings. “[She is] a wonderful, patient, sensitive teacher, who made everyone feel more confident in their abilities,” wrote a workshop participant. |
Co-Directors | |
 |
Joy Bennett has been involved in folk music most of her life. As a member of the quartet Water Sign for 13 years, she explored the close-knit harmonies of both traditional and contemporary folk music. Joy is also a founding member of the all-woman chantey group The Johnson Girls. The "J-Girls" bring a sound and energy to sea and work songs that has brought entire audiences to their feet. They not only have beautiful harmonies, but raw power, allowing audiences a glimpse of the situations in which the chanteys were used. At the same time, the beauty of their ballads is unparalleled. Joy has performed solo, with Water Sign, the Johnson Girls, Chris Koldewey, and with guest artists in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe. |
 |
Heather Wood is a veteran singer from the English revival for some 40+ years, dating from her days with The Young Tradition. She has a great repertoire of ballads, historical songs, love and agricultural songs, and a lot from the humorous side. In addition to the old songs, she has written some dynamite new ones. |
Sound | |
 |
Don Wade has over four decades of experience in sound reinforcement and recording. He has worked at everything from concerts to large festivals and is particularly familiar with Folk, Classical, and Jazz. Don is co-founder of Minstrel Records, which has produced some fine albums. |
rev 3 Dec 2014