TradMaD 2024, Saturday August 24 — Friday August 30, 2024, at Pinewoods Camp, Plymouth MA |
2024 Staff ListCheck out the staff websites below to see whether they are streaming any concerts, or to get their CDs, etc. Support live music.
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Scott Ainslie Armand Aromin Flannery Brown Colleen Cleveland Amy Conley Alex Cumming Andy Davis Dan Duggan |
Craig Edwards Benedict Gagliardi Lisa Gutkin Reggie Harris Anne Hills David Jones Chris Koldewey Peggy Lynn |
John Roberts Sally Rogers Cedar Stanistreet The Vox Hunters Surprise guests . . . . . . and our talented campers |
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| Our staff members are not only great performers, they are also excellent teachers, whether it be instruments, styles, or the music of a particular area, collector, or era, etc. | |||
| Directors: Joy Bennett and Heather Wood. Sound: Don Wade, Collegium Sound | |||
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Scott Ainslie has been a musician all his life. He came of age during the Civil Rights era, and cultivated a powerful affinity for cross-cultural exchange. He has studied with elder musicians on both sides of the color line — in the Old-Time Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, as well as Black Gospel and Blues. He plays this music with affection, authority, and power. Armed with a variety of instruments — vintage guitars, a fretless gourd banjo, a one-string, homemade diddley bow (aka cigar box guitar) and carefully chosen historical personal anecdotes of his encounters with senior musicians across the South — Ainslie brings the history, roots music, and sounds of America to life. |
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Armand Aromin is a violin maker and musician based in Providence, Rhode Island. He has studied at Berklee College of Music and the University of Limerick, and is a graduate of the North Bennet Street School in Boston, MA where he earned his diploma in Violin Making & Repair. Picking up the fiddle and tin whistle in his mid-teens, Armand learned much of his music from renowned Irish musicians and tunesmiths Jimmy Devine and Patrick Hutchinson, both of whom helped to foster an interest in the lyrical and colorful styles of older musicians such as Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, Bobby Casey, Johnny Doherty, and Tommy Reck. In addition to being the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil Champion for Senior Fiddle, Armand was also a finalist at the Séan Ó Riada Gold Medal Fiddle Competition held in Cork, Ireland in 2011. Since 2010, he has taught fiddle and tin whistle for the Reynolds-Hanafin-Cooley branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann in Boston. Much to Ben's delight and dismay, Armand is working on incorporating English concertina into his repertoire of instruments. Armand joins Benedict Gagliardi as The Vox Hunters. |
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Flannery Brown is a folk cellist, singer, and tune-writer with a passion for the dark and dismal side of traditional music. Raised in the stompy, stinky, and shouty folk scene of Providence, RI, she takes a rock-and-roll approach to folk music, and specializes in funky fiddle tunes with rhythm and groove accompaniments. Flannery studied ethnomusicology at Bard College and is influenced by a plethora of musical styles including old-time, blues, English, Scottish, Breton, and Balkan folk traditions. Flannery is a frequent performer with Benedict Gagliardi and Armand Aromin of The Vox Hunters. |
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Colleen Cleveland is a fifth generation ballad singer of songs & ballads living near Lake George in the Adirondack mountains of New York. She grew up in an extended household listening to her grandmother Sara Cleveland sing music that she had learned from her family in the early 1900’s. Scots and Irish ballads carried over by her mother’s family from Northern Ireland in 1840 mixed with cowboy songs, Civil War and World War I songs, local history songs and humorous ditties learned from friends, neighbors, uncles & brothers. Colleen tagged along with her grandmother to folk festivals and events from a very young age and began to assimilate the songs and unaccompanied singing style in a very natural way. After her grandmother’s death she was convinced to carry on the family repertoire along with her father, Jim Cleveland. He passed away in 1999 and Colleen has continued to carry on the family singing tradition. |
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Amy Conley is a multi-instrumentalist (ukulele, guitar, banjo, harmonica, mandolin, piano) who has been performing & teaching music for all ages since 1986. She has recorded three CD’s for families and is an active member of The Children’s Music Network. Once an active member of FSSGB, Amy now creates community music programs in southern NH such as the Second Friday Song Circle, music jams, concerts and Ukulele Playshops for adults. Her classes emphasize singing and playing for fun. Amy has taught ukulele at all TradMaDs to date and her classes have performed brilliantly in the Camper Concerts. |
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Alex Cumming is a traditional singer, accordionist, pianist, and dance caller hailing from Somerset, England, now living in Brattleboro, Vermont. He performs songs and tunes from around the United Kingdom and America with a great depth of knowledge of the tradition. Alex has made his mark on the folk scene with his rhythmic, danceable accordion style, strong voice, and his fun and engaging stage presence. After over a decade of performing with bands such as The Teacups and Bellwether, Alex is finally recording his debut solo album along with Max Newman & Audrey Knuth. Look out for news of release in Fall 2023. Alex is Artistic Director of Revels North, and bookings manager for Live to Your Living Room. |
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Andy Davis is known nationally as one of the finest piano accompanists for contra dance music and is an outstanding performer on piano accordion and banjo. He taught music in several schools in Brattleboro, where he makes his home, and runs the successful operation of New England Dancing Masters, with recordings and publications that make New England dance forms available for use in schools. Andy is a leader of popular community dances. He was a longtime member of Nowell Sing We Clear. |
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Dan Duggan is rapidly being acknowledged as one of the finest dulcimer players and composers in the country. As recipient of the prestigious National Hammered Dulcimer Championship, Dan's accomplishment, though based on technical merit, is even more considerable as he is the first winner to have performed all original compositions. Although pioneering innovative compositional work for the dulcimer, Dan's renditions of traditional Irish and American tunes reflect his study and understanding of their original context. Whether re-creating 18th century harp pieces or vibrant 19th century dance tunes, Dan has engaged audiences nationwide in an excursion of musical styles and moods. He often works with his wife, Peggy Lynn. |
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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. |
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Benedict Gagliardi is a Providence-based singer and musician whose style has been shaped by the eclectic musical of New England. He is a versatile and inventive Anglo concertina player who wields the instrument equally well for song accompaniment as well as tunes. Likewise, Benedict is an avid researcher of old songs (especially those related to Rhode Island, insects, and various other themes), an advocate of oral tradition, and an organizer of local social singing. In real life, he works full time at The Nature Lab at Rhode Island School of Design. Benedict joins Armand Aromin as The Vox Hunters. |
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Lisa Gutkin is a Grammy Award winning violinist, singer, actor, and composer. She is best known as a member of the acclaimed Klezmatics, and most recently for her musical score, performance, and music direction in the two-time Tony award-winner, Indecent. Lisa might swing seamlessly from Klezmer to the blues, or between traditional Irish and Appalachian sounds. She might even put the violin down altogether, pick up a tenor guitar, and sing one of her own universally resonant songs. Wherever she goes, Lisa has an uncanny way of taking the audience with her. |
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Reggie Harris is a singer-songwriter, storyteller and world-renowned song-leader who is a powerful interpreter of the global music narrative. A passionate, engaging inspirational entertainer and concert artist, Reggie is recognized for focusing new energy on the important role of music in the discourse for inclusion and the struggle for human rights using the lessons of history as a base. As an expert on the music of the Underground Railroad and the Modern Civil Rights Movement he is at home on stage as performer, lecturer, or leading discussion in seminars or in the classroom. |
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Anne Hills is a singer, actress, writer, and musician. During her career, she has received numerous honors and awards She was the recipient of the WFMA 2002 Kate Wolf Memorial Award, and The Kerrville Music Foundation’s Outstanding Female Vocalist of the Year Award (1997). Her duet children’s recording, Never Grow Up, released in 1998 with Cindy Mangsen on Flying Fish Records, was chosen for the coveted Parents’ Choice Award. Her poetic work won her Second Place in the Atlanta Review’s 1999 International Poetry Contest and her work as lyricist with jazz-artist Peter Erskine was featured in a performance by choirs from around the world at a Hilliard Ensemble workshop in Germany. |
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David Jones is originally from England and now living in Leonia, New Jersey (gateway to the golden west). He has a large repertoire of folksong from both sides of the Atlantic. He has performed in North America, Britain, Australia and Europe, singing at festivals, concert halls, clubs, maritime museums and colleges, presenting songs from the great days of sail, Music Hall favorites, traditional ballads, and the works of contemporary writers. He sings both a capella and with guitar accompaniment and involves his audience in refrains and choruses ranging from boisterous to sentimental. As well as performing solo, David has sung with Heather Wood and the late Tom Gibney as Poor Old Horse, with Jeff Warner, Jeff Davis, and Jerry Epstein as The Bermuda Quadrangle, with Peter Marston and Charles O'Hegarty as The Starboard List, and was a member of the Clearwater singing crew. He has also sung and recorded with Dan Zanes and Friends and his work with the guitarist Bill Shute led to the award winning Widdecombe Fair CD. |
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Chris Koldewey was born into a family with a rich maritime history. His lullabies as a child were songs of the sea. Raised by the water on the north shore of Long Island, he was influenced by the wonderful enclave of performers of traditional folk music. Chris performs a wide range of traditional and contemporary folk music with a focus on the songs of the sea, from lively and boisterous to heartwarming and emotive. accompanying them on a variety of acoustic instruments or singing them a capella. Chris worked at Mystic Seaport with the Chantey and Interpretation Departments for 20 years, giving him a wide range of practical and insightful perspectives into the songs of the 19th century. He crewed the last wooden whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan on part of her historic voyage in 2014. Chris' 32-year career in teaching public school music gives him a natural and experienced approach in presenting folk music to children as well as "non-children." He engages his listeners and encourages audiences to sing along. |
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Peggy Lynn is a singer, songwriter, writer, and educator, who brings an infectious enthusiasm to all her endeavors. Peggy ranges from folksy to blues with equal ease, alone or harmonizing with others. With a sultry yet powerful alto voice, Peggy gives a clear message of the passion underlying her songs. While her style and range give meaning and emotion to all her work, her most powerful message is for the contributions and burdens of women. Peggy believes there needs to be a female role added to the record of Adirondack history. She co-authored Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women in the Adirondacks with Sandra Weber. Peggy often performs with her husband, Dan Duggan. |
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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. |
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Sally Rogers is a gifted performer and musician, but she is also a passionate educator, always trying to find the best window into learning. Sally will be teaching mountain dukcimer at camp. She is committed to using her skills as an educator, artist, and musician to help ALL learners reach their highest potential as human beings. Then sing about it! . |
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Cedar Stanistreet grew up playing both classical violin and traditional fiddle music, and studied violin performance at the Crane School of Music. For the past ten years he has played for contra dances across North America with bands including Nor’easter, Cardinal Direction, Maivish, and Cloud Ten. His spirited, rhythmic playing and clear tone keep dancers on their feet. In between gigs, Cedar can be found at home in Brattleboro, VT, growing vegetables, baking bread, and birdwatching. He also repairs violins, violas, and cellos. |
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The Vox Hunters is (or are?) Armand Aromin and Benedict Gagliardi, who are musically bound by a shared love of traditional folk music. Though originally united through Irish instrumental music, they share an enthusiastic affinity for an ever-growing amalgam of songs both inside and far outside the realm of ‘folk music’. With a pair of oft-harmonizing voices accompanied by fiddle, free reeds, and tenor guitar, The Vox Hunters present an exciting and eclectic repertoire of traditional folk songs, driving dance tunes, sean nos dancing and other musical varia. The Vox Hunters' philosophy is that the search for good songs is endless and satisfyingly so. They don't aim to fuse genres, push boundaries, or redefine 'folk music' — they simply sing songs they like to sing in exactly the way they like to sing them. Their influences and inspirations are voices in the English, American, and Irish folk music realms, but they allow their ears a long musical leash. |
Directors | |
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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. She has performed solo, with Water Sign, the Johnson Girls, Chris Koldewey, and with guest artists in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe. Joy is the Executive Director of Old Songs, an organization that presents the annual Old Songs Festival - Music with Roots, a year-long concert series, community dances, and instrument classes. |
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Heather Wood is a veteran singer from the English revival for some 50+ 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. Over the years, Heather has also acted as agent for other artists, run folk clubs, organized weekends and other events, and written about folk music for an assortment of publications. She is treasurer and program chair of The Folk Music Society of New York. |
Sound |
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Don Wade, Collegium Sound 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 2/11/24