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June 2021
Bones & Spoons with Bourque Émissaires
Bourque Émissaires are Benoit Bourqua and Antoine Pigeon-Bourque. Benoit is a versatile artist overflowing with energy and a contagious joie de vivre, who has been winning the public over more than 30 years. Charismatic, exuberant, warm, funny, limber, the band’s sparkplug are a few words to describe him. Antoine started playing piano at the age of 11 and accordion at the age of 16. He has degrees from Université de Montréal, where he studied the classical repertoire for piano-accordion, and from Collège Saint-Laurent, in Montreal, where he studied tuba and accordion.
Mandinka Musical Culture with the Great Gambian Griots
Documentary style video on traditional Mandinka music and the cultural world of Mandinka traditional oral historian-musicians known as “griots.” Including: Kora duets, wooden-keyed xylophone and 3-string bass kora, women’s bell, drumming discussion and demonstration, dancing, kora teaching, and traditional story-telling.
Forty-eight years ago, Alhaji Bai Konte brought the music of the kora (Mandinka harp) from Gambia to the U.S. This year, his grandsons (the word is used a little more loosely than usual) Great Gambian Griots, continue to carry on that tradition. Jali Bakary Konteh is an imaginative improviser who can support the tradition or blend traditional and modern instruments. Pa Bobo Jobarteh is a human rights activist whose songs were instrumental in the rarest of events in modern politics: a bloodless, democratic overthrow of a dictator. Fled for his life, returned a folk hero! africanculturalencounters.com
Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen
Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen bring together their love of traditional music and their wealth of original songs. Steve is considered one of the finest singer-songwriters around, with a warm baritone voice. He is also an accomplished fingerstyle guitarist (using a flat-pick and two fingers), Cindy also writes some original songs, but she is probably better known as a singer, mostly of traditional songs, with a wonderful ear for harmony, as well as a musician (guitar, banjo, concertina, mountain dulcimer).
Matthew Byrne
With parents who were both singers and song collectors and a strong family focus on sharing songs, Matthew Byrne has inherited a unique repertoire as well as a fascination with unearthing and reimagining traditional songs. But Byrne is also a student of history whose love of traditional music goes well beyond the words and music. For him, songs are ways of understanding people before him—their lives, work, language, and worldview.
English Country Dance with Frost and Fire Trio & Val Medve
Vermont-based Frost and Fire Trio features a blend of new and traditional Celtic music that will keep you tapping your toes all year long. You’ll hear music for contra dances and waltzes, songs by Robert Burns or Stephen Foster, and a host of original tunes. The music ranges from stately and elegant to wild and energetic, always with a variety of texture and instrumentation that shapes a musical experience you won’t want to miss.
What a way to go! Deadly Songs with Jeff Davis
Some deaths in folk songs. Tally up the body count.
One of America’s most respected collectors and interpreters of traditional music, Jeff Davis has traveled far to visit “source singers”–farmers and miners who remembered the old songs and tunes — and closer at hand to libraries and archives, always looking for the best of the music that was once common in our towns and villages. Jeff plays fiddle, banjo, mandocello, guitar, spoons, jaw’s harps and a few instruments hand-made by folk craftsmen. His repertoire includes New England ballads sea songs, African-American banjo tunes, cowboy ditties, rare Yankee fiddle tunes and more. jeffdavismusician.com
Ustad Shafaat Khan
World-renowned Indian classical musician Ustad Shafaat Khan has enthralled audiences around the world with his unique concert presentations. The first artist known to attain excellence on the sitar, the surbahar, and the tabla, Mr. Khan’s performances include Indian classical and folk music on sitar, tabla, and vocal; Sufi-inspired compositions; and a multi-cultural fusion of genres ranging from western classical, jazz, and rock to pop, flamenco, and African rhythms.
Sam Gleaves & Deborah Payne
Singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Sam Gleaves is rooted in Appalachian sounds, while his original songs tell stories about love, the home place, working people, and current social issues in the mountains. His performances combine traditional Appalachian ballads, dance tunes, original songs, and the stories that surround the music. He’ll perform with Deborah Payne.
Songs of the Adirondacks with Jamcrackers
Dan Berggren, Peggy Lynn, and Dan Duggan have combined talents to create Jamcrackers, named in honor of the river drivers who broke up log jams. Those drivers worked hard to find solutions, to get things rolling again, and they couldn’t do the job alone. These three feel the same way about their music. With guitars and dulcimer (and other instruments), the trio showcases unique arrangements and striking harmonies as they present a diverse blend of folk and blues, ballads, gospel, and dance tunes
Appalachian Flatfooting with Rodney Sutton
Rodney Clay Sutton is performs and teaches of Appalachian step dance, both flatfoot and clogging. He calls square and contra dances, tells stories, and sings ballads. Rodney offers workshops, lectures, and demonstrations for a range of age groups or for occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, or even corporate gatherings.He is also a concert and festival producer, emcee, and stage manager. More recently, he’s been studying Sean Nós dance—the Irish step-dance equivalent to flat-footing. rodneyclaysutton.com