Steeped in traditional music from both sides of the color line, Scott Ainslie is a renowned acoustic blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, with expertise in Piedmont and Delta Blues as well as Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions. Armed with a variety of instruments—vintage guitars; a fretless gourd banjo; a one-string diddley bow (aka cigar […]
Andy Cohen is a blues musician who plays, for the most part, Southeastern music that used to be found on 78’s, including blues, gospel, country dance music, fiddle tunes, monologues, ballads, classic rags, ditties, country songs, and boogies. As well as a virtuoso finger-style guitarist, he is also an enthusiastic proponent of the dolceola, a […]
Windborne is a group of vocal chameleons who specialize in close harmony singing, shifting effortlessly between drastically different styles of traditional music within the same concert. Their musical knowledge spans many continents and cultures, but they remain deeply rooted in American folk-singing traditions. Lynn Mahoney Rowan, Will Thomas Rowan, Lauren Breunig, and Jeremy Carter-Gordon share […]
Emma O’Sullivan hails from Connemara, Co. Galway, in the West of Ireland. An All-Ireland Champion, she has toured the globe with many of the top names in traditional Irish music. She is an experienced workshop facilitator and has spent over ten years sharing this beautiful tradition, both as a performer and through her Sean Nós […]
John Kirk & Trish Miller present fiery fiddle tunes, folksongs, and fancy footwork to audiences of all ages. John’s lyric voice, good sense of humor, and versatile instrumental skills — fiddle, mandolin, and several other instruments—have earned him widespread recognition in folk and traditional music circles. Trish is best known for her clogging, guitar, and banjo. […]
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 […]
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) […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Some deaths in folk songs. Tally up the body count. Jeff Davis 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 […]
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 […]