I'll be teaching Wednesday 2/11/ and 2/18/09 at Dutchess Commuinity College -Music of the Hudson River Valley from 7-8:30 pm. No musical experience is required, but experienced musicians and singers will have a chance to increase their repertoire with "Home Grown" music from our area. We will study the major local collections of music including area colonial songs from the Allison family, songs of Henry Backus "The Saugerties Bard" from the 1850's and songs of the steamboat captains, and apple growers.
We will also include 20th Century songs by folksong writers such as Les Rice, William Geckle, Ken Gonyea, Rick Nestler and Pete Seeger.
2/20/09 I'll be singing at the Muddycup in Kingston doing pure unabashed "Folk Music" 7:30 pm donation.
Wednesday 3/4/09 and 3/11/09 Dutchess Commuinity College - Vocal Toning 7-9 pm. Toning is very old and basic to many traditional cultures. Much of religious chant involves toning. It consists of non-verbal conscious elongation of sounds, using the breath and voice, similar to sighing, moaning, chanting yawning and humming. It has applications for meditation, healing, musical performance, personal transformation and spiritual journeys
Singing Festival
| Singing Festival Posted by: "sallypotter100@aol.com" sallypotter100@aol.com Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:06 pm (PST) To folks who love to sing: Just a short message to remind singers of the existence of the seventh annual Mid-Winter Singing Festival taking place next weekend, Feb. 6-7, 2009?in East Lansing, Michigan. (www.singingfestival.com) It is?a weeknd where 1000+ people get together to sing. Just to sing. That's it. Song leaders lead. Everyone has the lyrics (no music). The songs are the real?stars of the whole weekend. Personally, I dream of every folk community having an event where everyone can participate. Why not? Over?the past few days, the discussion has centered around folk music (what is it, what are it's roots, etc...). This Festival eliminates the need, and?desire to care about?any of these definitions. All weekend long, we sing great songs...songs?which?are good for eveyone to sing along with: Motown, Tin Pan Alley, The Hit Parade, Old Time, Protest Songs, Top 40...you name the genre and over seven years, we have tapped its best songs. Song leaders are wonderful musicians who can lead songs (not 'perform' these songs - at least not in this setting). On Friday and Saturday nights we hold two huge 500-person Community Sings. On Saturday afternoon we hold 12 singing workshops, each with a different theme, led by the evening?song leaders and additional folks from the community.? Please check out the web site and if you don't already, think about producing such an event in your neck of the woods. ?If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or give me a call (I'm in the book - Lansing, MI). As we say at the Singing Festival, "Without you, there is no sound." Thanks for reading, Sally Potter www.singingfestival.com sallypotter100@aol.com |
Charlie King on Politics and the "Power of Song"
| Charlie King on Politics and the "Power of Song" Posted by: "George Mann" georgeandjulius@att.net georgeandjulius Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:09 pm (PST) The great folksinger and songwriter Charlie King (http://www.charlieking.org) presented these thoughts at a Peoples Music Network gathering last week and I'm reprinting them here.... powerful stuff from a committed singer/activist-- G I'm imagining political music on a spectrum with the Freedom Singers at one end and the Capital Steps at the other. The variable is advocacy: Which Side Are You On? I like political songs that take sides, name names and fight for very specific goals. Every time the Freedom Singers sang they were moving along the cause of freedom and justice. I like songs that build bridges, songs that open people's minds to new possibilities. I like songs that help me look at some reality in a totally new way. Political songs should build community among the people who hear them and the people that sing them. They should strengthen solidarity and bring out the best in every person they touch. We should sing each other's songs. All of us on this panel sing each other's songs. We should sing traditional songs that that tell our history. I used to sing and record mostly my own songs. I was a lot lonelier because of that and my repertoire was a lot leaner. Our union, Local 1000, builds community. Some of the best work I've done as a political performer has been helping to build Local 1000. Utah Phillips tells us that the long memory is our most radical resource. I like songs that remember our history and make us hopeful about the future. Appleseed's recording of songs of the Spanish Civil War does that. Michael Smith and Jamie O'Reilly also did a fine recording of those songs. Karen Brandow and I have been doing scripted performances of songs from the Civil Rights Movement, 1955 to 1967. We do a similar piece on the trial of Sacco & Vanzetti. These historical memories shine a powerful light on the present and offer ideas, strategies and hopes for the future. I like songs that are useful. Some times a quick parody that hits the nail on the head or celebrates the local heroes is better than a well-crafted song that floats above the fray. Concerts aren't the best environment to use music for good political purpose. There are competing demands. I'm supposed to be entertaining, I want people to like me, my ego gets in the way. Here are some settings where I do better work: The Journey of Hope is an annual pilgrimage against the death penalty. Karen and I travel with it for as long as 17 days at a stretch. We become part of the Journey, part of that community. We do lots of different work – drive people around, carry boxes, get petitions signed. Steve Earle does this kind of work too. And every time we sing the music has a purpose: to refresh and encourage the community of travelers; to open up audiences to alternatives to capital punishment; to put a human face on the men and women on death row. School of the America's Watch. I don't know any other movement around today that uses music as thoroughly and effectively as SOAW. Every time they put a speaker they follow it with a song. We hit the mic's 10 or 12 singers at a time. The focus is on the song, not the singer. We're singing to energize 10,000 people who've traveled from all over the country and are standing in blazing sun or pouring rain for 5 hour vigils and demonstrations. When the demonstration is over for the day they send us around to non-violence training centers, special interest caucuses, meetings of people on their way in or out of jail. The music is always connected to the issue at hand. Labor Struggles. The United Farm Workers taught me the politics of music over 30 years ago. Labor struggles change people's lives. For many American's it's the most powerful they will ever feel, the most democratic exercise they will ever do. Even when they lose, as they did in the Hormel strike at Austin MN in the mid-80s, their lives open up and change and they look back with few regrets. It's easy for a singer to become part of a labor struggle. The issues are clear, the targets are big, the heroes are your friends and neighbors. People are so used to having their lives trivialized by our culture, so when you sing a song that celebrates their lives, that takes them seriously it's an amazing event. It's good work and it's thrilling. I like to sing in hospice settings, especially one on one. I sit at someone's bedside, chat, figure out their age, try to sing a song that was popular when they were in high school, try to sing a song that looks at death, loss, leaving – honest and compassionate songs. The most amazing and powerful things have happened when I sung in hospice. I've never felt more useful as a singer. I think that's very political. -- George Mann and Julius Margolin http://www.georgeandjulius.com http://www.georgemannmusic.com http://www.aunionman.com Labor and protest music in the finest tradition |
Seeger and Obama
From http://dacurmudge.livejournal.com/
04:36 pm - "Music sends a message to America" (article from LA Times) reporting on the 1/18 Inaugural Concert
This past weekend I spent some time reading different reviews of the 1/18 Inaugural Concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Now I hadn't planned to spend so much time reading, but the more I read the more uncomfortable I became. Across the country it seemed as if America's problems and possible solutions were seemingly being ignored by so many journalists.
A major opportunity was missed when these writers chose instead, to focus on the entertainment ("feel good") value and superifically pay homage to the celebrities present.. What seemed truly ironic was that the one voice- that of Pete Seeger was present but for the most part ignored. The one man who has been saying for so many years if only "we the people" could work together we could resolve our issues.
One newspaper (from a large West Coast city) ran a picture of Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. To assist the reader who might not know which was whom, when you moused over the performer his name popped up. So, not too surprisingly, mousing over Bruce Springsteen resulted in his name popping up. However, when you moused over Pete Seeger he was also identified as Bruce Springsteen. Moving along, another (this time a major East Coast city) newspaper forgot to mention Pete Seeger at all.
The majority of the press articles read this weekend made it sound almost as if Seeger and Springsteen were an up and coming folk rock group. The Presidential Inaugural Committee listed a number of performers for the event but in all fairness to the committee they did acknowledge it was not a complete list (and did not include Pete Seeger). CNN led off their coverage with a description of the roaring crowd and ...high energy acts such as U2, Mary J. Blige, Usher and Beyonce.
All but missing was any awareness that Pete Seeger has been singing to presidents about issues of economy, healthcare, peace, taking care of our military for more than 68 years. March, 1941 he was invited to perform for Eleanor Roosevelt at the White house honoring US military serving in WWII.
It was bittersweet to read repeatedly of Pete Seeger being asked to join (as in back up) Bruce Springsteen on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the the singing of "This Land is Your Land." originally written by Woody Guthrie and performed initially by the "Almanac Singers" in 1940, a folk quartet later black balled by the U.S. Senate. Today only one person from this infamous quartet remains alive- Pete Seeger.
The redeeming aspect of the concert was provided by(then still) President-Elect Obama when he joined Pete to share an intimate exchange between two great men from different generations both of whom have worked so hard on behalf of all of us. With Pete's grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger present, one could not miss the significance of history being made- Obama and Seeger talking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Martin Luther King, Jr day being celebrate the next day. Among his many accomplishments Pete Seeger also Marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.
So what can we do today? One suggestion- go to: http://www.nobelprize4pete.org/resources.html click the link on the left that says "sign the petition" and become one of only 23,000 people so far to sign the petition requesting that Pete Seeger be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. If Pete Seeger doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize then who does? If not awarded to Pete Seeger perhaps the Nobel Peace Prize should be retired as no longer relevant in a greed driven corporate America.
Bob Lusk on Imprint
My version of "Mary's Wedding", "Kathy's wedding" is on this weeks' edition of the radio show Imprint. Imprint can be heard daily on Catskill Community radio www.catskillradio.org and Saturdays at 5pm on WUOW 104.7FM Oneonta Community radio www.wuow.org.
NYC event 3/28/09
| North American Urban Folk Music 1940-1960 A Celebration and Tribute Saturday • March 28, 2009 1:00-10:00 PM To be held at Elisabeth Irwin High School 40 Charlton Street Between Varick Street & Sixth Avenue New York, NY 10014 Sponsored by the New York Pinewoods Folk Music Club (Folk Music Society of New York, Inc.) Come celebrate the North American urban folk music community of the 1940s and 1950s, and pay tribute to the people who were part of it. Schedule of events 1:00 - 1:55 PM: The Urban Folk Music Community: an Overview 2:00 - 2:55 PM: Women of the Folk Community 3:00 - 3:55 PM: Families of the Folk Musicians 4:00 - 6:00 PM: Song and Story Circle 6:00 - 7:30 PM: Dinner break 7:30 - 10:00 PM: Evening concert Participants (partial list) Prof. Ray Allen Oscar Brand Anna Guthrie Canoni Rochelle Goldstein Dottie Miller Gutenkauf Richard Hawthorne Lori Holland Matt Jones George Pickow Jon Pickow Jean Ritchie Tony Saletan Roger Sprung Dr. Anna Lomax Wood Hal Wylie plus others TBA All event general admission: $40. NY Pinewoods members and LREI (Little Red School House - Elisabeth Irwin HS) faculty, staff, parents, and alumni: $30. Children and F/T students under 23: $20. Afternoon only or evening concert only general admission: $25. NY Pinewoods/LREI: $20. Children and F/T students under 23: $ 15. For more information please visit the website http://www.folkmusicny.org or call 718-672-6399. |
Pete Seeger-Bruce Springstein "This Land"
It brought chills to my spine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KnYADCSms
Inaugeration Springsteen/Seeger
Supposedly Bruce Springstein and Pete Seeger will be singing This Land is Your Land together on the HBO inauguration show, Sunday 7-9 pm
Canadian Morris Dancing
For those of you who don't understand why I would find this so amusing, I used to dance with the Pokingbrook Morris Team about 30 years ago. Pokingbrook stood for Poughkeepsie, Kignston and Millbrook and they are still dancing near Albany.
| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK--MQh2Lxk |
Rick Nestler at Kiersted House 1/18/09
Heritage Folk Music Launches Sea Shanty Program
Whether you are an avid sailor or landlubber, an interest in local history and folk music is all one needs to appreciate an afternoon of historic sea songs and shanties set to launch at the Keirsted House in Saugerties on January 18 at 3pm. Rick Nestler, regionally known as the "Hudson River Balladeer", will perform songs and tales that have been collected and preserved from the 19th century through the days of steam ships in the first half of the 20th century.
"It's amazing how sailors created work songs by synchronizing the power of their muscles and voices to repetitive movements to complete the most tedious aspects of nautical life," says Bob Lusk, concert organizer. "Sailors also sang a type of shanty for relaxation called "forecastle songs" to alleviate the boredom of long voyages, so there was a significant social element to these songs as well."
A Coast Guard licensed Master, actor, singer and songwriter, Nestler learned the art of shantymen while working aboard vessels including the sloop Clearwater and the schooner Voyager. With five albums to his credit, he is best known for the Clearwater's anthem, "The River That Flows Both Ways", which was recorded by Pete Seeger.
Nester's collection of sea chanties is the first concert of the 2009 Hudson River Quadracentennial Celebration organized by the Heritage Folk Music, Inc., a not-for-profit group that highlights regional and historic folk music, folklore and oral history of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River Valley. Admission is $8.00. For more information, please contact Bob Lusk at (845) 594-4412. heritagefolkmusic@gmail.com
(This concert is made possible in part by a grant from the New York State Quadracentennial Commission.)
(This concert is made possible in part by a grant from the New York State Quadracentennial Commission.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
