Saturday 27 August – Friday 2 September 2016, at Pinewoods Camp, Plymouth MAStaff List |
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Scott Ainslie Margaret Bennett Bourque Émissaires (Benoit & Antoine Pigeon-Bourque) Howie Bursen Allan Carr Eliza Carthy Martin Carthy Amy Conley Coracree (Allan Carr, Sarah Gowan, Bill Quern, Jane Rothfield) Gina Forsyth Sarah Gowan |
Geoff Kaufman Brigitte Kloareg Katell Kloareg Chris Koldewey John Krumm Yuna Léon Brenna MacCrimmon Mara (Brigitte & Katell Kloareg, Yuna Léon) Northern Aire (Pat O'Loughlin, Tim Reese, Bob Walser) |
Pat O'Loughlin Bill Quern Tim Reese John Roberts Sally Rogers Jane Rothfield Sparky & Rhonda Rucker Dick Swain Bob Walser George Ward Elissa Weiss Bill Westcott . . . and our talented campers |
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| Co-Directors: Joy Bennett and Heather Wood. Sound: Don Wade | |||
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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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Margaret Bennett is a folklorist, writer, singer and broadcaster. She was brought up in a family of tradition bearers, Gaelic on her mother’s side (from Skye) and Lowland Scots on her father’s. She and her three sisters lived their childhood in the Isle of Skye, "in a household where singing, playing music, dancing and storytelling were a way of life as were traditional crafts." Margaret is a fine ballad singer and is widely regarded as "Scotland’s foremost folklorist." |
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Bourque Émissaires is Benoit Bourque and his son Antoine Pigeon-Bourque. The name of the duo is a pun on the name — it sounds almost identical to “bouc émissaire” in French, meaning “scapegoat.” Benoit is a musician, dancer, singer and caller, who has been a member of several bands with whom he toured extensively in North America and in Europe. Antoine was steeped in traditional music since birth. The father-son duo has a vast repertoire of traditional music from Quebec, not to mention jigs and songs. |
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Howie Bursen is best known for his gravity-defying, triplet-filled, fiddle-tune variations and is certainly one of today’s foremost practitioners of clawhammer banjo style. He is also an excellent singer, song-writer and guitarist, and frequently performs with Sally Rogers. Note: Since Howie is manager and winemaker for the Sharpe Hill Vineyard in Connecticut, his appearance will depend on the state of the grape harvest. But it's looking hopeful. |
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Allan Carr is one of Scotland's finest traditional singers, whose unique repertoire of songs, ballads and stories reflects the culturally rich region of his native North East of Scotland. Born and raised in Aberdeen, Allan grew up in a musical family of singers, fiddlers, pipers, and accordion players. Allan's "resonant vocals have a depth found only in the rarest of singers" (Boston Globe) and he sings in an easy relaxed style with fine accompaniment on guitar and mandocello. In addition to his recordings with Jane Rothfield and Coracree, Allan recently recorded a CD featuring songs from the North East of Scotland. |
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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. (Eliza will be joining us from Tuesday onwards.) |
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Martin Carthy is one of folk music's greatest innovators, one of its best loved, most enthusiastic and, at times, most quietly controversial of figures. His skill, stage presence and natural charm have won him many admirers, not only from within the folk scene, but also far beyond it. Trailblazing musical partnerships with, amongst others, Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick and his award-winning wife (Norma Waterson) and daughter Eliza Carthy have resulted in more than 40 albums. "Arguably the greatest English folk song performer, writer, collector and editor of them all" — Q Magazine |
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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. Amy taught Beginning Ukulele at TradMaD 2015 and her class performed brilliantly in the Camper Concert. |
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Coracree is Allan Carr (double bass), Sarah Gowan (guitar, concertina, feet), Bill Quern (banjo, melodeon, mandolin)i, and Jane Rothfield (fiddle, banjo). Coracree is a contemporary contra dance band that melds a mixture of traditional Celtic, Old Time, European, and original music with a playful, improvisational style. |
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Gina Forsyth is known for her wizardry on fiddle and guitar. She is considered one of the best Cajun fiddlers in Louisiana. Born in Florida and raised in Alabama, Gina grew up on hymns, country songs, and old time fiddle tunes. She now lives in New Orleans. As well as performing traditional Cajun songs, Gina writes original songs that sound centuries old. |
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Sarah Gowan plays guitar and English concertina with Coracree, Rumpus, the Big Phat American K-Lee Band, Boxwood, Live Wire and the French dance music group Cabriole. Sarah performs with FiddleKicks Cloggers and can be seen on MindTV's "World of Dance" featuring Fiddlekicks. She teaches clogging, and traditional couple dancing and has a solid background in vintage dance from performing with the Philadelphia-based Vintage dance group, Mixed Pickles. She has performed all over North America and in England. Sarah and her partner Bill Quern are tune composers and recently released a tune book of 70 of their original tunes called Dancing Between the Notes. They were happy to provide genre assistance to the recent publication Rise Again by Peter Blood and Annie Patterson. Sarah also compiled and edited Tuneadelphia a tunebook for the Philadelphia community band SPUDS, as well as developing and maintaining the SPUDS online tune repository, which is used by dance musicians all over the world. |
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Geoff Kaufman sings songs of the sea, songs of the earth, songs of the heart and the spirit. Ancient ballads, work songs, and songs of love; poignant songs of people in struggle, humorous glimpses of human foibles, and insights into history — all of these are likely to be woven into Geoff's work. Above all, at the core of Geoff's performance is his rich tenor voice and an exuberant love of singing. And part of that love is to entice audiences to sing along, to share in the exhilaration of full-throated vocalization if they wish. In this age of electronic overload and passive media pabulum, Geoff likes to stress the "live" in live performance, promoting participation, be it by voice or heart or mind. Geoff is heavily involved in the Mystic Sea Music Festival, usually held on the second weekend of June, and in the Mystic Chantey Blast, to be held on 14 January 2017. |
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Brigitte Kloareg is a traditional singer from Brittany. She is active on the music scene as a performer, as well as teaching in music schools and the University of Western Brittany. She is strongly involved in promoting the oral heritage of the south-west of Brittany and performs in Breton, French, Welsh, and English. She spent time in Wales on a British Council grant, learned Welsh (which is closely related to Breton), and carried on learning Breton through the medium of Welsh. Brigitte also picked up songs in Ireland, with frequent incursions into Scotland and occasionally England. |
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Katell Kloareg and her mother, Brigitte, have sung together for 20 years around the Celtic countries. They share a large repertoire of Breton, French, English, Welsh, and Irish music. |
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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. |
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John Krumm is a musician, performer, composer and teacher. He plays guitar, piano, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bass, recorder, and others. He also sings, composes and leads rounds. John will be one of our dance callers. |
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Yuna Léon plays fiddle tunes from both Breton and Irish traditions. She met Katell Kloareg at university, and now plays with Katell and her mother, Brigitte as Mara. Brigitte and Yuna met in 2014 for a performance of sea songs from and around Concarneau, which is a well-known harbor on the south coast of Brittany, as well as Brigitte’s hometown and Katell’s place of birth. |
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Brenna MacCrimmon was always intrigued by scratchy 78s and strange ghostly sounds. She first heard Turkish and Balkan folk music in the vinyl collection of her local public library in the early 1980s, and spent many years in Turkey studying at the source. She also sings early blues with Bill Westcott. |
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Mara (Brigitte Kloareg, Katell Kloareg, and Yuna Léon) are from Brittany. They were at the Mystic Sea Music Festival in 2015. They share a large repertoire of Breton, French, English, Welsh, and Irish music, as well as the Breton dances that are accompanied by vocal music. Yuna Léon on fiddle plays tunes from both Breton and Irish traditions. |
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Northern Aire is Bob Walser, Tim Reese, and Pat O'Loughlin, who join forces for a fresh take on music for square and contra dances. Tim’s fiery fiddle and Pat’s driving banjo and concertina take tunes ancient and modern to new territory while Bob takes the rhythm and harmony on guitar and piano – and a bit of squeezebox for extra flavor! |
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Pat O'Loughlin has been playing his banjo and concertina for more than 35 years for the Contra, English, and Scottish dancers of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Pat has played and toured with Contratopia, a Minnesota/Iowa Contra band that relies heavily on original music. When not playing, Pat has been crafting a variety of folk instruments in his workshop, including folk harps, dulcimers and banjos. Pat is known for the lack of a decent photo of himself while playing, because he's too busy in his role as photographer. |
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Bill Quern is a dance musician, tune-smith, and dancer. His father filled the house with instruments for his ten offspring to explore, so Bill developed into a multi-instrumentalist. Fiddle, banjo, melodeon, mandolin, and harmonica became his selection as an adult. He has a degree in Fine Arts from MA College of Art where he studied performance, sculpture, and instrument making. He plays for Contra and Square dances, English Country dances, French dances, teaches Morris dancing, and Scandinavian dancing; and plays for Philadelphia's clogging group "Fiddlekicks". He is the foreman of the Kingsessing Morris Men (eight time winners in the Philadelphia Mummer's Parade). He's been teaching, performing, and competing for over 20 years. Bill has performed in Canada, England, Holland, Germany, Hungary, and China, at many festivals and dances, and on the radio across the country. |
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Tim Reese has been playing fiddle for dancers since 1995 and enjoys mixing a wide range of styles for Contra dances. He has played and toured with Pig’s Eye Landing for nearly twenty years and enjoyed a short stint accompanying the Wild Goose Cloggers on tours to Sweden, Poland and Ukraine. He is also known to play the occasional hambo or schottis on the Swedish Nykleharpa. Most of his musical time currently, however, is spent playing with his 9 year old daughter and 13 year old son where the Suzuki violin repertoire from his childhood comes in handy. |
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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. 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! Sally often performs with Howie Bursen. |
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Jane Rothfield is an internationally known fiddler, clawhammer banjo player, tune composer, dance musician, band leader who has been playing music since “forever.” She began playing professionally over 30 years ago, and has made eight recordings featuring her lively, spirited and soulful playing. Whether it be traditional Old Time Stringband and fiddle music, or traditional Scottish songs and tunes, music for Contra Dances or tight harmony singing, Jane plays from her her heart and musical soul with great technique and expression. |
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Sparky & Rhonda Rucker have performed throughout the U.S. and overseas, singing songs and telling stories from the American folk tradition. Sparky Rucker has been performing over forty years and is internationally recognized as a leading folklorist, musician, historian, storyteller, and author. He accompanies himself with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, banjo, and spoons. Rhonda Rucker is a musician, children's author, storyteller, and songwriter. Her blues-style harmonica, piano, old-time banjo, and bones add musical versatility to their performances. Sparky and Rhonda deliver toe-tapping music spiced with humor, history, and tall tales. They take their audience on an educational and emotional journey that ranges from poignant stories of slavery and war to an amusing rendition of a Brer Rabbit tale or their witty commentaries on current events. Their music includes a variety of old-time blues, slave songs, Appalachian music, spirituals, ballads, work songs, Civil War music, railroad songs, and a few of their own original compositions. |
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Dick Swain combines his skills as a librarian with his love of traditional music. He has researched songs from the Northeast, the Atlantic Provinces, the Great Lakes and the Ohio canals, which he performs in traditional accompanied and a capella styles. Dick's breadth of repertoire has to be heard to be believed. |
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George Ward sings traditional tunes that tell the stories and histories of people and places. He is most fascinated by folk music of the Northeast, and has concentrated his efforts there, performing songs and creating albums that reflect the region’s history. Oh! That Low Bridge! is his album of Erie Canal songs, and All Our Brave Tars is a collection of American and British tunes from great naval battles of the 18th and early 19th century. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Bill Westcott is a pianist, composer, arranger, musicologist and music theorist specializing in African-American and classical music of the 20th century. A piano player from the age of eight, Bill studied blues piano with “Little Brother” Montgomery, a major blues recording artist of the 1930s and of the later blues revival, alongside his formal university training in music. This experience confirmed him in his life-long interest in early blues and jazz piano styles. He often performs with Brenna MacCrimmon. |
Co-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. 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. |
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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. |
Sound | |
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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 27 Dec 2015