I’m
pleased to see this new “Great Folks” blog, and happy to be a contributor. When we started discussing the idea, one goal
was to offer fans of the Great Lakes Folk Festival a year-round source of
information about the same traditional music artists and genres that are
featured at the GLFF. So my “beat” is to
round up news about recent recordings, upcoming concerts, awards, obituaries,
and other items about past GLFF performers (and others like them).
This
won’t be a comprehensive listing of folk music news – for that, I suggest reading Sing Out! magazine – but I hope you’ll find my periodic columns helpful in seeking out
more of this wonderful music, in person or on CDs, in between GLFFs.
RECORDINGS:
Here
are some of the recent albums I’ve been enjoying lately:
Detour
(GLFF 2008 & 2011), A Better Place (BlueGrass Ahead) -- I’ve been
impressed with Michigan’s own bluegrass band Detour since they started, but was
really blown away by their sets at the 2011 GLFF with their new singer, Missy
Armstrong. Most bluegrass bands are good
instrumentalists, and some have great singers, but I’m often disappointed by
their songwriting. Not so with Detour,
whose mandolin player, Jeff Rose, supplies much of their repertoire with his top-notch
original songs. The band recently
released their third CD, with many of the numbers they featured at the last
GLFF, and it’s one of the best bluegrass albums I’ve heard in a long time.
Tim
Eriksen, Banjo, Fiddle and Voice (self-released) – Tim is not a traditional
folksinger by upbringing, but he has absorbed the true spirit of traditional
music more profoundly than almost anybody else I’ve heard. This is a stark, powerful record of Tim’s
singing and playing, with some of the songs and tunes he performed at his
breathtaking April 2011 concert at the Ten Pound Fiddle. Available via his website,
www.timeriksenmusic.com along with some other self-released discs.
Various
artists, The Descendants (Sony Classical) – Alexander Payne’s 2011 movie won
acclaim for George Clooney’s Oscar-nominated performance, but for me one of the
highlights was the gorgeous soundtrack of traditional Hawaiian music, most of
it on slack-key guitar but with some ukulele too, played by legendary greats
like Gabby Pahinui, Keola Beamer, Ray Kane, and Sol Hoopii.
Other
notable 2012 releases include::
Carolina
Chocolate Drops (GLFF 2007), Leaving Eden (Nonesuch) – I haven’t heard the
band’s newest release yet, but it’s gotten great reviews. They’ve had some changes to their line-up and
have expanded their sound in some ways, but they’re still rooted in
African-American string band music.
Various
artists, Foggy Mountain Special: A Bluegrass Tribute to Earl Scruggs
(Rounder) – A dozen top banjo players play tunes composed by, or popularized
by, the late Earl Scruggs.
Lonesome
Sisters, Deep Water (Tin Halo) – When Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz
appeared at the 2003 GLFF, they were accompanied on guitar and harmonies by
Debra Clifford. Debra is in a duo with
Ginny’s niece, Sarah Hawker, as the Lonesome Sisters, and they’ve put out a new
CD of six original songs (which sound old) plus a few traditional ones. They’re also working on a collaboration with
Riley Baugus for release later this year, and I can’t wait for that.
Doyle
Lawson & Quicksilver (GLFF 2010), Sing Me a Song About Jesus (Mountain
Home) – Nobody sings bluegrass gospel better than Doyle and his band.
IN
MEMORIAM:
Doc
Watson passed away on May 29, 2012, and I’ve posted a separate tribute to
him. It’s been a rough year, since on
March 28 we lost Earl Scruggs, who defined the sound of bluegrass banjo as a
member of Bill Monroe’s band in the late Forties, then in a duo with guitarist
and singer Lester Flatt.
Another
important bluegrass banjo player, Doug Dillard died on May 16. With his brother Rodney, Doug founded the Dillards,
a progressive bluegrass band, in the early Sixties.
Boston-based
guitar and mandolin player John McGann died on April 6. John was on the faculty at the Berklee
College of Music. He was a stunningly
versatile player, ranging with ease from Irish to bluegrass to jazz. Among countless gigs and recordings, John
accompanied the Celtic Fiddle Festival (Kevin Burke, Johnny Cunningham, and Christian
Lemaître) when the MSU Museum brought their tour to Fairchild Theatre in
November 1992. One of the tracks on the
CFF’s first album was recorded at that concert.
UPCOMING
CONCERTS:
The
11th Great Lakes Folk Festival is coming up on August 10-12, in
downtown East Lansing! Pat Power has once
again booked a wonderful lineup of traditional musicians, and you can find all
the details on the website: www.greatlakesfolkfest.net
You
can catch some previous GLFF (and National Folk Festival) performers at other mid-Michigan venues,
including:
The
Ark in Ann Arbor (www.theark.org):
Friday
July 6 – Detour (GLFF 2008 & 2011)
Friday
August 31 – Bill Kirchen (NFF 1999)
Monday
September 24 – BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet (NFF 2000)
The
Ten Pound Fiddle in East Lansing (www.tenpoundfiddle.org):
Friday
February 22, 2013 -- Liz Carroll (GLFF 2002)
The
Fiddle’s tentative 2012-13 schedule also includes one of the greatest old-time
fiddle and banjo players, Bruce Molsky; tributes to Woody Guthrie and Pete
Seeger; Sparky & Rhonda Rucker; the Mid-Winter Singing Festival; and
several of my favorite singer-songwriters: Lou & Peter Berryman, Cheryl
Wheeler, Bill Staines, and Tom Paxton! I’ll
give more details in future columns.
The
Saline Celtic Festival returns to Millpond Park in Saline, MI, on July
13-14. The line-up includes Eileen Ivers
(NFF 1999) & her band Immigrant Soul, among many others. Info at www.salineceltic.org
What a rich roster of activities
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