The AMERICAN Tradition

ED TRICKETT Folk-Legacy Recording Artist; Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago with ROBERT P. GEORGE McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence; Director, James Madison Program, Princeton University

Friday, NOVEMBER 17, 2017 James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. 609-258-1122 Maeder Auditorium jmp.princeton.edu Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment 86 Olden Street, Princeton, NJ ED TRICKETT has been collecting and performing folk songs for over 45 years. His early musical influences were Frank Proffitt, Larry Older, Bob and Evelyn Beers, George and Gerry Armstrong, and Howie Mitchell. Later, he learned from and sang with a number of other musicians whose commitment and talent were extraordinary: Gordon Bok, Bob Coltman, Cathy Barton, and Ann Mayo Muir. Each taught him that it’s the song, not the singer, that’s important. Over the years he has performed hundreds of concerts in coffee houses, at colleges, folk music festivals and varied other occasions in the , Canada, and the British Isles. He has also appeared on several radio programs across the country, including Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion (St. Paul, MN) and Rich Warren’s (formerly Studs Terkel’s) Midnight Special on WFMT in Chicago. He has recorded four solo albums, beginning with The Telling Takes Me Home (Folk Legacy Records), the most recent being Echo on the Evening Tide (Azalia City Recordings). For 26 years he sang with Gordon Bok and Ann Mayo Muir throughout the United Sates, Canada, and the British Isles, producing ten CDs. He has also accompanied many recording artists, including Don McLean, Rosalie Sorrels, Mark Spoelstra, Sara Grey, Sally Rogers, Cathy Barton and Dave Para, Joe Hickerson, Joan Sprung, Helen Schneyer, Bob Zentz, and Harry Tuft. He is Visiting Professor at the University of Miami and Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

ROBERT P. GEORGE hails from West , where little boys are issued 5-string at birth. Like all players who were trained in the tradition of Appalachian classical music (also known as “bluegrass”), his principal influence was Earl Scruggs. Aficionados also detect in his playing traces of the styles of Don Reno, Ralph Stanley, and Bill Keith. Although a traditionalist, he has been known to sneak a bit of Bela Fleck-style playing into his performances. His playing is in the “thumbpicking” style of Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and Jerry Reed. In high school, he played with the bluegrass and folk music ensemble known as the “Fresh Air and Simplicity Band.” At Swarthmore College, he led the bluegrass and country band “Robby George and Friends.” In recent years, he has performed country and bluegrass with “Blue Heart” and all sorts of different styles of music with his pal Professor Michael Smith of Princeton’s philosophy department. He is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University.