Name in Lights……...... 5 January and February Jam Sessions…….………………… • Brass Tacks.………………………………....6 We welcome musicians of all ages and abilities for an enjoyable afternoon SFMS Membership...... of homemade music. Come to play or sing!
Penn State Presents Nai-Ni Chen Dance Co. .……...Page 2 Resource List Tues, Feb 4, at Penn State Harrisburg’s Kulkarni Theatre • Subscribe to eNews A limited number of discounted tickets are available for SFMS Sponsor an Event members to see this internationally acclaimed dance troupe. .
Winter Coffeehouse……………………….…...…...... Page 4 Advance Tickets: Sat, Feb 8, at Fort Hunter Centennial Barn • We’ve lined up an entertaining evening with talented regional and local artists www.brownpapertickets.com for our first coffeehouse of 2020. Directions to Venues at
www.sfmsfolk.org
Missy Raines….…………….……………….….…...... Page 3 • Appalachian Brewing Company Sun, Feb 9, at Appalachian Brewing Company • An eight-time • Fort Hunter Centennial Barn winner of the IBMA Bass Player of the Year award will be joined by her new quartet as she displays not only her iconic bluegrass style, • Unitarian Universalist but also her talents as a songwriter. Congregation of York
Altan………..……...……………………...... Page 4 Thurs, Feb 20, at Appalachian Brewing Company • One of Ireland's foremost traditional bands showcases the Irish- language songs and fiery instrumentals of its native Donegal. The Franklin H. and Ruth L. Wells Foundation
High Time…....…………………………...... Page 5 Sun, Feb 23, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York • This fresh, new Irish trio combines traditional music and an intriguing blend of modern folk influences. Their unusual line-up of flute, whistles, harp, bodhrán, guitar and vocals (with some Irish dancing steps thrown in!) makes a youthful and energetic statement.
Third Annual Susquehanna Folk Festival .....…...….Page 2 Fri, July 24-Sun, July 26, at Roundtop Mountain Resort,• Exciting plans are in the works for our upcoming Folk Festival. See what we have in store, and consider joining our volunteer team.
Central Pennsylvania Traditions, the Newsletter of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society page 2 www.sfmsfolk.org Looking Ahead: The July 2020 Susquehanna Folk Festival Now in its third year, the Susquehanna Folk Festival will be held on Friday, July 24, Saturday, July 25, and Sunday, July 26, 2020, at beautiful Roundtop Mountain Resort in Lewisberry. Once again the festival will feature top-notch entertainment by nationally touring acts, local and regional artists, the popular Emerging Artist Showcase and the Liars Contest, dancing, family fun, storytelling, and crafts. Look for a festival line-up e-announcement in late January or check out www.susquehannafolkfestival.org for all the latest updates! Youth Band Program Know any aspiring young musicians ages 6-16? We’ll have just the thing for them at this year’s festival. With the help of fiddler/educator Jane Rothfield and her team, we’ll be forming Irish step dancers with Cherish the Ladies at the an American Roots Music Youth Band, which will meet twice to 2019 Folk Festival. practice and then perform together on the Main Stage! Tunes will be taught by ear, in the traditional way. All acoustic musicians – at any level of ability and playing any instrument from guitar, fiddle, or banjo to clarinet, keyboard, or trumpet – are welcome to participate. The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Co., which bridges the grace Spotlight on New Roots of Asian elegance with American dynamism, will perform at Penn State Harrisburg This year SFMS has formed a New Roots Committee to explore some of the newer at 7:30 pm on styles of music that have appeared recently Tuesday, February 4, on the folk music scene. On the schedule, 2020, in the Student you’ll find some exciting young bands that Enrichment Center’s have been recommended by the Committee. Kulkarni Theatre, 777 SFMS is appreciative to Explore York for West Harrisburg Pike, its generous support in helping us to fund Middletown. some of these cutting-edge performers! The acclaimed dance Renewed Support From the NEA troupe will perform SFMS is pleased to announce that we have “Song of Phoenix,” a received a major grant from the National spectacular seven-dance production of dazzling props, colorful Endowment for the Arts to support this costumes, mesmerizing music, fantastic acrobatics, and lively year’s festival! This grant will help SFMS dance by top-notch performers. The audience will be taken on to bring stellar folk artists to the festival and a journey through space and time to a place where tradition will allow us to again present the popular meets innovation; it will experience the majestic thunder of the Meet the Masters interviews in front of a martial arts and the mysterious whisper of poetry through the live audience. global language of dance. Get Involved! Following the show, audience members may engage in a Our first Festival Steering Committee talkback session with choreographer Nai-Ni Chen and the meeting will be held at 3 pm, Saturday, dancers while enjoying complimentary tea and Asian treats. January 18, 2020, at the Fishing Creek A limited number of reduced-price $10 tickets are available to United Methodist Church in Etters. The SFMS members and friends on a first-come, first-served basis. Committee is a super-fun, enthusiastic To get your discounted ticket, first contact Jess Hayden at group of people that helps to plan and (717) 319-8409 or [email protected] to confirm that execute the festival. We’d love to have you discounted tickets are still available; then mail a check, join us! Please call or e-mail Jess Hayden at payable to Susquehanna Folk Music Society, to 378 Old York (717)-319-8409 or [email protected] if Road, New Cumberland, PA 17070. you’d like to attend.
Central Pennsylvania Traditions, the Newsletter of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society page 3 www.sfmsfolk.org Missy Raines, Sunday, February 9 Missy Raines, who was named the album’s standout tracks, International Bluegrass Music “Swept Away,” features the Association (IBMA) Bass Player first five women to win of the Year for 2019, the eighth IBMA instrumentalist awards time she has won the award, – Raines (bass), Brown comes to Central Pennsylvania (banjo), Sierra Hull with the Missy Raines Quartet (mandolin), Becky Butler for a Susquehanna Folk Music (fiddle), and Molly Society concert at 7:30 pm Tuttle (guitar) – and was on Sunday, February 9, 2020, named 2018 IBMA Recorded at the Appalachian Brewing Event of the Year. Company’s Abbey Bar, 50 Folk Radio UK said Raines’s North Cameron Street, latest album “not only Harrisburg. confirms her renowned A native of Short Gap, West instrumental status but also Virginia, Raines began playing announces another first, as bass and touring professionally she debuts as a songwriter, 11 as a teenager. She has worked with such bluegrass tracks that both reflect and reach beyond her legends as Mac Wiseman, Kenny Baker, Josh Graves, bluegrass roots, to touch upon indie folk, jam grass and Eddie and Martha Adcock, and has and jazz-inspired material.” recorded and toured extensively with Cloud Valley, The Claire Lynch Band, and Jim Hurst. In 2008, she In her concert appearance for SFMS, Raines will be formed Missy Raines & The New Hip, an Americana joined by Matt Flinner, Ben Garnett, and Avery ensemble with jazz inflections that released two Merritt. Flinner is one of the premiere mandolin albums on Compass Records. Along the way, she players in bluegrass as well as one of the finest became recognized as an iconic bluegrass composers of new acoustic/roots music. Garnett is a instrumentalist, winning the first of her IBMA titles highly accomplished Nashville-based guitarist, with in 1998. strong improvisational skills and a mastery of many musical genres. A graduate of the Berklee College of In 2018, Raines broke new ground as a songwriter Music, Merritt is an exceptional fiddler with a strong with her album, “Royal Traveller,” produced by background in bluegrass and jazz. Compass Records founder Alison Brown. The album digs deep into Raines’s family life and her upbringing Concert tickets are $24 for general admission, $20 for in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, telling SFMS members, and $10 for students ages 3-22. her story with a vulnerability and bold honesty that Advance tickets are available for purchase from ring clear, spoken through beautiful arrangements and Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com well-chosen musical collaborations. The album or (800) 838-3006. This concert is presented in includes appearances by contemporary bluegrass cooperation with Greenbelt Events and with funding greats such as Stuart Duncan and Tim O’Brien and support from Your Name in Lights sponsors Bob Lane several pioneering female performers. In fact, one of and Bill Gulvin.
General funding for the Susquehanna Folk Music Society is provided by the Cultural Enrichment Fund and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the latter administered locally by the Cultural Alliance of York County. For more information, visit the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website at sfmsfolk.org. Central Pennsylvania Traditions, the Newsletter of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society page 4 www.sfmsfolk.org Altan, Thursday, February 20 Altan, which has wowed audiences around the world with its traditional Irish music since the 1980s, comes to Central Pennsylvania on Thursday, February 20, 2020, for a 7:30 pm Susquehanna Folk Music Society concert at the Appalachian Brewing Company’s Abbey Bar, 50 North Cameron Street, Harrisburg. With exquisitely produced award-winning recordings, ranging from the most sensitive and touching old Irish songs to hard-hitting reels and jigs, and heartwarming, dynamic live performances, Altan has moved audiences worldwide. Throughout its 30-year history, Altan has shown an unwaver- ing commitment to bringing the beauty of traditional music – especially the unique musical repertoire of the band’s home base in County Donegal – to contemporary audiences in a way that brings out all its qualities and destroys none. Named after a deep and mysterious lake in Donegal, Altan was founded by Gweedore’s Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, a superb vocalist in Irish and English and one of the leading exponents of Donegal fiddle music, and her late husband, Belfast’s Frankie Kennedy, one of the finest flute-players in Ireland. Along with her work with Altan, Ní Mhaonaigh is always in demand for solo work or presenting traditional music programs on radio and television. She has recorded with the likes of Enya, Dolly Parton, The Chieftains, The String Sisters, T with the Maggies, and, most recently, in a family band Na Mooneys. She received the 2017 TG4 Gradam Ceoil (Music Award) for her musicianship and singing, the highest accolade that a traditional musician can receive in Ireland. Altan’s other band members are among the most highly respected musicians in traditional Irish music. Bouzouki-player Ciarán Curran is a native of Kinawley in County Fermanagh, an area rich in music, song, and folklore. He has developed a unique, personal, and subtle style on the bouzouki using counter harmonies and melodies that add texture to the music. His late uncle, Ned Curran, was a great fiddler and gave Altan many tunes from his unusual repertoire. Guitarist and singer Daíthí Sproule was born in Derry, but has lived for many years in Minnesota. He was a member of Ireland’s legendary Skara Brae quartet and has recorded and performed in three notable trios: Bowhand (with James Kelly and Paddy O’Brien), Trian (with Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey), and Fingal (with Randal Bays and James Keane). Piano accordionist Martin Tourish hails from County Donegal and is now based in Dublin. In 2008, he received TG4’s prestigious “Young Musician of the Year” award. He is also an accomplished composer, producer, and musicologist, whose ancestors were collectors of some of the earliest dance-music manuscripts in
Ireland.
Recognition of Altan’s international status and success came in The Susquehanna Folk Music Society’s 1996, when it was the first Irish band of its kind to be signed by a Winter Coffeehouse will be held from major record label (Virgin Records). The band has gained gold and 7 pm to 10 pm on Saturday, February platinum albums in Ireland and has regularly performed before 8, 2020, at Fort Hunter large audiences in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the Centennial Barn, 5300 North Front U.S. Despite a hectic touring and recording schedule, the members Street, Harrisburg. Admission is free, of Altan have maintained a fresh vision of bringing the beauty and but donations are welcome. joy of traditional music to fans everywhere. This popular event features acoustic Concert tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for SFMS music from some of SFMS’s favorite members, and $10 for students ages 3-22. Advance tickets are local and regional musicians. Please available for purchase from Brown Paper Tickets at check the SFMS website in the coming www.brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. This concert is weeks for a list of confirmed presented in cooperation with Greenbelt Events and with funding performers. support from Your Name in Lights sponsors Select Medical and Steve and Nancy Wennberg. Snacks and beverages will be available. Central Pennsylvania Traditions, the Newsletter of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society page 5 www.sfmsfolk.org High Time, Sunday, February 23 Combining traditional Irish music with modern folk influences, the trio High Time brings its rich, unique sound and electric stage energy to Central Pennsylvania for a February 23, 2020, Susquehanna Folk Music Society concert at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York, 925 South George Street, York. The fun begins at 7:30 pm. High Time blends exceptional instrumentals (flute, whistles, harp, bodhrán, and guitar) with intricate three-part vocal harmonies and displays of virtuosic Irish step dance to leave audiences worldwide awestruck by their performances. The band’s debut album, “Sunda,” was released in 2018 to critical acclaim. Hailing from the Connemara region of County Galway along Ireland’s rugged west coast, Seamus Ó Flatharta, although still barely out of his teens, is a 23-time All-Ireland champion on harp, whistle, singing, and dancing. He won the coveted senior All-Ireland title on harp in 2017. He learned to play his first piece of music on tin whistle at age four; since age 16 he has been making waves in the field of music, song, and dance across the globe, performing in China, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and throughout mainland Europe. He has contributed to numerous albums, made regular television and radio appearances, and shared the stage with such Irish music luminaries as Bill Whelan, Zöe Conway, John Sheehan, and Cherish the Ladies.
Manchester-native Michael Coult started playing tin whistle at age seven. He took up traditional Irish flute at age 12, and in his teens turned his hand to bodhrán and guitar. Since then he has focused heavily on flute and whistle, but still plays regularly as an accompanist of Irish music. He moved from England to Ireland at age 18 to pursue an academic degree in traditional Irish music and dance at the University of Limerick and has been based there ever since. Before joining High Time as a permanent member in 2019, he spent 10 years on the road with various bands and productions, most notably Celtic Legends and the trad quartet The Recollective. Concert tickets are $24 for general admission, $20 for SFMS members, and $10 for students ages 3-22. Advance tickets are available for purchase from Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. This concert is presented in cooperation with the Unitarian Universalist The members of Twisted Pine with Name in Lights Congregation of York and with funding support from sponsor Rita Snyder, right. an anonymous Your Name in Lights sponsor. Central Pennsylvania Traditions, the Newsletter of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society page 6 www.sfmsfolk.org
Folk on the Radio and the Web • WXPN: 88.5 (Philly) or 99.7 (Harrisburg) or 88.7 (York, Lancaster). Or listen live online at xpn.org/music-artist/listen-live. The Folk Show with Ian Zolitor: Sun 8-10 pm.
• WPSU in State College: 91.5 (Central PA). Programming streamed worldwide at wpsu.org/listenlive/. Mountain Stage: Sat 6-8 pm; The Folk Show: Sat 1-5 pm, Sun 10 pm-midnight.
• FolkAlley.com streams folk music 24/7. Look for SFMS Office Central Pennsylvania programs with Pennsylva- 378 Old York Road Traditions is published nia’s own Gene Shay. five times a year by the [email protected] Susquehanna Folk Music (717) 319-8409 Society. • The Song Parlor podcast, hosted by John Patterson, Deadlines: is available online at Joan and Bruce Kolka [email protected] Sep-Oct issue – Aug 15 www.thesongparlor.com/. (717) 763-5598 Nov-Dec issue – Oct 15 Executive Director Jess Hayden Jan-Feb issue – Dec 15 • ThistleRadio.com streams Jams and Coffeehouses Celtic music 24/7. Also Fred Heagy – [email protected] find podcasts of Fiona (717) 839-7517 Ritchie’s The Thistle and More information at View Robert’s magnificent photos at Shamrock. www.sfmsfolk.org
Central Pennsylvania Traditions, the Newsletter of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society page 7 www.sfmsfolk.org
Thanks to These New and Renewing Members
Are You Due to Renew?
A Special Thanks
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Scenes from recent SFMS events (all photos by Fred Heagy except as noted). Clockwise from top left: Dan Bui and Kathleen Parks of Twisted Pine (photo by Jess Hayden); Peter Mulvey (photo by Jess Hayden); Hubby Jenkins; SFMS jammer Bob Gutheinz; Coffeehouse performers Vail Steinem and Howard Lee of Howard and The Islanders; Coffeehouse performer Dominick Cicco; and SFMS jammer Daniel T. Worley playing the saw.