Fri JULY 23rd — ITHACA NY — O’Shanigans CONTRA ROOTS party at Bethel Grove! O’Shanigans are back for a fabulous Contra Dance at Bethel Grove Community Center with the phenomenal Ted Crane calling the dances at 1825 Slaterville Road (Rt 79 about 4 miles east of Ithaca) Ithaca NY from 8-11 pm. Don’t miss this celebration of the roots of New England folk dance! This is an authentic Old New England style venue with a newly refinished dance floor! Bring clean shoes, a water bottle and YOUR FRIENDS! All dances taught, No partner needed. Sponsored by: TCCD - Tompkins County Country Dances.

O’Shanigans is Tim Ball on fiddle, Mike Ludgate on mandolin and tenor banjo and Phil Robinson on guitar.

BAND WEBSITE http://www.canaaninstitute.org/oshanigans.html
VENUE WEBSITE http://tedcrane.com/DanceDB/DisplayDance.com?key=US_NY_ITH_TCCD
VENUE’S POSTER http://canaaninstitute.org/photos/TCCD_Insert_current.pdf
BAND’S EVENT POSTER http://canaaninstitute.org/docs/Oshanigans_current_poster.pdf
FACEBOOK EVENT http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114971911883362

NPR: Youth Flock To Contra Dancing — Contra dancing has been around since the 1700s. If you don’t know it — it’s kind of like square dancing but with long lines of dancers. The dance is having a renaissance around the country thanks to a thriving youth scene and incredibly lively acoustic music. Article by Marika Partridge on All Things Considered NPR July 2nd 2010 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128273050

DIRECTIONS to this DANCE — http://tedcrane.com/DanceDB/DisplayVenue.com?key=US_NY_ITH_BG Bethel Grove Community Center 1825 Slaterville Road (NYS Rt.79) (from Ithaca take State Street east to Rt. 79, about four miles from the Ithaca Commons; a few hundred yards past the Bible Church) Google Maps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode&q=1825+Slaterville+Rd%2C+Ithaca%2C+NY+14850&sll=42.41161%2C-76.29505&sspn=0.008523%2C0.01929&ie=UTF8&hq&hnear=1825+Slaterville+Rd%2C+Ithaca%2C+Tompkins%2C+New+York+14850&ll=42.40552%2C-76.432515&spn=0.034097%2C0.077162&z=14

More information About Contra Dancing:
http://www.greatmeadowmusic.com/music.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dance
http://tedcrane.com/DanceDB/DisplayDance.com/US_NY_ITH_TCCD
http://hands4dancers.org/
http://www.syracusecountrydancers.org/
http://contra.binghamtondance.org/contra_calendar.htm
http://www.thedancegypsy.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTtEOaruqr4
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128273050

Ithaca Festival Jam Tent 2010 - sponsored by Ithaca Guitar Works and Ludgate Farms.
http://www.guitarworks.com/ and http://www.ludgatefarms.com/

More info on the forum http://canaaninstitute.org/mikesmusic/viewtopic.php?p=3322#3322

Sunday June 6th 2010 from 11:30 am until 9:00 pm at Stewart Park at the Jam Tent (near the entrance and family fun tent). We have 6 jams again this year. These are all jams loosely related to sessions and sings that happen in and around the Ithaca area on a regular basis. Time slots and band leaders subject to change at the last minute. See this music forum thread for updates http://canaaninstitute.org/mikesmusic/viewtopic.php?p=3322#3322

11:30 am - 1:00 pm – CAJUN JAM (Traditional Cajun maybe a little Zydeco) — The origins of Cajun music started in the north when the Acadians were forced to migrate from Nova Scotia to Louisiana in the late 1700’s. This is a rich and unique American music style. This will be an open acoustic only instrumental jam as are all the others in the Ithaca Festival Jam Tent listed below. Contact person: Greg Grodem rjgreg@lightlink.com

1:00 PM - 2:30 pm –SINGING JAM (Folk Songs) — This is a sing-a-long, where anyone can lead. Songs your parents sang when you were little, songs you sang at camp, songs that mean a lot to you right now. Instruments are welcome for back up, but the focus for this jam is on voices. Bring a song to share, chime in on a chorus or just listen, everyone is welcome! Contacts: Jim Harper jimh@jhdesigns.com or Richie Holtz richard_holtz@verizon.net

2:30 pm - 4:00 pm — OLD-TIME JAM (Appalachian Fiddle Tunes) — Southern old-time music was born when African rhythms and syncopation began to influence the fiddle dance tune tradition. Old-time jams often include guitar, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, mandolin, dulcimer, voices, and tapping feet to keep the rhythm. Tunes are usually passed along by oral tradition, but chord charts are available for many of the tunes, and musicians of any level are welcome. The emphasis is on getting into a groove for each tune, allowing each musician room to improvise within the structure of the tune. Contact: Laura Taylor lbt1@cornell.edu

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm – BLUEGRASS JAM (Traditional Bluegrass) — Bluegrass is American roots music comprising a rich fusion of traditions from the British Isles, jazz, blues, and country. This jam features fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, dobro, upright bass, and vocals, and each instrument has the opportunity to improvise around the melody in wildly creative ways. All skill levels are welcome! Contact: Philip Robinson philip.robinson@cornell.edu

5:30 pm -7:00 pm – CONTRA TUNE JAM (New England Fiddle Dance Tunes) — We will be playing “fiddle tunes” suitable for contra or square dancing. These tunes originate from New England, Canada, British Isles and parts of Europe . This is an open instrumental jam where typical instruments are fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo (4 or 5 string), accordion, acoustic bass and occasional woodwinds such as flute or clarinet. This group typically works from the Ithaca “YFN tuneset”. All skill levels welcome, come join us! Contact person: Michael Ludgate michael.ludgate@gmail.com

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm — IRISH SESSION (Traditional Irish) — This session will be run in traditional Irish session style, which is generally full speed ahead and often stringing 2 or 3 tunes together at a time. All skill levels welcome: the tunes are fast, but the only way to “get the feel” is to jump in and try! Contact persons: Ed McGowan, Scott Whitham or Mark Bickford scott.whitham@gmail.com

The Kitchen Theatre opens a play this week called Last Train to Nibroc, by Arlene Hutton.  In addition to being a beautiful, romantic play performed by two stellar actors, it’s a wonderful chance to hear some great old style music by local musicians.

The main musical theme, entitled “Home”, was composed by Ithaca College student Rob Dietz in the style of an early bluegrass waltz.  Dietz is the conductor of Ithacappella, IC’s award-winning male a cappella group. Joining Dietz at Rep Studio to record the music for Last Train to Nibroc was Harry Nichols, guitar, Stephanie Jenkins, banjo & vocals, and Rosie Newton, fiddle & vocals.  Harry is a member of Ithacappella and plays with Rob in a folk/blues duo called Passing Through (http://www.myspace.com/musicpassingthrough).  Stephanie and Rosie play together locally as The Pearly Snaps (http://www.myspace.com/thepearlysnaps).  Both duos are great–so musical and tight.  Bringing them together was a blast. They created a gorgeous sound pretty much instantly.

Sunday, May 17, 2009; Workshop 3-5pm, Concert at 7pm

A workshop and concert by Pamela Goddard & Colleen Cleveland

Ticket information: $10 for the workshop, $5 for the concert.

A musical tour through the landscape of New York, touching song roots in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Colleen and Pamela will talk about what traditional songs and ballads are, compare and contrast actual songs, swapping versions of some of the most common and popular. During the workshop Colleen and Pamela will talk about family traditions and how they came to learn and promote these songs. There will also be opportunities for audience/workshop participation - singing on choruses and refrains, maybe learning a short ballad/song. Theconcert will present much of the same material, but with more singing of the songs and less chat. The concert is also a Syracuse release of Pamela’s second CD, “Quietness.”

Colleen Cleveland of Brant Lake is a descendant of Scottish and Irish settlers to northern New York and her family’s music and stories includes ancient ballads or story-songs, for which the Scots are known. Colleen’s grandmother, Sara Cleveland, was a nationally famous ballad singer of her generation. After Sara’s death in 1987, Colleen and her father, Jim, began singing the family’s songs in public. In addition to about 400 songs of the 
British Isles, the family repertoire includes songs from a variety of other popular sources. Like her traditional counterparts in Scotland and Ireland, Colleen usually sings unaccompanied. Some of the family’s very old ballads are unique variants that have not been collected from any other North American source.

Pamela Goddard of Danby has been passionate about folk songs ever since she sang along with her father as a 6-year-old. For her, songs are historic documents that describe the peculiar quality of  the land and the life of the people who live there. “They water my roots,” she says, “and are dedicated to my grandparents from  coastal New England, from the coal fields of Pennsylvania, and from the hills of Tennessee.” Pamela performs ballads in traditional fashion, usually a cappella or accompanying herself on a lap dulcimer. She also calls dances regularly throughout the Finger Lakes region. Pamela has two CDs of her singing. The first of these, As Time Draws Near, was released in 2005. Her new CD, Quietness, will be released at the May 17 show at ArtRage.

ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Avenue, Syracuse, New York   
315-218-5711
HOURS: W, Th, F 2-7pm & Sat. 12-4pm
info@artragegallery.org 
www.artragegallery.org 
ArtRageous art for peace & social justice
ArtRage is handicapped accessible
Off street parking at 404 & 414 Lodi Street

From Matthew Falise …

I wanted to pass along a link to a blog I have been reading lately that I think some of you may be interested in:

http://thedailyguru.blogspot.com/

It’s a guy who has taken it upon himself to review one “must own album” every day, for the entire year.  He writes pretty well and his picks span the gauntlet of musical genres.  I’ve been hipped to a couple of new things because of his entries.  Thought I’d give him a little free publicity.

You can find these in the skinny column to the left (or maybe to the right if I rearrange the look again!). These are all mostly music related and all near Ithaca - except the Monadnonk which is from southern New Hampshire in the neighborhood where New England contra dancing and it’s musical traditions arrive to us from.

The following are in no particular order …

• Ithaca Music
• David’s Music
• Popcorn Youth
• Dan Small Presents
• Funky Side BLOG
• Monadnock Folklore
• Fan Club Collective
• Tangled Strings
• Wilburland Blog
• Ithaca Blog
• Eric’s Music
• Lisa Ann Wright

I am learning about making new web pages with Wordpress, so don’t be surprised by occasional changes in appearance of this BLOG and other similar places I maintain. The cool thing is ALL the content remains the same, it is just a superficial change really. Tell me what you think! -m :-)

Tickets will go on sale next Friday, 10/10 — In another fantastic new addition to the season lineup, North Carolina’s Squirrel Nut Zippers will appear on December 6th as part of the State Theatre’s 80th Anniversary Celebration.  Tickets will go on sale next Friday, 10/10 at 10AM at the usual outlets (State Theatre Box Office at 105 West State Street  Ithaca NY without service charge, online at www.stateofithaca.com or by calling 800.919.6272).

Squirrel Nut Zippers still rejoice at the difficulty people have pigeonholing their unmistakable sound. A perpetually evolving, hybrid-stew of Southern roots traditions, blues and jazz, the Zippers were aptly tagged “’30s punk” by one critic. They have always flirted with a muse most concerned with ghosts, love gone wrong, fever-dreams and stories unearthed from days past. Centered around the beguiling vocals of Katherine Whalen and the anachronistic windup toy that is Jimbo Mathus, the Zippers promise to both charm and confound.

There’s no better choice for the State’s 80th Birthday and a band that covers the broad spectrum of music that has occurred since the State first opened on December 6, 1928.  The day will be filled with other events; most notably the screening of one of the films shown on opeing night.  The evening program will feature clips from that film, a brief talk about the years in between opening and today, and the SNZ performance.  There is more to come so keep checking back.

A limited number of Gold Circle Seats will be available.  These gain you access to all the day’s events, an after party and meet and greet with the band, and more.  For information on these special tickets please call the State Box Office after October 8 at 607.277.8283.

Come enjoy a great band celebrating a great venue.  Enjoy it now because as the Zippers say, “In the afterlife, you could be headed for the serious strife.  Now you make the scene all day, but tomorrow there’ll be hell to pay.”

Article by Dan Smalls: Check out Dan’s MUSIC BLOG http://www.dansmallspresents.com/smallsworld/