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Music & Dance |
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Special Thanks to Our Major Music Sponsor,
City of East
Lansing
The Michigan State University Museum presents the annual event celebrating culture, tradition and community. Music and dance stages -- sponsored by the City of East Lansing -- feature rhythm, sound and spectacular musicianship and combine for nearly 50 performances over the free three day festival.
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Vishten- Acadian Fiddle from Prince Edward Island |
Preliminary Performer list for 2008
Names in rusty red are links to performers web sites
Eddie Bond -- Old-time Banjo -- Fries, Virginia
Jeffrey Broussard & The Creole Cowboys -- Zydeco -- Lawtell, Louisiana
Cephas & Wiggins -- Piedmont Blues -- Washington, D.C.
Crooked Road Revue -- Old-time Revue, featuring Bond, LaPrelle, Henderson and Sutphin -- Crooked Road Region, Virginia
Detour - Bluegrass -- Michigan and Nashville, Tennessee
Mamadou Diabate - Malian Kora -- Durham, North Carolina
George Gao -- Chinese erhu -- Toronto, Ontario
Wayne Henderson -- Finger-style Guitar -- Galax, Virginia
Elizabeth LaPrelle -- Old-time Ballads -- Rural Retreat, Virginia
New Ballard's Branch Bogtrotters -- Old Time -- Galax, Virginia
Réveillons! - Quebecois -- Montréal, Québec, Canada
The Singletons -- Gospel -- Lansing, Michigan
Sones de México -- Mexican regional -- Chicago, Illinois
Kirk Sutphin -- Old-time Fiddle -- Walkertown, North Carolina
Tuba Dan's Family Band -- Czech polka -- Oshkosh, Wisconsin
April Verch -- Ottawa Valley Fiddle -- Pembroke, Ontario
Vishten - Acadian -- Prince Edward Island, Canada
Wylie & The Wild West -- Cowboy/Western Swing -- Lacrosse, Washington
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| The Singletons- a Gospel group from Lansing |
The Great Lakes Folk Festival celebrates the rich traditional folk, ethnic
and tribal music and dances of the people of Michigan, the Great Lakes
region, and the United States. The nation’s earliest immigrants and
settlers brought the performing arts of their countries of origin with
them to their new homeland, where they encountered the land’s First
Nations. Each of these peoples worked to maintain their unique traditions
while at the same time adapting to new conditions and a rich confluence
of cultures. Those musical traditions which we think of as quintessentially “American”— jazz, blues, gospel, bluegrass, old-time, Tex-Mex,
Cajun, zydeco, cowboy and others—spring from the interaction and
intertwining of these varied cultural roots. Today, renewed emigration
from a wide range of nations brings new sounds and performance traditions
to enrich our American cultural landscape.
*The Great Lakes Folk Festival celebrates this musical legacy through performances
by masters who learned their skills within distinct communities and who
remain rooted in their communities.
* Their exposure to their performance
skills is usually at an early age, learned firsthand (often within their
own families), and what they perform is an integral part of their particular
culture.
Traditions Showcases
The Great Lakes Folk Festival features "Traditions Showcases", comparative sessions featuring specific instruments like the fiddle or accordion and explorations of cultural and geographical differences and similarities in musical traditions.
More information about the 2008 Showcases will be available by Mid-July.
