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Music & Dance |
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The roots, the rhythms and the richness of music, dance, arts and culture from across America and around the world come to downtown East Lansing for the Michigan State University Museum's annual Great Lakes Folk Festival, Aug. 13-15.
The music and dance program, sponsored by the City of East Lansing, features performances ranging from blues to bluegrass, Latino, polka, Cajun, Celtic and more diverse cultural expressions and traditions. Musical artists perform two to four times throughout the weekend, so visitors have a chance to see the bands they like and discover new genres and favorites.
The preliminary music line-up includes:
Alberta Adams | Blues |Detroit, Michgan
Chulrua | Irish Celtic | St. Paul, Minnesota; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Baltimore, Maryland
De Temps Antan | Québécois | Tradition French Canadian Music | Montréal, Quebec, Canada
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| D W Groethe - cowboy poetry and songs |
D.W. Groethe | Cowboy Poetry/Songs | Bainville, Montana
Imamyar Hasanov and Pejman Hadadi | Music from Azerbaijan and Iran | Washington D. C. and Los Angeles, CA
Kimo Hussey | Hawai'ian Ukelele| Honolulu, Hawaii
Klancnik & Friends Band | Slovenian Polka | Nashville, Tennessee
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver | Bluegrass | Bristol, Tennessee - National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow Awardee
Sana Ndiaye | Ekonting Master -- ancient musical instrument from the southern region of Senegal | Northampton, Massachusetts and Dakar, Senegal
Mariachi Perla de México | Mariachi | Chicago, Illinois
Rumen "Sali" Shopov | Romani/Bulgarian| San Fancisco, California
Siempre Flamenco | Andalucian Flamenco | Miami, Florida
Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole | Creole/Zydeco | Lafayette, Louisiana
Musical line-up, sponsored by the City of East Lansing:
| Artist | Genre | Song Title | Download |
| Alberta Adams | Blues | Don't Worry Me | MP3 / WMA |
| Chulrua | Irish Celtic | The Golden Wedding-Paddy Murphy's WIfe | MP3 / WMA |
| De Temps Antan | Québécois | Tradition French Canadian Music | Chère Léonore | MP3 / WMA |
| D.W. Groethe | Cowboy Poetry/Songs | Generations | MP3 / WMA |
| Imamyar Hasanov and Pejman Hadadi | music from Azerbaijan and Iran | Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, California | MP3 / WMA |
| Kimo Hussey | Hawai'ian Ukulele | A 'O Ia | MP3 / WMA |
| Klancnik & Friends Band | Slovenian Polka | Rs Polka | MP3 / WMA |
| Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver | Bluegrass | Light On My Feet, Ready to Fly | MP3 / WMA |
| El Mariachi Perla De México | Mariachi | El Cascabel | MP3 / WMA |
| Sana Ndiaye | Ekonting Master | Sunugal | MP3 / WMA |
| Rumen "Sali" Shopov | Romani/Bulgarian | Paidushko | MP3 / WMA |
| Siempre Flamenco | Andalucian Flamenco | Seguirilla | MP3 / WMA |
| Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole | Creole/Zydeco | J'ai Été Tout Autour Du Pays | MP3 / WMA |
Visitors can also take part in two new programs added this year on Saturday evening: Community Singing, led by Rev. Robert B. Jones, Ray Kamalay and Sally Potter, and a Musicians Jam Session, led by the MSU Community Music School and Residential College in the Arts and Humanities.
Community Singing and Song Festivals
Across America, in living rooms, churches, family reunions, campgrounds, bars, stadiums, and community centers, people have long gathered together for the simple pleasure of joining voices in song. Today, a newer version of this gathering of amateur songsters is growing in popularity. New York Times writer Ben Ratliff notes that these events-called song circles, community sings, sing-alongs, or singing festivals-"draw together the average-voiced and bring old songs into common memory." In our increasingly digital and sometimes alienating world, the act of singing with others is both an immediately satisfying personal experience and a powerful tool for building community. Here, in East Lansing, musician, producer, and educator Sally Potter, founded the annual Mid-Winter Singing Festival. Sally has now organized this community singing program at the Great Lakes Folk Festival.
Please join us in song. You don't need choral experience or a great singing voice, just the simple desire to join others in making music together.
"Old-time" Music Jam Sessions in Michigan
Old-time music jam sessions are events where individuals come together to play a variety of acoustic instruments, including fiddle (perhaps the most essential instrument of a jam), guitar, banjo, mandolin, upright bass, harmonica, and ukulele. The sessions are generally free and open to the public. Typically these sessions have no "audience", the audience is actually the participants themselves.
Throughout North America, old-time jam sessions take place all year long, although they are particularly prevalent in the summer months when musicians travel to large music festivals to share music with friends and strangers alike. Musicians find out about when and where these sessions take place through word of mouth (although increasingly they can also be found through internet searches and on websites like www.folkjam.com).
Like many other musical traditions that are maintained orally/aurally, these sessions are one of the central and indispensable ways that musicians learn instrumental styles and build their knowledge of the repertories. Many groups welcome all skill levels as musicians learn the music "by ear" and "on the fly," an arrangement facilitated by the musical repetition built into most of the tunes.
The musical repertoires performed at these sessions are also maintained through oral/aural tradition. The repertoires shift over the years as musicians come and go, as new tunes are composed and older tunes come in and go out of fashion, and as new generations of instrumentalists emerge. The core of the repertoire, however, consists of southern Appalachian fiddle tunes but may also include square dance music, East Coast contra-dance music, Irish fiddle tunes, and any number of regionally or culturally defined musical repertoires.
The music performed at Michigan jam sessions reflects the region's unique geography and ethnic make-up. In the Lansing/East Lansing area the Pretty Shaky String Band (so named because the membership is constantly shifting and unstable, thus "shaky") has been hosting floating old time jam sessions for many years. In 2009 an old-time jam session was started at the MSU Residential College of Arts and Humanities (RCAH) in collaboration with the MSU College of Music (COM) and the Community Music School (CMS). The old-time jam session at the Great Lakes Folk Festival is a new collaboration of RCAH, COM, and CMS with the MSU Museum.
Dance-Dance-Dance
We've just arranged to have a hula dancer to accompany Hawai'ian ukulele player Kimo Hussey. Angela Dewey, from Ann Arbor, is a first-generation Polynesian-American and hula dancer. She began dancing hula at age five, and performed hula while growing up in Utah. She has taught beginning hula classes in Ann Arbor. Angela apprenticed with master hula dancer Dr. Amy Stillman who is also a hula scholar at University of Michigan through the MSU Museum's Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and through Stillman's Great Lakes Hula Academy. Angela learned Hole Waimea and other hula chanting and dances from Amy and hopes to pass on the tradition to her daughter and others. Learn more: http://museum.msu.edu/s-program/mtap/mtaap/awards/2009AS.html
On the Dance Stage: Rick King will lead Rrom ("gypsy") dances so visitors can dance to music of the Balkans and Turkey.
