home >>
event archive >> homegrown concert series archive >> 2005 concerts
2005 Homegrown Concerts
Online Archive of Past Homegrown Concerts
All of the materials from the Homegrown Concert Series
are available to visitors in the Folklife Reading Room. Selected materials
will be
made available
online as digital versions are available.
The event flyers on this page are presented in Adobe
Acrobat PDF format and require Adobe Reader software available for free
on the Adobe
Web site.
December 7, 2005
Coolidge Auditorium Jefferson Building
Birmingham
Sunlights -- African American Gospel
quartet from Alabama
Read
the event flyer essay PDF 2 pages, 1121kb
View the webcast
of this presentation Time 1:01:14
The dynamic Birmingham Sunlights are dedicated to carrying
on the art of unaccompanied gospel harmony singing that has
an especially brilliant heritage in their home place Jefferson
County, Alabama. Formed in 1979 by music director James Alex
Taylor, the quartet originally included James' brothers Steve
and Barry, and Ricky Speights and Wayne Williams; Williams
has since been replaced by Bill Graves. Upon becoming aware
of the rich Jefferson County gospel quartet tradition they
sought training from a senior quartet, the Sterling Jubilees,
to learn songs traditional to the area. For over twenty years
since then, the Sunlights have carried their joyful message
all over the United States and the world. They have appeared
at numerous festivals across the nation, performed in France
as ambassadors of Alabama traditional culture, toured five
countries in Africa and performed extensively in the Caribbean
and Australia under the auspices of the United States Department
of Information and the United States State Department.
November 16, 2005
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson building
Dineh
Tah Navajo Dancers
Read the
event flyer essay PDF 2 pages, 734kb
View the webcast
of this presentation
Time 1:09:16
Founded
in 1993, the Dineh Tah Navajo Dancers promote the understanding of
the rich cultural traditions of the Navajo "Dineh" people. Their
performances include dances and songs such as the Corn Grinding Act,
the Basket
Dance, the Bow and Arrow Dance and the Social Song and Dance. The
group is made up of young dancers from throughout the Four Corners
region
of the Southwest that comprises the Navajo nation. Cosponsored with
the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.
October 12, 2005 at
Noon
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building
Negrura
Peruana -- Afro Peruvian music and dance from Connecticut
Read
the event flyer essay PDF 2 pages, 662kb
View
the webcast of this presentation Time 48:12
Negrura Peruana performs the music and dance of Peru's
African and criollo population from the coastal region just to the
south of Lima, the nation's capital. Group members emigrated from Lima
to the Hartford area of Connecticut about ten years ago and formed
Negrura Peruana in 2002. Group members learned their music, dances
and songs in their neighborhoods in Peru, where music was an important
part of celebrations, gatherings, and informal competitions. Since
its founding Negrura Peruana has become a popular attraction at events
held by the growing Peruvian community in Connecticut.
September 20, 2005 at noon
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building
Carter
Family Tribute -- Old Time Music from Virginia
NEA National Heritage Fellow Concert
Read
the event flyer essay PDF 2 pages, 907kb
View
the webcast of this presentation Time 1:03:01
The Original Carter Family was the most influential
group in early country music, recording dozens of hit songs between
1927 and
1941. Made up of A. P. Carter, his wife Sara Carter, and her cousin
Maybelle Carter (who got the Carter surname by marrying A. P.’s
brother Ezra), the group established many of the conventions of the
genre, including
styles of guitar playing and vocal harmony that remained standard for
years. The Carters also collected and arranged many folk songs from
both white and black traditions, bringing folk ballads, lyric songs
and blues
firmly into popular Country music.
This year [2005], one of the recipients of the National Heritage
Fellowship Award is country singer and autoharp player Janette Carter,
one of A. P. and Sara’s daughters. Janette has labored for years
to preserve the legacy of the Carter Family, and in 1979 founded the
Hiltons, Virginia music venue The Carter Family Fold. In honor of Janette’s
achievement as a performer and an organizer, the American Folklife Center
presented a Carter Family Tribute Concert, featuring prominent country
and old-time musicians, hosted by Joe Wilson, former director of the
National Council for Traditional Arts.
August 17, 2005
at Noon
Madison Hall, 1st floor Madison Building
Benton
Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys -- Old Time music from North Carolina
Read the event
flyer essay PDF 2 pages, 928kb
View the webcast
of this presentation Time 1:01:41
Benton Flippen, one of the icons of old-time fiddling
in America, was born and raised in a musical family in Surry County,
North Carolina. Born in 1920, Flippen comes from a generation of great
players at the epicenter of Southern mountain music. Among his contemporaries
were Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Kyle Creed and Earnest East, musicians
who have influenced countless students of Old Time music. Flippen has
been similarly influential, and he received the 1990 North Carolina Folk
Heritage Award for being the innovator of a distinctive style of old-time
string music. He has served as a mentor for several wonderful musicians,
notably NPR newscaster, music producer, and banjo player Paul Brown,
who will be playing with Flippen at this concert. Benton Flippen is still
an active musician, playing at fiddle contests and square dances throughout
his home region. The Smokey Valley Boys consist of Paul Brown on banjo,
Verlen Clifton on mandolin, and Frank Bodie on guitar.
July 20, 2005 at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building
D.
W.
Groethe -- Cowboy songs and poetry from Montana
Read the event
flyer essay PDF 2 pages, 731kb
View the webcast
of this presentation Time 58:30
D. W. Groethe is the genuine article, a working cowboy
who writes and sings about the everyday life of a rancher on the northern
Great Plains. The descendent of Norwegian immigrants who homesteaded
in Williams County, North Dakota, Groethe has a deep respect for and
knowledge of those who came before him, Native and immigrant alike.
He draws on the long-standing and vigorous traditions of cowboy songs
and
poetry, which continue to thrive in the American west. Chris Billings,
writing in the Billings Gazette, summed up Groethe's art succinctly: "When
he sings, you hear bawling calves, smell the fire at branding time
and shiver at the chill of a skin-stripping prairie wind. You ache
at the
contradiction of ranch life, starving to death to do the thing you
love."
June 21, 2005
at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium Jefferson Building
Margaret
MacArthur -- Ballads and songs from Vermont
Read the
event flyer essay PDF 2
pages, 876kb
View the
webcast of this presentation Time 1:03:33
Since settling in Vermont in 1948, Margaret MacArthur
has traveled through the state and throughout northern New England,
recording old songs that have been passed down through generations and
giving them
new life through her own performances. Margaret is a marvelous singer
and a serious scholar and collector of the traditional songs of New
England. She has been honored by both the state of Vermont and the New
England
Council on the Arts for her role in preserving the traditional arts
of the region. Of a previous MacArthur appearance, Mike Joyce of The
Washington
Post said: "She's a champion of simpler times and rural places as well
as a collector of heartfelt poems and curious tales...but whatever
their source or subject matter, MacArthur imbued them with warmth.
Margaret MacArthur passed away May 23, 2006 at her home
after a short illness. Visit The
Vermont Folklife Center's Web pages on Margaret MacArthur which
includes audio recordings and an obituary.
May 18, 2005
at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium Jefferson Building
Chu Shan -- Chinese Opera Institute from Maryland
Read the event
flyer essay (PDF 2 pages, 783kb)
(video unavailable online)
The Chu Shan Chinese Opera Institute was founded in 1991
by Zhu Chu Shan, a Chinese opera director, and Judy Huang, an actress,
to provide skilled leadership in directing, acting, teaching, and presenting
Chinese opera in the Baltimore-Washington area. They have staged performances
of all sizes, and have trained students of all ages, in both large
and small groups, in the arts of Chinese opera. More than just a musical
style, Chinese Opera is a performance system whose ancient origins
have
been tempered by five thousand years of development. The discipline
demands several skills from performers. The basic elements are summed
up by the
phrase chang, zuo, nian, da --- singing, acting, reciting, and martial
arts fighting. Actors' movements are guided by the predominant aesthetic
principle of xieyi, or, literally, "freehand brushstroke," a metaphor
borrowed from traditional Chinese painting that refers to the highly
stylized, symbolic representation of action on the operatic stage. Visit the Washington
Chu Shan Chinese Opera Institute Web site to learn about their
workshops and upcoming productions.
April
21, 2005 at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building
Liz
Carroll with John Doyle -- Irish American fiddling from Illinois.
Read the event
flyer essay PDF
863kb
(video unavailable online)
Liz Carroll is universally recognized as one of the greatest
Irish fiddlers playing today. Born in Chicago of Irish immigrant parents,
Liz astounded the Irish music world in 1975 when she won the senior All-Ireland
fiddling championship at the age of eighteen. In a genre noted for its
virtuosic musicians, she is widely admired for her diverse repertoire,
her dazzling original compositions and her unique and carefully crafted
playing style. Liz has recorded numerous albums and performed all over
the United States and Europe. In 1994 she was awarded a National Heritage
Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for her contributions
to traditional Irish music in America. John Doyle, originally from Dublin,
spent several years with the group Solas, and is now one of the most
sought-after accompanists in Irish music. Also an accomplished singer,
Doyle currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
|