The FSGW Calendar can be viewed two ways:
Based in Brooklyn and Sevilla, Spain, Julia Patinella presents Andalusian music “steeped in the celebration and the laments of southern Spain … sub-genres that are only passed down through oral tradition and have been barely exported beyond Andalucia.” She also brings original songs in Spanish, Sicilian and English that reflect themes of the immigrant experience from the perspective of a first-generation American woman. Julia’s singing and flamenco guitar are accompanied by bouzouki and cajon. Visit julia-patinella.squarespace.com for audio samples. At Seekers Church, one block from Takoma Metro station. $15, members $8.
For more information see the Song Circles page.
DJ Beats & Tea brings his unique brand of music to the annex, come out and dance to non-gendered calling and awesome, driving, trance-like music!
Ann Fallon is an accomplished caller and a pioneer of the techno genre who will keep us gliding and guided all night! Come at 7:30 pm for an orientation to contra dancing, or 8:00 sharp for the dance!
The dance is held in the upstairs room of the Glen Echo Town Hall.
General information on our English Country Dances
Ann Fallon calls the dances to the music of Colleen Reed (flute), Bruce Edwards (bassoon and concertina), and Melissa Running (piano)
Martyn Wyndham-Read has been collecting and singing traditional songs for more than 40 years, from his native Sussex coal town to sheep farms in Emu Springs, Australia to collaborations with Bert Lloyd and Bill Leader back in England. Wikipedia — recounting his career and 28 albums from 1963-2012 in much greater detail than his own modest web site — quotes a music critic from the Canberra Times: Martyn “tends to sing his songs slowly, giving each line its due weight and lining the melody out with great clarity. He is helped in this by a voice which rarely wavers from the pitch; but folk singing is a subtle art, and just having a good voice is not enough... He sings English, Irish and Australian ballads with equal authority; in fact he is one of the few singers who can do justice to our bush-ranging and convict songs. His style is polished and rounded, full-blown almost, yet it escapes the theatricality which seems to creep into the work of some of our classically-trained folk singers.” Here's one of many samples of his magnificent voice on YouTube. $15 suggested donation. At Molly Hickman's house in Takoma Park. RSVP & directions: program@fsgw.org.
Friday September 7, 8PM
Topic: "On the Road Again". Make of it what you will.
Home of Heather and Tony Pierce
Parking on the street is limited, but there is lots around the corner.
Phone: 301 869-7551
cell:301 922-5420
heatherpier@gmail.com
Cedar Stanistreet, fiddle Donal Sheets, cello and guitar Arthur Davis, piano, banjo, and trumpet Ness Smith-Savedoff, drums
Jean Gorrindo brings fun, compelling dances, from San Luis Obispo, CA
Melissa Running calls the dances while David Knight (fiddle), Anna Rain (recorders), and Liz Donaldson (piano) make the music
After the Flood is a homegrown "newgrass" band that started out as a close harmony trio at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church. From the liner notes to their eponymous 2016 CD: “Blurring the boundaries between sacred and secular styles, After the Flood walks the line between the church and the city streets, singing songs of justice and devotion, of brokenness and praise in soaring harmony.” Cosponsored by the Office of Historic Alexandria and FSGW, this is the June concert in the Alexandria After Work concert series held in the heart of Old Town Alexandria at 6 pm on the second Friday of each month. Take the free trolley that runs every 15 minutes from King Street Metro station! In the gardens of the historic Murray-Dick-Fawcett House, 517 Prince Street, if the weather is good; at the Lyceum, 201 S. Washington Street, if it rains. $15 suggested donation; cash bar.
Tom Spilsbury calls the dances while Susan Brandt (flute), Ralph Gordon (cello), and Liz Donaldson (piano) play
Back by popular demand: This youthful Chicago-based quartet was described by Dirty Linen in 2009 as playing with “a precision and intensity that is rarely heard on this side of the Atlantic” and in a style “largely forgotten in today’s overly polished Irish music world.” They have performed and taught at regional Celtic festivals from Milwaukee to the Catskills and at Old Songs and the National Folk Festival, among others. They were the Irish Music Association’s “Top Traditional Group” of 2009. Bua is Brian Ó hAirt (lead vocals, sean-nós dance, concertina), Sean Gavin (flute, uilleann pipes, whistle), Devin Shepherd (fiddle), and Brian Miller (guitar and bouzouki). At the Lyceum of Alexandria, 201 S. Washington Street (on the free trolley line from King Street Metro station, running every 15 minutes). $20, members $10. (Note corrected date: Sept. 21.)
Cosponsored by Free Dirt Records, Hamlin Street Diner, and FSGW, living legend Alice Gerrard returns to All Souls Unitarian Church where she and Hazel Dickens recorded Who’s That Knocking, their first of four collaborations, in 1965. This special concert celebrates the release of Sing Me Back Home: The DC Tapes, 1963-1965, a new album of previously unreleased recordings by Dickens & Gerrard.
Opening: Jake Blount & Tatiana Hargreaves, rising young stars whose duo EP Reparations was released in 2017. Blount, on banjo and fiddle, has played with Bruce Molsky and Rhiannon Giddens and was the first African-American finalist in the Appalachian String Band Music Festival. Hargreaves played fiddle on Gillian Welch’s Grammy-nominated album The Hazel & Alice Sessions and toured with Laurie Lewis. This event will be filmed for a documentary about Gerrard.
Advance tickets will be available online at freedirt.net for $18 ($10 for FSGW members) and at the door for $20 ($10 for FSGW members). Whether you buy tickets online or at the door, you must show your current FSGW membership card to be admitted with a member discount ticket. At 1500 Harvard St. NW 20009 (Metro: Columbia Heights or bus S2/S4; Circulator: Woodley Park-McPherson Square line).
no passes
The band and caller for this dance are TBD.
More information visit the DC Square Dances page
See the full Contrastock page for details!
April Blum calls to the playing of Becky Ross (fiddle), Carrie Rose (flute), and Francine Krasowska (piano)
FSGW and the Institute of Musical Traditions present these two folkstars on their first tour together, performing as a duo and separately. Songwriter Jez Lowe from Co. Durham is in a special category with Ian Robb, Archie Fisher and our own Janie Meneely — folksingers who have written songs often mistaken for old traditional fare. His songs, such as Durham Gaol, The Bergen, and These Coal Town Days, have been recorded by Fairport Convention, The Dubliners, The Tannahill Weavers, Cherish The Ladies, Gordon Bok, and many more. Music critic Dave Marsh called Calgary native James Keelaghan “Canada’s finest singer-songwriter” based on a dozen albums spanning 30 years and featuring Fires of Calais, Cold Missouri Waters, Jenny Bryce, Hillcrest Mine, and Kiri’s Piano. He is also the artistic director of the Summerfolk Music & Crafts Festival in Owen Sound, Ontario, and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.
Advance tickets will be available online through IMT for $25 ($15 for FSGW members) and at the door for $30 ($20 for FSGW members). Whether you buy tickets online or at the door, you must show your current FSGW membership card to be admitted with a member discount ticket. (We're serious: If you order a discount ticket online and do not show your membership card at the door, your ticket will not be honored. This is an experiment; please help it succeed.)
Caller & Musicians: Liz Donaldson, piano; David Knight, fiddle; Ralph Gordon, bass.
General information about the Sunday Night Contra and Square Dance
Admission : $8, $6 for members, youth and students
Lesson at 7:30 - Dancing 8 - 11
Caller & Musicians: Greg Frock with Dave Wiesler, piano; Alexander Mitchell, fiddle; Marty Taylor, flutes; and Ralph Gordon, upright bass. You will dance rhapsodic!
Band and Caller for this date are TBD.
This event is being managed by the BFMS. The event page is at http://www.bfms.org/nyeGala.php
Band and Caller are TBD
The Grand March begins at 8:00 pm. The dance will go until 12:15 am.
Details on the New Year's Eve Contra and Square Ball
A traditional and powerful singing of American shape-note hymns, fuging tunes, and anthems in unaccompanied four-part harmony from The Sacred Harp and The Shenandoah Harmony.
Mid-day picnic on the grounds.
See the Potomac River Sacred Harp Singing Convention page for details.
