So, we're into year 2! I hope any and all can make it up for this, it was a blast last year. Much love,
Daphne


New London Music Festival
is proud to present the second installment of
TRADITIONS: A Celebration of Folk & Americana
Saturday, June 21, 2008
3pm to 10pm

Hygienic Art Park
83 Bank Street, New London CT 06320

A city rich with historic and cultural diversity, famous for it's port city dance halls and teeming with live music since it's early years, New London proudly hosts Traditions: A Celebration of Folk, Americana, and Sea Music. Now in its second year, Traditions has grown to envelope a broader spectrum of the American Music Experience. Created out of a deep respect for the multi-national storytelling and wisdom of the traditional music that immigrated to the Americas, and warmly embracing the evolution of those musical forms as they build and define our own unique culture, Traditions has been an elbow-rubbing of the past with the present. Last year's model featured international performers Robbie O'Connell, Roberts and Barrand, and Serre l'Ecoute at the wonderful outdoor oasis that is the Hygienic Art Park in downtown New London. On June 21st, 2008, we will bring mainstays of the American Bluegrass, Sacred Harp, Gospel, Folk-Rock, Delta Blues, and Zydeco movements as well as truly talented multi-instrumentalists and storytellers.

Sponsored by New London Music Festival, Kitchings Productions, Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, The City of New London, New London Main Street, Dime Bank, and Hygienic Art.

3:30    Heritage Muse Presents: Heather Wood & David Kleiman
4:30    Martin Grosswendt
5:30    Lake Street Dive
6:30    Zydecats
7:30    Singing Conquerors
8:30    Cordelia's Dad

For a sampling of the artists work, please visit www.myspace.com/traditionsfestival


3:30    Heritage Muse Presents: Heather Wood & David Kleiman
The Ballad Collection of Francis James Child. "Long before the earliest recorded compositions by professional music-makers, the plain people sang and danced, chanted lullabies and work songs and prayers to their gods. All over the world, in ancient times as today, people unable to read or write a note of music have been and are rich in their feeling for melody and rhythm. Their music-making defies the rules of the schools, and in many ways it may sound rough and crude to the sophisticated ear; but if all the evidence of history is worth anything, it goes to show that before there ever was such a thing as a trained musician, music was an art and a practice well known and deeply loved by the humble of the earth."    - Elie Siegmeister. The Music Lover's Handbook. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1943. p.17

4:30    Martin Grosswendt
A multi-instrumentalist and singer long known for his skill as an interpreter of 1920s and '30s blues, Martin is equally at home playing the old-time country music of the Southern Appalachians or the Cajun and Creole music of Southwest Louisiana. Music Director for Old Time Music Camp North (among others!), instructor at WUMB's Summer Acoustic Music Week & Pinewoods Folk Music Week and Master Artist's assistant at the Augusta Heritage Workshops, Martin is a stellar player and a very warm and engaging teacher. Martin Grosswendt is a multi-talented musician who also plays guitar, bass guitar, banjo and concertina. Martin Grosswendt is about as terrific an acoustic blues revivalist as there is. He has mastered, and made his own, the guitar styles of the Delta, Piedmont and Texas schools. His slide guitar playing is superb, as is his finger-picking.

5:30    Lake Street Dive
Using their jazz backgrounds, Lake Street Dive combines improv and indie-rock in their original tunes and exuberant live shows. The Boston-based band recently completed their debut album "in this episode..." featuring "Sometimes When I'm Drunk and You're Wearing My Favorite Shirt," Grand Prize winner in the 2005 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. "Clearly a talent with extraordinary potential." -Don Heckman, L.A. Times
www.lakestreetdive.com

6:30    Zydecats
The classic dance-hall zydeco lineup of single-row and three-row button accordion, rub-board, electric guitar, bass, and drums. Featuring music from Keith Frank, Geno Delafose, Boozoo Chavis, Clifton Chenier, Roy Carrier, and other great zydeco stylists.

7:30    Singing Conquerors
" A fine bluegrass group who put on a very entertaining show and were very well received when they performed at my Annual Memorial Bluegrass Festival. They are all good down home people and I'm sure that you'll enjoy the Singing Singing Conquerors." –Dr. Ralph Stanley The finest Bluegrass group in the Northeast, fronted by Diane McKoy, have also played at the White House.

8:30    Cordelia's Dad
Since the late 1980s, Cordelia's Dad has been an ongoing series of musical experiments. Beginning with an unabashed punk rock fury; evolving into the tender, intricate acoustic songs of "Spine"; and re-emerging with the dense original rock of "What It Is," the common threads have been powerful harmony singing, haunting melodies, and insistent rhythm. Founders Tim Eriksen and Peter Irvine, along with long-time member Cath Oss, have traveled throughout North America and Europe, melding their passionate interpretations of early American hymns, ballads, and fiddle and banjo tunes with their own contemporary pop music sensibilities. Cordelia's Dad taps into deep veins of American experience and musical tradition, forging a sound that is just as surprising as it is familiar. Tim Eriksen's music is some of the most hair-raising in American old-time and alternative folk, with a decidedly Northern Roots twist. He also has many years and remarkable depth of experience in a kaleidoscope of musical styles including South Indian Classical, Bosnian/Balkan, Hardcore Punk, Sacred Harp, Experimental Electro-acoustic and Oromo Gospel. A few details: main instruments include banjo, fiddle, guitar, bajo sexto and Saraswati veena, has sung/performed/consulted and written songs for films including Cold Mountain, Chrystal, and The Ladykillers, has been a professor of music at Dartmouth, Amherst and Hampshire College and the University of Minnesota, was an early adviser in the creation of "MIM: the World's First Global Musical Instrument Museum", sings Sacred Harp whenever possible, started bands including Cordelia's Dad, Zabe i Babe, Northampton Harmony and Stands for Nothing, has worked, on stage and screen, in class or in the studio with folks including Sting, Jack White, Ralph Stanley, Elvis Costello, Alison Krauss, Nicole Kidman, Steve Reich, Yo Yo Ma, Steve Albini, Joe Boyd and T Bone Burnett, is a 19th century New England music scholar, is currently working on recording projects including a Cordelia's Dad live double CD, a Stands for Nothing re-release of old school hardcore, a symphonic piece, the Macedonian song "Zajdi, Zajdi" with Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, electroacoustic noise/folk with composer Michael Theodore, New England ballads for voice and banjo sexto, and will also be teaching songwriting at Hampshire College and World Music at Dartmouth this Spring, is the only person to have appeared with both Doc Watson and Kurt Cobain and to have unintentionally cut himself on stage at both CBGB and the Academy Awards. www.cordeliasdad.com