Three of us will be giving a presentation on Irish maritime and immigrant songs from the Flanders Ballad Collection on Saturday at 0900. Those of you who don't stay up late are most welcome to join us at the Symposium. Nancy-Jean Ballard, Bonnie and I will be playing some tapes of Flanders source singers and talking about the collection which comprises some 4500 musical items, virtually all collected in the 6 New England States.

The Folk-Legacy CD, "Irish Songs from Old New England: Traditional Irish-American Songs from the Flanders Ballad Collection," will be previewed also. The CD contains 16 songs sung by modern-day artists including 3 All-Ireland Champions (Frank Harte, Jim McFarland, Len Graham), some of North America's finest ballad singers (Gordon Bok, Ian Robb, Robbie O'Connell, Sandy Paton, Caroline Paton), 4 leaders of the Irish-American traditional song movement (Bonnie Milner & Deirdre Murtha of the Johnson Girls, Bob Conroy and myself), and 2 icons of Britain's folk song revival (Louis Killen, Martin Carthy). The CD will be available at the festival.

Bonnie and I do a ballad workshop with Dick Swain and Robbie O'Connell on Saturday at 1pm, a concert at 11am on Sunday at the Fishtown Chapel, and a workshop on the Flanders Collection at noon on Sunday. Look forward to seeing everyone. Mystic is just lovely!

All the best,
Dan Milner