Joe - It looks like Arlene Immerman will be doing a workshop on variants of the Gypsy Laddie/Raggle-taggle Gypsies/Blackjack Davy family of ballads. Please disregard my earlier request to do a workshop on variants of the Twa Sisters family of ballads (one such workshop is wonderful; two are excessive!) Instead I'd like to do a workshop on less-common Wassail songs, including orchard-wassailing songs, wren-boy songs, and songs of other house-visiting traditions. Any quiet room that accommodates twenty people will be great. Afternoon is best, any day. Casey

Sounds wonderful! How about on Saturday, Museum, 11-noon? -Joe-

---

update: The Lesser-Known Wassails workshop at Harmony Camp is now confirmed for Sunday at 11am in the Museum.

For the purpose of this workshop, I’m looking for songs traditionally used anywhere in the world for ritualized visits to neighbors’ houses for the purpose of soliciting food, drink, and money, in return for calling down luck or blessings upon the house and its occupants, livestock, orchards etc. This definition includes British Isles/Irish traditions like the Wren Boys, Pace-Egging, and Souling as well as wassails usually sung during the period from Christmas to Twelfth Night. (We’ll save the specifically New Year songs for Ed’s workshop on that subject!) It also includes such traditional songs as Russian Kolyadki and Mexican Posadas. I’m hoping we will push beyond the familiar “Wassail Song” and “Gloucestershire Wassail” to less-well-traveled paths!

Looking forward to hearing all sorts of interesting songs. I hope you can be there! Casey