Event

An American Tune

John Reischman, mandolin
Stephen Stubbs, guitar
Tom Berghan, banjo
Brandon Vance, fiddle
Catherine Webster, vocals

This boundary-crossing programme features early and traditional musicians exploring some of the roots of the
United States' folk and popular music. "Old-time" songs are some of America's own early music. In the mid-to-late 1800s, America witnessed a surge in publications of "popular" music: Civil War songs, slave songs, cowboy songs, minstrel plays and parlour songs, along with hymns and revival tunes. "An American Tune" spans this half-century, tracing particularly the path of old world British Isles folk music to the isolated rural areas of the United States. Catherine Webster (soprano) and Stephen Stubbs (lute, guitar and conductor) have spent careers based on the exploration of 17th and 18th century European music traditions and are now turning their interest to some of the first popular music of their own country.

They've come together now to create a gorgeous programme of Foster songs, 19th-century hymns and reels, and exquisite arrangements of Appalachian early folk tunes and ballads.

Presented in cooperation with Music on Main.
Generously sponsored by Chris Guzy & Mari Csemi.