The birthday party for Faith and Piper is at the Freight & Salvage on September 13 at 8:00 p.m., with special guests: Larry Hanks, Keith Terry & Evie Ladin, Salsa by El Meneo with Barbara Valladares, Marco Diaz, Anthony Blea, Saul Sierra and Javier Navarette, Faith Petric and Piper Heisig.
The folknik fold-in will be on Sunday, October 29 at noon at the home of Kathryn LaMar, 21295 Birch Street, Hayward, (510) 733-0425. As usual, the more, the merrier-to help with the folknik, to enjoy a late lunch afterwards, and to make music. Bring potluck food and instruments.
A Labor Heritage/Rockin' Solidarity Chorus (a Labor Chorus) meets Thursday evenings- 6:30 to 9:30 at City College, San Francisco in Room 303 of the Creative Arts Building at the main Phelan campus starting August 24.. It is sponsored by the Labor Studies Department .and the Music Department and is open to everyone. This will be the fourth semester.
All the songs are about work of some kind, including South African, gospel, sambas, songs in Spanish and the old favorites from our labor heritage.
The chorus will also be held at Laney College in Oakland every other Saturday afternoon at 12:30 starting September 9
For further information, contact Pat Wynne, wynnegilbert@igc.org
The Loose Canons, a 12-woman world music ensemble including the voices of SFFMC members Jillian Tallmer, Jonnie Pekelny, Lisa Rhode, Melissa Sarenac, Sharyn Dimmick, Debra Tayleur, and Mary O Brien, along with entertainer extraordinaire Ed Silberman, will give two festive performances this fall. All proceeds will go to Musica en los Barrios, a grassroots community music program for children in Managua, Nicaragua that was founded by Jillian's former voice teacher Dorothy Barnhouse.
Performances will be Sunday, October 29, 2:30 P.M. at the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship at Cedar and Bonita and Sunday, November 5, 2:30 P.M at All Saints Church at Masonic and Waller, San Francisco.
After the shows, enjoy Russian delicacies and dancing. Tickets will be $25-$50 including dinner.
Enjoy fine entertainment and help kids in Nicaragua have music in their lives. If you can contribute your instrumental or culinary talents, or want more information, call Jillian at 415-668-2284.
Smithsonian Folkways' just-received 2000 catalogue lists some 400 recordings of world traditions, bluegrass, old-time music, children's, folk, blues, jazz, spoken word and sound, and American Indian traditions.
Why should the Smithsonian Museum have a record company? Director Anthony Seeger of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings replies: "Sound is an essential part of human experience. It moves people in many ways and is part of a lot of what we do and are. The Smithsonian has unparalleled collections of insects, of gems, of paintings, and many other things, so why not a wonderful collection of sound?"
Malvina Reynolds' "Ear to the Ground" compilation CD has just been released by Smithsonian/Folkways and features her topical songs 1960-1978. Order through the Smithsonian web page www.si.edu/folkways or check local stores. Watch for a review in the next folknik. A further Smithsonian Reynolds CD is planned.
Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, a not-for-profit institution founded in 1957, is in search of an executive director. The facility includes a concert hall, group and private classrooms, a Children's Center, a resource center, a cafe, and store. In 2000, enrollment is 5,500 students per week with a faculty of 175. Applications should be sent to Genovese Vanderhoof and Associates at 77 Carlton Steet #1103, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 2J7. (416) 340-2762, fax (416) 340-6276.
KALW, 91.7 FM, has a program, "Folk Music and Beyond," every Saturday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
The September programs:
§ 9/2: Labor Day: Work songs and songs of labor, from Ewan MacColl, Dick Gaughan, Larry Long, and more.
§ 9/9: Richard Thompson Retrospective: This program will focus primarily on the last ten years of Richard Thompson's illustrious career.
§ 9/16: Choral Music and Music of Large Ensembles: Kitka, the local ensemble Soltice, Milladoiro, and others.
§ 9/23: Music from Wales: Songs from some of the best-known musicians on the Welsh folk music scene, including triple harper Robin Huw Bowen and Crasdant, Ar Log, Carreg LaFar, Cusan Tan, and others.
More programs will be listed as available on their Web site at www.kalwfolk.org/
Black cotton jersey bolero, very small with silver and carnelian brooch on it. Left in cafeteria on Saturday 5:30, gone by 6:30 pm. Anyone who knows what happened to it please call Mara at 415 824-2738.
Neil Young, for years volunteer sound person at the SFFMC Free Folk Festival and other Bay Area folkie events, continues to offer special help to local folkies. Fees for studio time to singer/songwriters that cannot otherwise put their compositions on tape are minimal, covering only expenses. CDs can also be burned as 'production masters' or rough mixes. While specializing in acoustic music, Neil can add embellishments where necessary with his full 32-track automated digital system. Contact Neil at canyon13@ix.netcom.com; P.O. Box 13, Canyon, CA 94516 or (510) 376-6135.
Many thanks to Rachel Levin, our editor for pages 2 and 3 , for her good work on the folknik. She is leaving to pursue academic studies, and the posistion is now available. The duties: gather information for Community Notes and other folk-related activities, get the pages ready and deliver them to the printer. by the deadline. Anyone interested please contact Phyllis Jardine, folknik editor, pjardine@aol.com
Our life goes on as usual, but that will change soon as we are moving to Knoxville, Tennessee in September. Pam has a new job at the University of Tennessee in the microbiology department, and I am the tag-along spouse.
When we move we should find lots of music in around Knoxville, and we won't be too far from Ashville, where we'll find lots of music, festivals, etc. Needless to say, we're looking forward to all that. Enjoyed your piece on Ray Jacobs in the Folknik. He and his wife Shirley get down to this neck of the woods every so often, and we enjoy visiting and playing with them. In addition to the dulcimers, guitars, mandolins, and fiddles, he has recently made a cardboard viola de gamba!
Leaving Montana is hard to do, and we don't really want to, but sometimes the greater plan runs contrary to our little desires. We hope to come back to Montana in a few years and aren't selling our place here. We do some fun gigs here, with a regular one on Thursday nights at a Scotch pub We play whatever—mostly swing and old-country or folk; don't know many Scotch songs anyhow. We've played for a Mountain-Man gathering, a renaissance fair, contra dances and various other events. I've gotten into Travis fingerpicking a bit more lately—even bought an electric guitar and amplifier so I could sound a tiny bit like that old master. So long for the present,
Love and Music
Lively, creative, union oriented coordinator wanted to organize our 15th Annual Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival, which honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This part-time job involves fundraising, audience building, creative input, programming of workshops and performances and the coordination of diverse, committed volunteers. The Festival program includes workshops and concert performances. It is held on Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. weekend in January. Modest salary offered, approximately $800 per month, with a minimum of 4 to 6 months, and it is negotiable based on experience, energy, and fundraising/budget track records. The successful candidate will be a self-starter with organizational, budget and follow-up skills. To apply, send a statement of interest and 3 references to:
Western Workers Festival
Shelley Kessler, President
c/o San Mateo County Central Labor Council
1153 Chess Drive #200
Foster City CA 94404
Fax: 650-572-2481
Email: tsampson@sfsu.edu
October 14, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. California State University, Hayward —Evo Bluestein Loaner harps available. phone (510) 885-3605
Group guitar classes for beginners and intermediates begin Sept. 20 at Eric Schoenberg Guitars in Tiburon. Classes are taught by National Fingerpicking Champion Joe Miller. For more information call (415) 789-0846. Private lessons are also available.
Paul W. Lovinger's new book, The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style, has just been published by Penguin Putnam Inc. It is subtitled A Readable Reference Book, Illuminating Thousands of Traps That Snare Writers and Speakers. Paul, of San Francisco, is better known in the club as the composer and lyricist of novelty songs for children and adults.
Orion Edmonson is available for house sitting. Call 510-496-6000 ext. 129.
On August 5, a concert celebration was held at St. Alban's Church in Albany in memory of Joy MacCarthy who died after an extended bout with cancer. As she requested, the performers represented a lifetime of her musical affiliations, and featured many of her own compositions.
Joy began her interest in traditional music by singing American southern mountain ballads and Newfoundland songs accompanying herself on guitar. Joy's interest in folk music led her to membership in numerous Bay Area Groups; The San Francisco Folk Music Club, The San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers, The Irish Fiddle Club, her own ensemble, Beltane, Irish sessions at the Starry Plough in Berkeley and the East Bay Pickin' Potlucks. She began playing the Irish folk harp about fifteen years ago after assembling her own harp, and fostered the development of the Folk Harp Society and the Folk Harp Journal.
In addition to her music, Joy pursued endless hobbies and interests. She did woodworking, carpentry and stained glass. She was a writer and a journalist and did genealogical research on her own family. She was passionate about preserving the environment and was an admirer of Julia Butterfly Hill.
Joy was interested in people to such a degree that if someone unknown to her came into her field of vision in a few minutes she knew their whole life history. She was particularly interested in young people and always took time to get to know them. Many of her former students in the Berkeley school system remember her as their favorite teacher.
A family person, Joy kept in touch with relatives and friends all over the country. When her husband George died ten years ago she never forgot the new connections she met through him. She had a great deal of pride in the accomplishments of her two sons, Robert and Ronald and her two grandchildren, Alexandra and Jeffree.
At her memorial concert people told stories about Joy, the common theme of which was that she made the world a brighter place. After the concert the Scottish fiddlers ushered out her friends and family with some lively tunes. Then we all went to her house where her sons hosted a party. As so many times before, the house rang out with the music and people that Joy loved.
—Carol Ginsburg
Cindy Fressola and Matt Garber announce that they are the love-smitten parents of Lucia Rose Fressola, born June 4th. Luchia (loo-chée-ah) in Italian means bringer of light. Lucia weighed 7lbs 7 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long at birth. All three are healthy and happy.
David Thompson and Andrea Brewer Thompson announce the birth of their second daughter, Aine Grace Brewer Thompson. Aine (áhn-ya) was born at home on May 29 with Rae Fixler attending. Aine's name takes its spelling from the pre-biblical Gaelic. Her mother, father and little sister, Sophia Kaleia, are thrilled.
For the second consecutive year, San Francisco Folk Club members Adam Miller and Laura Velasquez were the recipients of the Leonard A. Reid "People's Choice Award" for "Outstanding Musical Performance" on the open stage of the Mount Laurel Autoharp Gathering. The Mount Laurel Autoharp Gathering is the largest autoharp convention in the world, attended by over 300 participants. It is held over the Fourth of July weekend in Newport, Pennsylvania, home of Orthey Instruments, one of America's premier custom autoharp luthiers.
Bernie Griff is moving from the San Geronimo Valley to the Redding Area. Any musical references of folks up that way will be highly appreciated at bgriff@nbn.com. Bernie also reports great singing sessions at the Marin Folk Club which is building up again - he'll miss Marin and other Bay Area folkies "more than I can say."
Sadly, Sandie Schuitema and Denis Franklin have lost their mothers in the past months. The community sends its heartfelt sympathy to them both.
On August 10, 2000, Eleanor Williams was croned in the company of more than fifty women representing the many aspects of her life in the Bay Area and beyond. The ceremony included candle lighting, readings and inspiring tributes to Eleanor's vibrance. In case you are only familiar with the pejorative use of the term crone, according to the Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (1983), crone is the "designation of the third of the triple Goddesses three aspects." More recently this has come to mean the third phase of a woman's life for which Eleanor was honored for her wise, independent spirit.
As part of her preparation for the event, Eleanor kept a journal for the first time in her life and remained silent for 36 hours. At the conclusion of the ceremony she gave each women present a fresh sprig of rosemary for remembrance of all the wise women they have loved and admired from the past. Let us all wish Eleanor joy in this newest phase of her life.