12:00 - 12:30 Eric Rice-Johnston

Eric Rice-Johnston
David Sheim


This year, my presentation will be, “500 Years of Scottish Bagpipe Music”, which will trace pipe music-which appeared as a fully developed musical art form at the beginning of its historical documentation in the 1500s. The ‘piobaireachd’ (‘pe-brock’) is stunningly similar to the form of the Indian raga most frequently played on sitars. Some airs and other slow tunes also come from that time.
In 1746, England proscribed the wearing of tartan, wearing kilts and the playing of pipes, to break the Scottish spirit. Forty years later, these cultural niceties were again permitted, the tunes having been largely preserved in the form of ‘canntaireachd’ (CAN-tar-akh), wherein the notes are sung with syllables which indicate the fingerings to be played on the pipe chanter.
By a quirk of fate, Mother England herself saves the instrument and its music from demise—regimental captains conscripted pipers to serve much like today’s army buglers. Thus developed the regimental marches, retreat tunes, etc. From there, it was a short remaining step to adopt the pipes for dance music, with the strathspeys, reels, hornpipes and jigs. Today, these appear as marching and dance tunes—in more rigorous forms for technical competitions. Over the last decade or two, pipes have been embraced by some ‘celtic rock’ bands, where even the pipes require amplification to be heard. Not many people know that the Australian band AC/DC performed and recorded numbers featuring the pipes.

12:30 - 1:00 Lilo Gonzalez and Family

Ramon Gonzales
Alfredo Mojica
Richard Miller
Ben Hole


Lilo Gonzales Family


Lilo and his family keep the music and spirit of El Salvador alive. The 2006 Wammie winner for Latino vocalist, Lilo writes much of his own music as he reflects on the immigrant experience.

1:00 - 1:45 Bill Baker

Bill Baker
Dave Geigerich
Gantt Kushner


"More than just a handsome voice... In addition to being a fine acoustic guitarist, he's an extremely talented songwriter whose lyrics often flow as smoothly and as naturally as his vocals," is the way Washington Post writer Mike Joyce describes the talents of Bill Baker. With musical influences as diverse as Hank Williams, Mississippi John Hurt and Cole Porter, Bill Baker is a synthesis of what could be considered truly American music. Bill is joined by some of DC's finest musicians: Gantt Kushner and Dave Giegerich.

1:45 - 2:15 Eric Maring

Eric Maring


Traveling, exploring, understanding, and celebrating the joy of being alive have always served as the heart of Eric Maring's musical life and songs. For over ten years he has been sharing his love of music with people across the U.S. and as far as India, where he recently spent a year with his family studying Indian percussion. An accomplished songwriter with four CDs, he has performed locally at the Birchmere, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and on the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage. In 2003 he had the good fortune to travel with his band Jawbone to Delhi to perform for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the festival of Sacred Chanting and Singing.

2:15 - 3:00 Cletus Kennelly and Lori Kelley

Cletus Kennelly
Lori Kelley


Contemporary folk & melodic pop, rife with beautiful vocal harmonies, with 6- and 12-string guitars. They won the 2007 Wammie for Best Contemporary Folk Group.

3:00 - 3:30 Trip Clements and Fiddler's Dream

Fiddler's Dream


The members of Fiddler's Dream have been playing old-time music together for over 10 years. Al and Hubie played with Trip at different times as The Brush Valley Ramblers. After Trip and Nancy got together they named the group and their farm Fiddler's Dream.

3:30 - 4:15 Alan Oresky

Alan Oresky
Larry Robinson


Master Fiddler Alan Oresky never met a fiddle style he couldn't play. He will showcase some of his favorites, including klezmer and other Jewish styles, swing, and Irish. Larry Robinson will accompany him on the guitar.

4:15 - 5:00 Near East Music Society

Near East Music Society


The Near East Music Society, a community of Middle Eastern music enthusiasts, presents traditional music based on the Arabic Maqam modal system. They perform using traditional instruments, oud, kannun, ney, tablah, and riq.
What is a Maqam ? In Arabic music, a maqam (plural maqamat) is a set of notes with traditions that define relationships between them, habitual patterns, and their melodic development. Maqamat are best defined and understood in the context of the rich Arabic music repertoire. The nearest equivalent in Western classical music would be a mode (e.g. Major, Minor, etc.) The Arabic scales which maqamat are built from are not even-tempered, unlike the chromatic scale used in Western classical music. Instead, 5th notes are tuned based on the 3rd harmonic. The tuning of the remaining notes entirely depends on the maqam. The reasons for this tuning are probably historically based on string instruments like the oud. A side effect of not having even-tempered tuning is that the same note (by name) may have a slightly different pitch depending on which maqam it is played in.

5:00 - 6:00 Writers of Notes

Billy Coulter
Cletus Kennelly
Laura Tsaggaris


This group of fine musicians includes the talented and emotionally evocative Laura Tsaggaris; award winning vocalist and songwriter Billy Coulter;and contemporary folk and pop music duo, Cletus Kennelly and Lori Kelley.

6:00 - 7:00 Yours for a Song

Lea
Siobhán Quinn
Michael Bowers
Karen Collins


The local singer songwriting team Siobhán Quinn and Michael Bowers perform their urban campfire music and are joined by the straight ahead honky tonker Karen Collins and the always exciting Lea.