Norman Kennedy (Special Event)

Ballad, Songs, and Stories from ScotlandWHEN WE HEARD THAT NORMAN KENNEDY WAS coming into town to do some weaving workshops in Waterford, we couldn't resist inviting him to do a concert for FSGW. Norman Kennedy is an incomparable unaccompanied singer of traditional Scottish songs. Originally from Aberdeen, he learned his songs naturally by growing up around some of the great Scottish singers of the last generation. He has a wide repertoire of songs learned directly from them without the facility of tapes and records. He learned them, not because he wanted to be a folk singer, but because even as a boy he was drawn to the music. HIS CONCERT IS LIKE AN INFORMAL CONVERSATION with the audience. In a relaxed moment he'll slide into an old song and when he's finished, before you realize it's over, he will have gone on into a memory of where it's come from and how he learned it. His dry sense of humor and memory of the stories surrounding the songs make you appreciate not only the old songs, but the old ways as well. 'You can tell stories, you can recite them, you can sing them,' he says. Singing and recollecting are all part of the same cloth. With this directness he presents ballads -- stories of love won and lost, betrayal, death -- in a way that holds everyone's attention. As Norman explains it: 'These songs are my roots; they're older and more important than I am.'THERE IS NO FINER SOURCE STILL ALIVE for traditional Scottish song and culture than Norman Kennedy. Come hear him.Contact Riki Schneyer or Milan Pavich at 301-270-2792 for directions to their home in historic Takoma Park.

Metro: a short 10-minute walk from the Takoma Station on the Red Line.