The Johnson Girls (Monthly Program)

Joy Bennett, Alison Kelley, Bonnie Milner, and Deirdre Murtha are The Johnson Girls.Sea music may well have been the first ?world music.? Ships were often melting pots, with crew members from many countries who were heavily influenced by the music they heard while traveling around the world and from other crew members. These sailors incorporated into their work songs and other shipboard music the different rhythms and styles from their own often diverse cultures as well as those they encountered during their voyages. Each of The Johnson Girls was captivated by this music at different times in their lives, and came together in 1997 following the Mystic Seaport Sea Music festival to burst through the barrier of this previously male dominated genre. The Johnson Girls is an energetic all-woman mostly a cappella group performing folk music with an emphasis on songs of the sea and shore. Each member of the group brings a specialty and style to the ensemble. The Johnson Girls? extensive repertoire of both traditional and contemporary music includes songs with an Afro-Caribbean influence, of the inland waterways, of fishing, mining, Irish, Anglo-American, Italian and French Canadian ballads and work songs, and much more. With a sound that has been called ?exciting?, ?haunting?, ?uplifting?, and ?full of harmony?, the Johnson Girls give ?hair-raising? performances of powerhouse chanteys, tender ballads and just plain fun songs, bringing audiences to their feet wherever they go. One newspaper account of The Johnson Girls at the Wadebridge Festival in Cornwall, UK said: ?The Johnson Girls, shanty singers from America, took the place by storm ? Those who thought a shanty singer had to be male, bearded and with a beer gut, had better think again.?Free to FSGW Members; $15 for the general public; free to Chuch of the Ascension members in thanks for the use of the beautiful hall with resonant acoustics.