Music from Coldbrook--the Atwood Family
We're in for a treat, a very special event this month, featuring Tony Barrand, Keith Murphy and Becky Tracy, performing Atwood family songs from the hills of Vermont.
Stonemason James Atwood worked at Coldbrook, the Sturgis family home in the small town of Dover, Vermont. Quoting from the notes to the CD, On the Banks of Coldbrook: ?When he wasn?t working, James would lean his chair against the wall and sing. Mrs. Sturgis wrote down all the words to the songs and ballads.? A music master wrote down the tunes of the Atwood family songs and published a selection in 1919. Vermont singer and collector Margaret MacArthur gathered more songs from members of the Atwood and Sturgis families, and when she died in 2006, Tony looked to the Atwood collection as a continuation of his friend Margaret?s work. In this concert we?ll learn some of the rich folklore and history of the town of Dover.
You probably know Tony Barrand as a champion of English song, singing partner to John roberts as a duo and in Nowell Sing We Clear. But since he retired from teaching, he has pursued other musical trails, including one that flourished quite close to his Vermont home.
His collaborator in presenting the Atwood songs is his neighbor, singer and multi-instrumentalist Keith Murphy, along with Keith?s wife, fiddler Becky Tracy. You probably know them as two-thirds of the dance band Nightingale, and Becky as fiddler with Wild Asparagus.
Last October Tony led a program of Atwood songs and poems for the bicentennial of the town of Dover, in the church where the Atwoods worshipped. Our concert might not be quite so historically connected, but the Washington Revels building in Silver Spring will echo with great harmonies, familiar songs with tunes new to our ears and sprightly New England arrangements.
Barrand first learned of the collection of songs written by Dover, Vermont, resident James K. Atwood when he was a professor at nearby Marlboro College. The legendary folk musician and archivist Margaret MacArthur shared with him a volume of the songs originally published in 1919 and field recordings she made of Atwood's son, Fred, singing them. Barrand revisited the songs for Dover's bicentennial celebration, and went into the studio with Murphy to record the songs.
An accomplished vocalist, Tony Barrand has recorded several albums of traditional folk music with John Roberts, including Twiddlum Twaddlum, Spencer the Rover is Alive and Well, and Across the Western Ocean. He and Roberts are also part of the four person group, Nowell Sing We Clear, which performs an annual yuletide concert series. Barrand recently retired from his post as professor of anthropology at Boston University.
Newfoundland-born Keith Murphy began absorbing his native musical languages - folksongs, ballads and dance music - from an early age. A proficient multi-instrumentalist, he has long applied much of his considerable energy to the rhythmic side, becoming a valued band member and sought-after sideman on guitar, mandolin and foot percussion. At the same time, Murphy's natural and lyrical singing and piano playing add a complementary dimension to his music, a thoughtful, well-crafted and ever-respectful take on tradition.
For a preview, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsep6bn9pqM.
To learn even more about Music from Coldbrook, look at the article Tony Barrand wrote about the project for Sing Out! magazine.
General admission is $20, $15 for FSGW members, $10 for students; the revels office, 531 Dale Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910; walk up a block from the parking lot of the Silver Spring International Middle School, at Dale Drive and Wayne Avenue (enter on Wayne), half a mile from the Silver Spring Metro Station on the Red Line.
