Scottish singer and Storyteller
Norman Kennedy
Longtime FSGW favorite Norman Kennedy will weave tales and sing songs from his extensive repertoire at the 18th century home of Sondra and Andy Wallace on Sunday, January 22 at 3 P.M.
Kennedy, from Aberdeen, Scotland, is a keeper of the old ways, a master practitioner and teacher of the textile arts, and a performer of the stories and songs that he learned while growing up in his native land. In 2005 Norman was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts for his contributions to America?s cultural life. Norman was born and raised in Aberdeen?s inner city where his family had been shipbuilders and merchant seamen for at least three generations, with roots in the area stretching back to the thirteenth century. When he was twelve he went to work on the farm of country relations, and left school at sixteen to work as a tax collector, spending his off hours at a local tweed-weaving establishment, quietly absorbing the trade. It was around this time that Norman began to appear with country dancers and fiddlers at villages, estates and castles of the local gentry, singing and learning songs from other traditional singers. In 1952 he began to travel to the isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides and, for the next twelve years, made an annual pilgrimage to learn the local Gaelic dialect, along with songs, stories, customs, and weaving techniques of the islanders.
In 1965, Norman was invited to perform at the Newport Folk Festival by Ralph Rinzler. The next year Rinzler invited Norman back to the states to work with him in collecting textiles and other folk crafts for the Country Roads Shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Kennedy?s skills and knowledge of traditional textile practices soon brought him to Colonial Williamsburg, where he served as master weaver from 1967-1972. A couple of years later he moved to Marshfield, Vermont, where he founded the Marshfield School of Weaving. A few years ago Norman turned the running of the school over to an assistant, so that he could devote more time to traveling around the country, singing and teaching weaving workshops .
Over the past four decades Norman has appeared at hundreds of festival and concerts throughout North America and the British Isles, from the National and Smithsonian festivals to St Andrew?s Society meetings and Robert Burns Nights. He frequently returns to Scotland and has performed many times at the Edinburgh Folk Festival and at local folk festivals and clubs in other parts of Scotland and the United Kingdom. He is also in constant demand to teach traditional weaving workshops and has served as a consultant to numerous museums for traditional textile collections and exhibits.
For reservations and directions e-mail the Wallaces, or call 301-324-7311. Reservations are required for this concert.
