A CD release concert
Martha Burns sings American old-time songs the old-time way. Her repertoire includes southern ballads, cowboy songs, comic ditties, turn-of-the-century heart-throbbers, and more, culled expansively from first-generation recorded country music, field recordings and folk song collections. Martha Burns offers songs you have never heard before, rare treasures from other places and times.
Martha grew up in Greenwich Village in the 1950s and sixties, during the height of the American Folk Revival. Old-time music was everywhere. The New Lost City Ramblers (Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tom Paley) and the Friends of Old-Time Music, based in New York, were bringing national attention to now legendary southern singers like Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, Doc Boggs and Roscoe Holcomb, and popularizing re-issued 78s of the Carter Family and others who had recorded in the 1920s and early thirties. These were Martha?s early influences.
Martha?s passion for folk music deepened during the decade she spent in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she moved for college in 1970. The Ark Coffeehouse in Ann Arbor was then a hub for traditional music of all kinds, where performers like Andy Cohen, Bob Franke, Craig Johnson, among many others, first marshaled their skills.
Martha began performing in the mid-1970s and quickly attracted widespread interest as a sparkling new singer of old-time songs. By the early eighties her performance roster included the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Pinewoods Folk Music Camp, myriad folk clubs, and, in 1984, a six-week British tour.
In the mid-1980s, Martha formed a duo with fiddler Allan Block, a towering figure in American old-time music. Together they played at Pete Seeger?s Clearwater Festival and other venues large and small. An album that Martha and Allan and recorded together in 1986 was never released ? but that may change!
In 1987, Martha took extended leave from performing, lured by an academic interest in American history. She has published on subjects ranging from early nineteenth-century hymnody to female piano teachers before the Civil War.
Martha?s return to music and performing, after more than two decades, was consummated earlier this year with the release of her first solo album, ?Old-Time Songs.? The product of a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, ?Old-Time Songs? features a rare medley of Martha?s favorites. It includes guest appearances by master old-time musician Bruce Molsky, and singers John del Re and Kelly Macklin, who join Martha on two shape-note hymns. Takoma Park?s own Grammy-winning recording engineer, Charlie Pilzer, produced the album.
As a solo performer, Martha has drawn praise for her ?excellent? voice (Old-Time Herald), her ?involving way with a song and ? acute feel for the repertoire? (Living Tradition Magazine), her ?impeccable research into the background of her songs? (Huffington Post), as well as her ?perfectly judged guitar playing - simple, unobtrusive, lovely? (Musical Traditions).
All these will be on display January 24th at the Seekers? Church. Please come.
