An evening of music and folk songs with Elizabeth Mitchell & Daniel Littleton and Dan + Claudia Zanes in celebration of the Smithsonian Folkways Release – Sonya Cohen Cramer: You’ve Been a Friend to Me.
June 23rd, doors at 6:30, concert at 7pm, at the Washington Ethical Society in Washington, D.C.
Tickets are $20 in advance (before June 23) or $25 (day of show)
Click here if you would like to donate to support this concert.
Co-sponsored with the Washington Ethical Society.
Sonya Cohen Cramer (1965–2015) was raised in a family committed to revitalizing the oldest songs of the American musical canon. Like her father John Cohen of The New Lost City Ramblers and her mother Penny Seeger, Sonya shared a belief in the transformative qualities of folk songs and traditional ballads. You’ve Been a Friend to Me is a collection of recordings featuring Sonya’s singing, and it reveals the full arc of her musical life through collaborations with her aunt Peggy Seeger, uncle Pete Seeger, Elizabeth Mitchell, Daniel Littleton, and the folk-fusion group Last Forever. While shaped by the roots of her family tree, the radiating and clear sound of Sonya’s voice reflected in these recordings is distinctly her own.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Elizabeth Mitchell & Daniel Littleton
Elizabeth Mitchell is a singer, songwriter, music educator, and a twice Grammy nominated Smithsonian Folkways recording artist. Along with her husband Daniel Littleton, they were founding members of the band Ida, and continue to perform together and with their daughter Storey. Their records on Smithsonian Folkways stand consciously and directly in the tradition of children’s music that Folkways has carried for nearly 60 years. In 2013, Elizabeth released The Sounding Joy, a collection of folk carols from Ruth Crawford Seeger's 1953 songbook American Folk Songs for Christmas that celebrates the spirit of community and homespun traditions, which they practice at their home in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
Dan + Claudia Zanes
Grammy Award-winner Dan Zanes occupies a unique place in American music – where sea shanties, English music hall, play party songs, the spirit of early rock-n-roll, soul, North American and West Indian folk music collide. He has toured the world sharing handmade 21st century social music with enthusiastic crowds of kids and kid sympathizers. Claudia Zanes is a Haitian American music therapist / jazz vocalist / music program director. Together they have been making music since the day they met in the fall of 2016. Their love of songs and communal music-making lead to a publishing deal with the Quarto Group USA and the result, an award-winning songbook entitled Dan Zanes’ House Party: A Family Roots Music Treasury, was released in 2018. In 2021, Dan + Claudia released Let Love Be Your Guide (Smithsonian Folkways), a collection of songs to spark intergenerational conversations about anti-racism, racial justice, and the joys of community.
