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August 1 & 2
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Ginny and Tracy met in 1988 when both were on staff at the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp near Woodstock, NY. They soon discovered that, despite their differing childhoods, they shared a deep understanding of and love for the music of the rural south. It was Ginny’s birthright and Tracy’s lifetime devotion. Ginny’s father, Ben Hawker, was her mentor growing up. Together, they taught the beautiful old singing of his Primitive Baptist Church for ten years at the Augusta Heritage Workshops in Elkins, WV. He went with her to the Smithsonian, the Chicago Folk Festival and the Vancouver Folk Festival where their family harmony left an indelible memory with their listeners. Ben also introduced her to early Bluegrass harmony through the oral tradition. For the past 15 years, Ginny and Tracy have appeared in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, and England. Their harmonies are hair-raising and representative of the finest American traditional music. In addition to performances, each summer they teach southern traditional singing at several music camps. Recently they have started teaching students in their West Virginia home.
Ginny and Tracy play at 4:30pm on Saturday. Tracy also plays the Old-Time dance on Friday night and will take part in the Fiddlers In The Round workshop at 3pm, Saturday.
Liz Carroll won the Senior All-Ireland Championship on fiddle when she was 18 and has since become one of the more sought after traditional music performers. Her first solo album, Liz Carroll released in 1988, was chosen as a select record of American folk music by the Library of Congress. Liz was also named Traditional Performer of the Year in 2000 by the “Irish Echo”. Although she plays Irish traditional dance tunes, her records also feature original compositions that highlight the traditional styles. Carroll is a huge draw for traditional music conniseurs and the general public alike, as indicated by her draw and awards. In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Liz a National Heritage Fellowship for her great influence on Irish music in America, as a performer and a composer. More recently, her 2009 duet album Double Play with John Doyle, was nominated for a 2010 Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album, and she and John were invited to play for President Obama at the White house.
Dáithí Sproule of Derry, is one of Irish music’s most respected guitar accompanists, and one of the first guitarists to develop DADGAD tuning for Irish music. He is also a fine singer in English and Irish. Sproule’s original compositions have been recorded by Skara Brae, the Bothy Band, Altan, Trian, Liz Carroll, Aoife Clancy, the RTE Concert Orchestra and others. He is also known for his innovative arrangements of traditional songs, and in 1995 he released his first solo album, A Heart Made of Glass, with songs in English and Irish. In 2008 he released an instrumental guitar album, The Crow In the Sun, featuring thirteen original compositions. In addition to performing and recording, Dáithí is a sought-after teacher and lecturer in subjects ranging from guitar styles and song accompaniment to Irish traditional music, language and literature. He is a 2009 Bush Artist Fellow, awarded by the Minnesota based Archibald Bush Foundation.
Liz and Dáithí play at 6pm on Saturday. Liz will also be included in the Fiddlers In The Round workshop at 3pm, Saturday.
For our Saturday evening dance, and the festival closer, we are lucky to have Dennis Stroughmatt and the Creole Spirit. Stroughmatt is an Illinois native who was first introduced to American French culture as a teenager near Old Mines, Missouri. He then spent two and a half intensive years recording, observing, and learning many of the Creole French traditions still alive in “Upper Louisiana”. The knowledge that he gained there included a centuries old French Creole fiddling style, fluency in Illinois-Missouri Creole French, and a wealth of stories and songs from story tellers and singers; all of which have been handed down generation to generation in Missouri and Illinois for nearly 300 years.
Dennis Stroughmatt and Creole Spirit host a jam on Saturday at 4:30pm and then play the dance that night at 9pm.
Sugar Maple alumni Chirps Smith and Dot Kent will be back again this year to play and call for the Friday night Old-Time Dance. This year, they will be joined by Tracy Schwarz.
Schwarz first came to love country music from radio broadcasts of the late ’40s, which inspired him to learn the banjo and guitar. While in college, Schwarz also mastered the mandolin and the bass fiddle. He soon began playing in assorted bluegrass bands around Washington, D.C. During the early ’60s, Schwarz enlisted in the Army for two years and during that time learned to play the fiddle. He began working with the New Lost City Ramblers as a replacement for Tom Paley in 1962, and eventually became a full-time member for ten years; his involvement in the band later tapered off as he became more interested in spending time on his Pennsylvania farm. He continued to appear with other bands, most notably the Strange Creek Singers through the 1970s. He continues to perform and explore new areas of traditional music, most notably with Ginny Hawker.
Chirps Smith is a veteran of fiddle contests and playing for dances, at which he frequently plays backup to the fiddle on the mandolin and related mandolin family instruments, as well as four and five string banjos. While a part of the band Indian Creek Delta Boys, named after a stream in his native Illinois, Smith earned the nickname “Chirps” due to the “chirping” quality to his mandolin style. Chirps enjoys playing many types of tunes, from hoedowns/reels and waltzes to schottisches, polkas, two-steps, and perhaps one or two mazurkas or hambos. At dances, he is commonly joined by his wife and clog-dancer Dot Kent, also a veteran dance caller.
Dave Landau, twice voted as the Best Children’s Musician by Madison Magazine, has performed at every Sugar Maple Traditional Festival since it began in 2004. Although billed as a performer for children, Landau is entertaining to audiences of all ages. As a former first grade teacher in Verona, Wisconsin, Landau has a love for teaching, in addition to music. He travels to elementary schools, preschools, and libraries to perform musical programs that are educational, entertaining, and motivating, which include storytelling and music. Landau’s programs are an extension of his favorite part of teaching, which is helping children understand themselves and the world around them. Come and see him at the Roots and Reason stage, where you will witness children of all ages jumping, clapping, and singing.
