Susquehanna Folk Music Society HomepageBilly McComiskey), and Fingal (with Randal Bays and James Keane). Piano accordionist Martin Tourish hails from County Donegal and is now based

Name in Lights…….................................5

Brass Tacks.………………………………....6

SFMS Membership................................

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Advance Tickets:

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• Appalachian Brewing Company

• Fort Hunter Centennial Barn

• Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York

January and February Jam Sessions…….………………… •

We welcome musicians of all ages and abilities for an enjoyable afternoon of homemade music. Come to play or sing!

Penn State Presents Nai-Ni Chen Dance Co. .……...Page 2 Tues, Feb 4, at Penn State Harrisburg’s Kulkarni Theatre • A limited number of discounted tickets are available for SFMS members to see this internationally acclaimed dance troupe. . Winter Coffeehouse……………………….…...…......Page 4 Sat, Feb 8, at Fort Hunter Centennial Barn • We’ve lined up an entertaining evening with talented regional and local artists for our first coffeehouse of 2020. Missy Raines….…………….……………….….…......Page 3 Sun, Feb 9, at Appalachian Brewing Company • An eight-time winner of the IBMA Bass Player of the Year award will be joined by her new quartet as she displays not only her iconic bluegrass style, but also her talents as a songwriter. Altan………..……...…………………….......................Page 4 Thurs, Feb 20, at Appalachian Brewing Company • One of Ireland's foremost traditional bands showcases the Irish- language songs and fiery instrumentals of its native Donegal. High Time…....………………………….......................Page 5 Sun, Feb 23, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York • This fresh, new Irish trio combines traditional music and an intriguing blend of modern folk influences. Their unusual line-up of flute, whistles, harp, bodhrán, guitar and vocals (with some Irish dancing steps thrown in!) makes a youthful and energetic statement. Third Annual Susquehanna Folk Festival .....…...….Page 2 Fri, July 24-Sun, July 26, at Roundtop Mountain Resort,• Exciting plans are in the works for our upcoming Folk Festival. See what we have in store, and consider joining our volunteer team.

The Franklin H. and Ruth L. Wells Foundation

Central Pennsylvania Traditions, the Newsletter of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society page 2 www.sfmsfolk.org

Now in its third year, the Susquehanna Folk Festival will be held on Friday, July 24, Saturday, July 25, and Sunday, July 26, 2020, at beautiful Roundtop Mountain Resort in Lewisberry. Once again the festival will feature top-notch entertainment by nationally touring acts, local and regional artists, the popular Emerging Artist Showcase and the Liars Contest, dancing, family fun, storytelling, and crafts. Look for a festival line-up e-announcement in late January or check out www.susquehannafolkfestival.org for all the latest updates!

Youth Band Program

Know any aspiring young musicians ages 6-16? We’ll have just the thing for them at this year’s festival. With the help of fiddler/educator Jane Rothfield and her team, we’ll be forming an American Roots Music Youth Band, which will meet twice to

practice and then perform together on the Main Stage! Tunes will be taught by ear, in the traditional way. All acoustic musicians – at any level of ability and playing any instrument from guitar, fiddle, or banjo to clarinet, keyboard, or trumpet – are welcome to participate.

Spotlight on New Roots

This year SFMS has formed a New Roots Committee to explore some of the newer styles of music that have appeared recently on the folk music scene. On the schedule, you’ll find some exciting young bands that have been recommended by the Committee. SFMS is appreciative to Explore York for its generous support in helping us to fund some of these cutting-edge performers!

Renewed Support From the NEA

SFMS is pleased to announce that we have received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support this year’s festival! This grant will help SFMS to bring stellar folk artists to the festival and will allow us to again present the popular Meet the Masters interviews in front of a live audience.

Get Involved!

Our first Festival Steering Committee meeting will be held at 3 pm, Saturday, January 18, 2020, at the Fishing Creek United Methodist Church in Etters. The Committee is a super-fun, enthusiastic group of people that helps to plan and execute the festival. We’d love to have you join us! Please call or e-mail Jess Hayden at (717)-319-8409 or [email protected] if you’d like to attend.

Looking Ahead:

The July 2020 Susquehanna Folk Festival

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Co., which bridges the grace of Asian elegance with American dynamism, will perform at

Penn State Harrisburg at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, in the Student Enrichment Center’s Kulkarni Theatre, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Middletown.

The acclaimed dance troupe will perform “Song of Phoenix,” a

spectacular seven-dance production of dazzling props, colorful costumes, mesmerizing music, fantastic acrobatics, and lively dance by top-notch performers. The audience will be taken on a journey through space and time to a place where tradition meets innovation; it will experience the majestic thunder of the martial arts and the mysterious whisper of poetry through the global language of dance.

Following the show, audience members may engage in a talkback session with choreographer Nai-Ni Chen and the dancers while enjoying complimentary tea and Asian treats.

A limited number of reduced-price $10 tickets are available to SFMS members and friends on a first-come, first-served basis. To get your discounted ticket, first contact Jess Hayden at (717) 319-8409 or [email protected] to confirm that discounted tickets are still available; then mail a check, payable to Susquehanna Folk Music Society, to 378 Old York Road, New Cumberland, PA 17070.

Irish step dancers with Cherish the Ladies at the

2019 Folk Festival.

Missy Raines, who was named International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Bass Player of the Year for 2019, the eighth time she has won the award, comes to Central Pennsylvania with the Missy Raines Quartet for a Susquehanna Folk Music Society concert at 7:30 pm on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at the Appalachian Brewing Company’s Abbey Bar, 50 North Cameron Street, Harrisburg.

A native of Short Gap, West Virginia, Raines began playing bass and touring professionally as a teenager. She has worked with such bluegrass legends as Mac Wiseman, Kenny Baker, Josh Graves, and Eddie and Martha Adcock, and has recorded and toured extensively with Cloud Valley, The Claire Lynch Band, and Jim Hurst. In 2008, she formed Missy Raines & The New Hip, an Americana ensemble with jazz inflections that released two albums on Compass Records. Along the way, she became recognized as an iconic bluegrass instrumentalist, winning the first of her IBMA titles in 1998.

In 2018, Raines broke new ground as a songwriter with her album, “Royal Traveller,” produced by Compass Records founder Alison Brown. The album digs deep into Raines’s family life and her upbringing in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, telling her story with a vulnerability and bold honesty that ring clear, spoken through beautiful arrangements and well-chosen musical collaborations. The album includes appearances by contemporary bluegrass greats such as Stuart Duncan and Tim O’Brien and several pioneering female performers. In fact, one of

the album’s standout tracks, “Swept Away,” features the first five women to win IBMA instrumentalist awards – Raines (bass), Brown (banjo), Sierra Hull (mandolin), Becky Butler (fiddle), and Molly Tuttle (guitar) – and was named 2018 IBMA Recorded Event of the Year.

Folk Radio UK said Raines’s latest album “not only confirms her renowned instrumental status but also announces another first, as she debuts as a songwriter, 11

tracks that both reflect and reach beyond her bluegrass roots, to touch upon indie folk, jam grass and jazz-inspired material.”

In her concert appearance for SFMS, Raines will be joined by Matt Flinner, Ben Garnett, and Avery Merritt. Flinner is one of the premiere mandolin players in bluegrass as well as one of the finest composers of new acoustic/roots music. Garnett is a highly accomplished Nashville-based guitarist, with strong improvisational skills and a mastery of many musical genres. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Merritt is an exceptional fiddler with a strong background in bluegrass and jazz.

Concert tickets are $24 for general admission, $20 for SFMS members, and $10 for students ages 3-22. Advance tickets are available for purchase from Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. This concert is presented in cooperation with Greenbelt Events and with funding support from Your Name in Lights sponsors Bob Lane and Bill Gulvin.


Missy Raines, Sunday, February 9

General funding for the Susquehanna Folk Music Society is provided by the Cultural Enrichment Fund and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the latter administered locally by the Cultural Alliance of York County.

For more information, visit the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website at sfmsfolk.org.

Named after a deep and mysterious lake in Donegal, Altan was founded by Gweedore’s Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, a superb vocalist in Irish and English and one of the leading exponents of Donegal fiddle music, and her late husband, Belfast’s Frankie Kennedy, one of the finest flute-players in Ireland. Along with her work with Altan, Ní Mhaonaigh is always in demand for solo work or presenting traditional music programs on radio and television. She has recorded with the likes of Enya, Dolly Parton, The Chieftains, The String Sisters, T with the Maggies, and, most recently, in a family band Na Mooneys. She received the 2017 TG4 Gradam Ceoil (Music Award) for her musicianship and singing, the highest accolade that a traditional musician can receive in Ireland.

Altan’s other band members are among the most highly respected musicians in traditional Irish music. Bouzouki-player Ciarán Curran is a native of Kinawley in County Fermanagh, an area rich in music, song, and folklore. He has developed a unique, personal, and subtle style on the bouzouki using counter harmonies and melodies that add texture to the music. His late uncle, Ned Curran, was a great fiddler and gave Altan many tunes from his unusual repertoire. Guitarist and singer Daíthí Sproule was born in Derry, but has lived for many years in Minnesota. He was a member of Ireland’s legendary Skara Brae quartet and has recorded and performed in three notable trios: Bowhand (with James Kelly and Paddy O’Brien), Trian (with Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey), and Fingal (with Randal Bays and James Keane). Piano accordionist Martin Tourish hails from County Donegal and is now based in Dublin. In 2008, he received TG4’s prestigious “Young Musician of the Year” award. He is also an accomplished composer, producer, and musicologist, whose ancestors were collectors of some of the earliest dance-music manuscripts in Ireland.

Recognition of Altan’s international status and success came in 1996, when it was the first Irish band of its kind to be signed by a major record label (Virgin Records). The band has gained gold and platinum albums in Ireland and has regularly performed before large audiences in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the U.S. Despite a hectic touring and recording schedule, the members of Altan have maintained a fresh vision of bringing the beauty and joy of traditional music to fans everywhere.

Concert tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for SFMS members, and $10 for students ages 3-22. Advance tickets are available for purchase from Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. This concert is presented in cooperation with Greenbelt Events and with funding support from Your Name in Lights sponsors Select Medical and Steve and Nancy Wennberg.


Altan, Thursday, February 20

Altan, which has wowed audiences around the world with its traditional Irish music since the 1980s, comes to Central Pennsylvania on Thursday, February 20, 2020, for a 7:30 pm Susquehanna Folk Music Society concert at the Appalachian Brewing Company’s Abbey Bar, 50 North Cameron Street, Harrisburg.

With exquisitely produced award-winning recordings, ranging from the most sensitive and touching old Irish songs to hard-hitting reels and jigs, and heartwarming, dynamic live performances, Altan has moved audiences worldwide. Throughout its 30-year history, Altan has shown an unwaver-ing commitment to bringing the beauty of traditional music – especially the unique musical repertoire of the band’s home base in County Donegal – to contemporary audiences in a way that brings out all its qualities and destroys none.

The Susquehanna Folk Music Society’s Winter Coffeehouse will be held from 7 pm to 10 pm on Saturday, February 8, 2020, at Fort Hunter Centennial Barn, 5300 North Front Street, Harrisburg. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

This popular event features acoustic music from some of SFMS’s favorite local and regional musicians. Please check the SFMS website in the coming weeks for a list of confirmed performers.

Snacks and beverages will be available.

Combining traditional Irish music with modern folk influences, the trio High Time brings its rich, unique sound and electric stage energy to Central Pennsylvania for a February 23, 2020, Susquehanna Folk Music Society concert at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York, 925 South George Street, York. The fun begins at 7:30 pm.

High Time blends exceptional instrumentals (flute, whistles, harp, bodhrán, and guitar) with intricate three-part vocal harmonies and displays of virtuosic Irish step dance to leave audiences worldwide awestruck by their performances. The band’s debut album, “Sunda,” was released in 2018 to critical acclaim.

Hailing from the Connemara region of County Galway along Ireland’s rugged west coast, Seamus Ó Flatharta, although still barely out of his teens, is a 23-time All-Ireland champion on harp, whistle, singing, and dancing. He won the coveted senior All-Ireland title on harp in 2017. He learned to play his first piece of music on tin whistle at age four; since age 16 he has been making waves in the field of music, song, and dance across the globe, performing in China, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and throughout mainland Europe. He has contributed to numerous albums, made regular television and radio appearances, and shared the stage with such Irish music luminaries as Bill Whelan, Zöe Conway, John Sheehan, and Cherish the Ladies.

Manchester-native Michael Coult started playing tin whistle at age seven. He took up traditional Irish flute at age 12, and in his teens turned his hand to bodhrán and guitar. Since then he has focused heavily on flute and whistle, but still plays regularly as an accompanist of Irish music. He moved from England to Ireland at age 18 to pursue an academic degree in traditional Irish music and dance at the University of Limerick and has been based there ever since. Before joining High Time as a permanent member in 2019, he spent 10 years on the road with various bands and productions, most notably Celtic Legends and the trad quartet The Recollective.

Concert tickets are $24 for general admission, $20 for SFMS members, and $10 for students ages 3-22. Advance tickets are available for purchase from Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. This concert is presented in cooperation with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York and with funding support from an anonymous Your Name in Lights sponsor.


High Time, Sunday, February 23

The members of Twisted Pine with Name in Lights sponsor Rita Snyder, right.

• WXPN: 88.5 (Philly) or 99.7 (Harrisburg) or 88.7 (York, Lancaster). Or listen live online at

xpn.org/music-artist/listen-live. The Folk Show with Ian Zolitor: Sun 8-10 pm.

• WPSU in State College: 91.5 (Central PA). Programming streamed worldwide at wpsu.org/listenlive/.

Mountain Stage: Sat 6-8 pm; The Folk Show: Sat 1-5 pm, Sun 10 pm-midnight.

• FolkAlley.com streams

folk music 24/7. Look for

programs with Pennsylva-

nia’s own Gene Shay.

• The Song Parlor podcast,

hosted by John Patterson,

is available online at

www.thesongparlor.com/.

• ThistleRadio.com streams

Celtic music 24/7. Also

find podcasts of Fiona

Ritchie’s The Thistle and

Shamrock.


SFMS Office

378 Old York Road

[email protected] (717) 319-8409

Jams and Coffeehouses Fred Heagy [email protected] (717) 839-7517

Central Pennsylvania Traditions is published five times a year by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society.

Joan and Bruce Kolka [email protected] (717) 763-5598

Deadlines:

Sep-Oct issue – Aug 15

Nov-Dec issue – Oct 15

Jan-Feb issue – Dec 15

–

View Robert’s magnificent photos at More information at www.sfmsfolk.org

Executive Director Jess Hayden

Folk on the Radio and the Web


Thanks to These New and Renewing Members

Are You Due to Renew?

A Special Thanks

~

Scenes from recent SFMS events (all photos by Fred Heagy except as noted). Clockwise from top left: Dan Bui and Kathleen Parks of Twisted Pine (photo by Jess Hayden); Peter Mulvey (photo by Jess Hayden); Hubby Jenkins; SFMS jammer Bob Gutheinz; Coffeehouse performers Vail Steinem and Howard Lee of Howard and The Islanders; Coffeehouse performer Dominick Cicco; and SFMS jammer Daniel T. Worley playing the saw.

Documents

Susquehanna Folk Music Society HomepageBilly McComiskey), and Fingal (with Randal Bays and James Keane). Piano accordionist Martin Tourish hails from County Donegal and is now based