Nelson, NH –
Join us on Sunday, October 25 for an evening of traditional songs and music from England and the USA. Brian Peters (UK) and Jeff Davis (USA) have been performing together on both sides of the Atlantic on and off for sixteen years. They bring their talents to the Nelson Town Hall for a 7:00 PM concert. Admission is $12/$9(senior, student, or in advance)
This concert is a joint production with the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS). CDSS is proud to be a sponsor of an exciting multi-media project: “Sharp’s Appalachian Harvest” presented by Jeff Davis and Brian Peters, in celebration of the CDSS’s Centennial and of CDSS’ founder, Cecil Sharp’s, Appalachian song-collecting trips in 1916-1918.
Over three summers in 1916, 1917 and 1918, English folklorists Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles ventured into the heart of the southern Appalachians to seek out old British folk songs still being sung in remote mountain settlements. Their collection of over 1600 ballads, songs and fiddle tunes is one of the greatest ever made. Sharp’s diaries of these momentous trips were transcribed with help from CDSS, and The Ithaka Foundation (http://www.vwml.org/browse/br
Jeff Davis (USA) and Brian Peters (UK), two leading exponents of traditional song and music, are joining forces to perform some of the best songs and music from this wonderful collection, with guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and other instruments, readings from Sharp’s vivid diary of the hardships and triumphs of song collecting,and a display of his evocative photographs of the singers, and of mountain life. A CD of 16 songs is already available, and for sale atwww.store.cdss.org. These songs and their presentation are top notch!
Although Brian’s music is essentially English folk, while Jeff’s is often categorised as American Old-Time, the two share a love for old songs in general, and the folk music of one another’s countries, so that they work together intuitively as a duo. To Brian’s multi-instrumental skills on concertina, melodeon and guitar are added Jeff’s mighty talents on fiddle, banjo, mandocello and guitar, while their voices blend beautifully in harmony. A concert might include ballads from the old world or the new, sea songs, cowboy songs, and all kinds of instrumentals from mountain fiddle breakdowns to English country dance tunes, often featuring the unusual but heaven-sent combination of concertina and mandocello.
Brian and Jeff have performed together at venues such as Old Songs Festival (NY), Mystic Seaport (CT), Champlain Valley Festival (VT), Lunenburg Folk Festival (Nova Scotia), Boston Folksong Society, Cecil Sharp House (London), Bromyard, Derby, Fylde, Warwick, Whitby Folk Festivals (UK).
