Note-- if you don't see any pictures, you're missing half of what this is about. Try reading it on the web, here.
CONTENTS
- Upcoming Appearances
- Recording Music
- Ukulele Girl
- New Story --King of the Lions
- Free Audio -- Rapunzel
- Et cetera
Except as noted, all times are PM.
Most shows are free.THIS SUNDAY Feb 12
2:30 Jaquith Public LIbrary
Marshfield VTFeb 21
7:30 Hawk Mt Resort
"The Library" main lodge
RT 100 Plymouth VTFeb 22
7:00 Trapp Family Lodge
"St. George’s Hall" main lodge
Stowe VTMarch 14
7:00 Fair Haven Public Library
Fair Haven VTMarch 15
7:00 Crandall Public Library
Glens Falls NY
March 16
7:00 House Concert (email for details)
Saratoga Springs NYMarch 17
11:00 Greenwood Lake Public Library
Greenwood Lake NYMarch 17
2:00 Monroe Free Library
Monroe NYMarch 27
7:00 Green Mountain College
“The Gorge” Withey Student Ctr
Poultney VTMarch 28
10:45 a.m. Long Trail School
Dorset VT
1:00 (time tentative) Fisher Elementary School
Arlington VTMarch 29 7:00
Bennington College
fireplace room, Jennings Music Building
Bennington VTApril 12
Grafton Elementary School
(email for details)
Grafton MAMay 5 (tentative) 7:00
Pioneer Valley Folklore Society
featured guest
Nacul Center 592 Main St.
Amherst MA
Time to Record Music |
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The last few months have been fairly uneventful, which has given us an opportunity to begin recording ourselves, playing music in our living room. We did this for the first time for the music bridges on "The King and the Thrush." They came out pretty well, we thought, so we've picked up the nerve to try it some more. Maybe it'll eventually add up to another music album.
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It's hard to keep the concertina out of the harp microphone if we're both playing at the same time. So this time we're recording the tracks separately, Leanne first for the more melodic pieces, concertina first for the fast jigs. That should allow more leeway in the final mix. |
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Ukulele Girl |
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Li'l Leanne
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Our Next Story |
ORIGIN Before and during the Civil War, the young Joel Chandler Harris was apprentice on a newspaper put out by the owner of a big plantation in Georgia. He lived on the plantation, spending a lot of time in the slaves quarters. There he heard a lot of folktales, which years later ended up (pretty much as spoken) in the Uncle Remus books. We don't tell the Uncle Remus stories, though I sometimes use one in teaching. They're good, but.... Much later in his life somebody sent Chandler a French book of folktales that included a variant of his famous Tar Baby story. He smiled and nodded, and set it aside. Then (he wrote), “one night after supper the children of the household were suddenly missing.” A little spooked by the silence, and worried that they had maybe gone to bother a neighbor, he searched until he found them with their mother, who was reading to them from that book of French tales, translating on the fly. He noted that the tales were working, that his active, noisy youngsters were “listening with an interest that childhood can neither affect nor disguise.” Chandler had his wife read the whole book to him in that fashion, writing down what she said with very little alteration. The results were published under his name as "Evening Tales done into English from The French of Frederic Ortoli." It sold some copies, but was not a big success and has long been out of print. We stumbled onto the book online. Reading it is like listening to somebody very interesting with a distractingly strong accent. Chandler’s faithfulness to what his ear heard, both here and in the Remus stories, is in its way admirable, but results in texts that require a lot of revision to make them useful to storytellers like us. An irritable critic of the time observed that, while the book is useless to the student of folklore, and unlikely to capture a young reader's interest, the tales themselves are strong, and if presented by a capable storyteller "are likely to succeed." We agree. We’re calling the charming fable we're working on first, King of the Lions. It's coming along nicely.
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King of the Lions
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Something to Listen To |
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RAPUNZEL --from Weatherbeard
Maybe the most touching version of Rapunzel ever told"
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Our CDS:
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2010 ALA "notable children's recording" |
Parents' Choice Silver |
ALA "Notable Chldren's Recording" |
"Beautiful, never boring." Celtic Beat |
Newest CD
WEATHERBEARD
& other folk stories |
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The King & the Thrush won a 2010 ALA Notable
REVIEWS
"Highest level, incredible, not-to-be-missed"
School Library Journal
more
STUFF ON OUR WEBSITES
that might interest you
Reviews of our shows and our recordings
yabbidy yabbidy yabbidy yabbidy-- that's all folks!
love, Tim & Leanne
