Workshops
Tracing The Migration Of Songs Between Scotland & Ireland And North America
Sara Grey
Scots and Ulster Scots have emigrated in such numbers that no other European Nation has ever lost such a high proportion of it’s people. In the early days these were men and women who left behind them a homeland rich in the oral tradition of song and ballad singing; an inheritance which they carried with them wherever they went. Their legacy is apparent to this day.
I will trace the migration of songs from Northern Ireland and Scotland to North America by singing a song, or part of it, from its Celtic source and then singing the American or Canadian version showing the changes and the similarities. I like to make the workshop as interactive and informal as possible by encouraging the participants to sing on choruses and refrains, and ask any relevant questions.
CD/Booklet
Over the years people have asked for something tangible to take away from workshops that I have given on ballads and songs across the Atlantic so I first developed a 'working booklet' of some permutations of songs and ballads that have travelled from East to West - some that have come back - some where tunes change and text doesn't and vice versa. I had purposely chosen songs with wide, interesting links where big, sometimes humourous changes took place.
There was such an interest in the booklet that I decided to take it a step further and add an audio clip of each British and North American version. The result has been a tidy, sturdy working booklet that has a CD in the back with at least one, sometimes two, variants of the ballads and songs. Tom Spiers, from Aberdeen, a fine fiddler and singer of old songs has done the honours by singing most of the Scottish tracks and I have sung the American and Canadian versions. The CD is interspersed with source singers from Scotland.
Americana
Sara Grey
A journey in traditional songs from all around the United States of America.
The journey starts in New England and moves on to the Southern
Appalachians, black songs of the Georgia coast, the Ozarks, the
Mississippi Delta, the Panhandle of Texas, the Great Plains and
finally to the great, rarely-sung traditional songs from the Western
States.
Songs of The Western States
Sara Grey, Kieron Means and
Brenda Frier
We explore some of the older songs from the western states
and illustrate with images of the subjects of the songs. These
songs include ballads which have travelled to the west and songs
which have been made up by the people of the west. There are cowboy
songs, gold rush songs, outlaw ballads, Mormon songs and many
others.
The
coIorful history of the American cowboy covers a surprisingly brief
span of time...mainly a couple of
decades, but it has left it's myth-making imprint on the American
psyche as has no other segment of our
past..
The music of that
time and place is very real, and possesses all of the vigor and
unpretentious charm and
the rustic poetry
of those freedom-loving individualists whose way of life did so much
to form the very
personality of our nation.
Some
of this music drifted to the west from the older southern states
with post civil war refugees from Reconstruction, some of it was
brought directly from Ireland by Irish Immigrants who helped to
build the railroads and then moved off to the cow camps for want of any other
employment, (none being available to
them in the big
cities where they first landed.)
Many of our cowboys were Black Americans who sought a
fresh landscape to match the glory of their new-won
freedom. Each of these groups contributed its musical influence to
the songs and tunes we now associate with our western heritageWe
will cover Life on the Trail, Cowboy Songs of Complaint, Parody,
Work Songs of Thw West, Gold Rush/Civil War, Songs of the Panhandle
and Outlaw Songs and Ballads.
Songs from the Flanders
Collection
Sara Grey
Helen Harkness Flanders was born and raised in Vermont across the
river form my home in New Hampshire. She was on of the foremost
collectors of songs and ballads in New England and also up into New
Brunswick. The workshop looks at songs from the Flanders Collection
and in particular ballads and songs native to those regions.
Jean Ritchie
Sara Grey & Kieron Means
Kieron and I are devoted to presenting Jean's
written songs along with some traditional songs that she has adapted
over the years. As a young girl in Viper, Kentucky, she wrote poetry
and when my ex-husband, Charlie Grey, and I were living for a few
years in the mid 60's in Port Washington, New York, where Jean
lives, she asked Charlie to transcribe the music which became "A
Celebration of Life" - a compilation of her poetry set to
traditional tunes. They are so varied and command as much attention
and interest as the songs she grew up with.
Banjo
Sara Grey
5-string Banjo playing for students at beginners, intermediate and advanced levels.
Irish Immigration Songs And How They Change When They Reach America
Sara Grey
Traditional Songs From The Logging Camps Of Canada And The United States
Sara Grey
How, As Americans And Canadians, We Can Approach
Singing Dialect Songs From The Celtic Traditions
Sara Grey
Interpretation of Ballads & Songs - Choice Of Song, Phrasing, Dynamics, Etc
Sara Grey
This workshop won't be specifically about
"how to sing"...breathing exercises, etc, although we will touch on
using breathing to help tie phrases together. It will be a very
interactive, hands-on workshop, so please come along with one or two
songs or ballads that may have given you trouble over the years, and
we will work through them to see what we can to do make them easier,
more comfortable to sing, and hopefully, by the end of the day, you
will approach the song in a different way.
We'll be discussing and working on ways of "bringing these songs and
ballads to life".....It doesn't require a fabulous voice ...it
requires "getting inside and understanding what you're singing, and
working on ways to interpret the story.
We'll work through ballads and songs in terms of finding the
"natural built in dynamics, how to handle dialogue and narrative in
a song so the listener can distinguish who is speaking, working on
phrasing as you speak so that the song makes more sense, instead of
just going along with the rhythm and not paying much attention about
whether the song makes sense or not., and making the very most of
vowels and consonants without over dramatising it.
By working with these tools, they will dramatically change the way
you approach songs and ballads.
How We Use The Banjo To Accompany Songs.
Sara Grey
Cold Mountain
Sara Grey
The Cold Mountain workshop uses the book and film as a background for a presentation of the songs from the American Civil War. It looks at the power of song on a number levels, the power of song to convey news and information in a time when the only means of conveying these tragic events was by word of mouth. Song has the power to convey emotions and the depth of feelings at a time of division and conflict. It has the power to bring people together in times of trouble and to lift their spirits and give then a sense of belonging. Among the aspects of life addressed by the songs used in the workshop are the futility of war, the horror and tragedy of war, the role of women at a time when men were away fighting and often not returning, the strength of people facing insurmountable odds.
