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.
Jean Ritchie
Sara Grey & Kieron Means
Guitar
Kieron Means
Guitar playing for students at beginners, intermediate and advanced levels.
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
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.
