The Monadnock Folklore Society is proud to announce its crowdfunding campaign to support the “KwackFest,” a Celebration of the Bob McQuillen Centennial. Please support this event by donating at our IndieGoGo site at:
Latest Posts
Tim Eriksen Shape Note Singing School Winnepesaukee | May 29, 2023
The New England Literature Program is sponsoring a Shape Note Singing School with Tim Eriksen at Camp Kabeyun on Monday, May 29, 2023.
The session will take place from 1 PM to 6 PM. Singers are welcome to join the Literature Program for dinner after the session.
Camp Kabeyun is located at 43 Camp Kabeyun Rd., Alton Bay, NH 03810; and there is ample parking for visitors.
Note that the Monadnock Folklore Society will present Tim Eriksen in concert on Sunday, May 28, 2023.
Shape Note Singing Workshop with Tim Eriksen
It’s been called “proto-Americana” and “America’s earliest music” but whatever you call it, shape note singing is one of America’s earliest and most vibrant roots music forms, and a critical, if underappreciated, influence on artists like Jean Ritchie, Doc Watson, Johnny Cash, and the Louvin Brothers. It is best known from the venerable Sacred Harp tunebook, where “Amazing Grace” and “Wayfaring Stranger” meet the blistering “fuguing tunes” of early New England, familiar folk melodies like “Old Lang Syne” and the African-tinged “camp meeting” choruses of the nineteenth century, all harmonized for social singing and written in a unique notation system developed in the northeast USA in 1800.
Tim Eriksen is a three-time GRAMMY nominee, songwriter, and Hardcore Americana/world music artist who has helped bring the sounds of shape note music and traditional American folksong to the fore with his pioneering punk folk band Cordelia’s Dad, his courses at Dartmouth College and the University of Minnesota, and his shape note “singing schools” from the Newport Folk Festival to Singapore’s Tapestry of Sacred Music and Dance, where his students have ranged from inner city kindergarteners to the cast of the movie Cold Mountain. His Ph.D. research and published writing detail previously unreported connections between this repertoire, the 19th-century Abolitionist movement, and the birth of science fiction.
No one has done more to help revive Sacred Harp singing among a younger generation.
-Josh Jackson, Paste Magazine
One of the best voices in music
– T Bone Burnett
Otherworldly harmonies
-Barbara Kingsolver
Apart from being the coolest-looking man in folk song, Eriksen is an uncompromising performer, ethnomusicologist, Sacred Harp singing master, musical adventurer and punk-folk pioneer, who seems to play every instrument under the sun and has shared a stage with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson.
-The Guardian, UK
☼ ☼ ☼ Tim Eriksen | Nelson Town Hall | Sunday, May 28, 2023
The Monadnock Folklore Society is excited to welcome back Tim Eriksen to the Nelson Town Hall for an afternoon concert on Sunday, May 28 at 3:00 PM. Admission is $25/$20 (senior/student/advance). Masks recommended.
Tim Eriksen is acclaimed for transforming American tradition with his startling interpretations of old ballads, love songs, shape-note gospel and dance tunes from New England and Southern Appalachia. He combines hair-raising vocals with inventive accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, guitar and bajo sexto – a twelve string Mexican acoustic bass – creating a distinctive hardcore Americana sound.
Monday Dance on NH Chronicle May 23, 2023
We were thrilled to have the WMUR NH Chronicle team visit the Monday dance a few weeks ago and film this awesome episode.
☼ ☼ ☼ Cold Chocolate | Nelson Town Hall
Ethan Robbins’ was the first concert we canceled due to the COVID outbreak in early 2020 so it seems appropriate that we welcome him back to the Nelson Town Hall as we return to the local concert calendar. His band, Cold Chocolate, will be at the Nelson Town Hall on Sunday, April 16 for an afternoon concert starting at 3:00 PM. Admission is $18/$15(senior, student, or in advance).
Cold Chocolate is a genre-bending Americana band that fuses folk, funk, and bluegrass to create a unique sound all their own. Featuring Ethan Robbins on guitar, Ariel Bernstein on percussion, and backed by some of the root’s music scene’s finest players, this group from Boston is impressing audiences throughout New England and beyond. Punctuated by tight harmonies and skillful musicianship, and with a focus on songwriting, Cold Chocolate has quickly gained recognition for their original music and high-energy shows. The band has shared bills with Leftover Salmon and David Grisman, and regularly performs at venues and music festivals across the country.
March 27, 2023 No Monday Night Dance due to Election
The Monday night dance takes a one-week holiday on Monday, March 27, 2023, so that the Town can set up for elections occurring the next day. (Elections had to be postponed from 3/14/23 due to the monster snowstorm.)
The dance will occur as usual on Monday, April 3, and weekly thereafter.
Nelson Dance was canceled on January 23, 2023
Due to weather and many of our performers either being out of town or unable to get to Nelson, we are cancelling the Monday Night Contra on January 23, 2023.
Northern Roots Festival in Brattleboro VT | January 28-29, 2023
Brattleboro Music Center’s
Northern Roots Festival Returns January 28 & 29
A Saturday afternoon of workshops at the BMC from noon to 5:30 p.m. will be followed by a 7:30 p.m. concert. Sunday brings popular pub sessions from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the River Garden Marketplace, 157 Main Street, Brattleboro. All workshops and sessions will be in person.
A cornerstone of the traditional music calendar in New England, the Festival offers a unique showcase of a variety of northern musical traditions including Irish, Scottish, English, French Canadian, Shetland, and Welsh.
This year’s featured performers include Nathan Gourley and Laura Feddersen (Irish fiddle duo), Julia Friend (Traditional song), Alex Cummings and Max Newman (English accordion & guitar), and Mary Fraser and Sally Newton (French Canadian fiddle). Keith Murphy, Andy Davis, Fred Breunig and Amanda Witman will make up Traddleboro 2023.
Tickets: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?actions=13&p=1
Christmas and New Year’s Eve: Not happening in 2022
In the past, there have been dances held in the Nelson Town Hall on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
For a variety of reasons, neither of these events will be held in 2022.
☼ ☼ ☼ Nelson Solstice Party | Nelson Town Hall
New link
https://facebook.com/events/s/nelson-winter-solstice-celebra/554531473234585/
On Friday, December 30,
we’ll hold our postponed Annual Solstice Party
starting at 7:00 PM.
The Monadnock Folklore Society
brings this community event to the Nelson Town Hall each year.
Admission is $5.
This year the evening will begin with a holiday concert featuring a selection of traditional and original seasonal music performed by The Solstice Sisters (Alouette Iselin, Melanie Everard, Kim Wallach, & Heather Bower) and friends; as part of the concert we feature a performance by one or more of our Johnny Trombly Scholarship recipients. This year, due to COVID protocols, we will not be serving refreshments and THERE WILL BE NO DESSERT POTLUCK. We’ve altered our format this year in an attempt to keep everybody healthy during the holiday season. Various groups of unsavory characters presenting their idea of seasonal entertainment will not surprise us as they will be part of the scheduled entertainment and once they are on their way we can decide if there is enough interest and energy to complete the evening with a traditional New England contradance.
Attendance will be limited to 75 individuals
on a first come/first served basis.
Doors open at 6:30PM.
You should be able to view the live stream from the Monadnock Folklore Society Facebook page or our YouTube channel:
MFS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeHMa4Ak73WP_JHNh-Iyu7g
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monadnockfolklore/
Our COVID protocols are as follows:
Everyone aged two and up must wear a high-filtration (N95, KN95, KF94) mask inside the building at all times (except for *brief* sips of a beverage) and not eat inside the building. Masks will be available for sale at the door.
Performers may choose not to mask and are asked to take a same-day rapid test.
Everyone should be vaccinated and boosted.
If you get sick within 5 days after the dance, contact contrainfo@monadnockfolk.org.
Please consider taking a rapid antigen test no more than 24 hours before the event.
If the CDC reports any of these NH counties as Red, the event will be canceled: Cheshire, Hillsborough, Sullivan.
If you have any symptoms, we’ll be sorry to miss you, but please stay home and rest!