Grammy-nominated Wanda Jackson , “The First Lady of Rock”, talks about how her career in Rock-n-Roll started, plays one of the first songs she learned and explains how her pink guitar was designed with woman in mind.
Tonight---Tuesday, August 5, 2008. at 8pm--Wanda will perform with Roots of Rock workshop faculty members in a Rockabilly Dance. Tickets are $15 (18 & under; free.
Vocalist, teacher, lyricist, Grammy-nominated arranger, and Grammy Award-winning ensemble singer...try and fit a ball of positive energy into a category and you will break the box!
Kim Nazarian, who will be teaching voice at the 2008 Jazz Port Townsend workshop, is the soprano of the New York Voices, the only vocal group to win two Grammys for live concert recordings (including one of Brazilian music with Paquito D'Rivera, who will also be in residence in Port Townsend this summer.)
Always passionate about Latin music, Nazarian performs and records with the Boston-based band El Eco, whose CD "Two Worlds" was recently featured on NPR's JazzSet. Other collaborations include her work performing and recording with Mark Shilansky. Her vocals are featured extensively on his most recent recording: "Join The Club". She also is featured on Bobby McFerrin's upcoming 2009 release.
Nazarian has worked with and conducted choirs around the world, including the New York State Vocal Jazz Ensemble and the Arizona All-State Jazz Choir. She is known as one of the most popular voice teachers in the nation, and is eagerly anticipated at this year's Festival.
"People ask me what my hobby is, and I tell them, well, I like to cook and hang out at home or read history, but really it's music," says Tim O'Brien with a smile.
So what if that's what he's done for a living for going on three decades? And what if he became regarded as a pre-eminent Americana and bluegrass musician by doing so? "It's my hobby. And everything the hobby does feeds the repertoire," O'Brien, who will be at this year's Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, says.
At this point in his career, nearly thirty years after moving to Colorado where he would form his landmark band Hot Rize, repertoire is a major part of the Tim O'Brien story. For in addition to his own prolific and successful songwriting, this child of West Virginia and the WWVA Jamboree has never stopped mining the American music canon for great material. He's a song sponge.
Songs collect and abide in Tim O'Brien's world as comfortably as family heirlooms. They come from around the world, particularly the American South and Ireland. They morph into new ideas and new songs that update old truths about the human condition. They find expression in O'Brien's clear-as-ice voice on stages, in recording studios and at home with circles of gifted musical friends. O'Brien's relationship with songs embodies the very essence of the folk music tradition, always aware that the branches of the musical tree need sap from the roots.
O'Brien was so full of songs when he approached his latest phase of recording that they overwhelmed one album and became two. And yet with Fiddler's Green and Cornbread Nation, his original intent has remained intact.
[Old-time singer Tim Eriksen playing "Every Sound Below"]
Tim Eriksen, along with Riley Baugus and Fiddle Tunes Artistic Director Dirk Powell, leads a full-immersion workshop in the songs of the southern Appalachian mountains November 16-18. For workshop registration, follow this link to our secure online server or call 360.385.3102, x114.
For tickets to the November 17 concert and dance in Fort Worden's USO building, visit our secure online server or call us at 360.385.3102, x117.
[Tim Eriksen in onstage performance]
Tim Eriksen, along with Riley Baugus and Fiddle Tunes Artistic Director Dirk Powell (on banjo, in this video) will lead a full-immersion workshop in the songs of the Southern Appalachian mountains the weekend of November 16-18. For workshop registration, follow this link to our secure online server or call 360.385.3102, x114. For tickets to the November 17 concert and dance in Fort Worden's USO building, visit our secure online server or call us at 360.385.3102, x117.
Dee Daniels offers the jazz aficionado an ultimate treat—jazz vocals served up with full-bodied silky tones that 
soar and capture the depth of her four-octave range.
Daniels’s style was born in her stepfather’s church choir in Oakland, California and was brought to full fruition during a five-year stay in Europe from 1982 to 1987. Her international career includes performances in eleven African countries, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan, as well as in North America and multiple European gigs.
Her CDs include Jazzinit, Feels So Good, Love Story, Wish Me Love, and Let’s Talk Business. A DVD, Live at Biblo, recorded in Belgium, shows off her vocal stylings.
In 2002, Daniels was inducted into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame and a plaque was installed on Vancouver’s Walk of Fame. Her 2006 tours ended with a bang. After a sold-out tour of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in December, she sang with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra as a guest vocalist in their Sacred Music of Duke Ellington Concert.
In March, 2007, she recorded a new CD, Jazzinit, which is now available. She has been touring for several months and will be a vocal instructor at Jazz Port Townsend from July 22-29. Tickets to Jazz Port Townsend shows are going fast but good seats are still available for Friday, July 27, at 7:30 pm, Saturday, July 28, at 1:30 pm, and Saturday, July 28, at 7:30 pm.
The Port Townsend Country Blues Festival's "Gospel Singing" option gives gospel singing tools to participants who want to learn how to sing with joy and passion.
Led by Shirley Smith, the minister of music at the Potter's House Christian Fellowship in Jacksonville, Florida, the workshop meets daily (M-F July 30 - August 3) at 3:30 pm. Cost is only $100 and includes free admission to the Saturday afternoon blues mainstage show on August 4, at 1:30 pm.
Shirley Smith has shared the stage with many of gospel music's most prolific artists, including Cece and Vicki Winans, Yolanda Adams, Mark Kibble, Bruce Allen, and Fred Hammond. She is renowned for her teaching ability and her authentic connection to the roots of the music.
To register for this workshop, follow this link.
At Voiceworks: A Week of Singing, you'll have the opportunity to learn a cappella gospel quartet singing from the Birmingham Sunlights (pictured lower right), bluegrass singing from Grammy winner Laurie Lewis, yodeling and cowboy songs from Wylie Gustafson, Cajun music from Christine Balfa Powell (pictured left), Anglo-Celtic repertoire from Jon Wilcox, simple music theory from Jerry Fletcher, songs of the Carter family from Linda Lay, and early country songs from Mary Lucey, the singer/guitarist for 
bluegrass band the Biscuit Burners. Browse this site to learn more, or call us at 360.385.3102 x127 or email Voiceworks program manager Peter McCracken. We have video of several of the faculty performing: including Wylie Gustafson (the Yahoo! yodeler), Linda Lay, Laurie Lewis, and the Birmingham Sunlights. We've also got full bios, workshop schedules, and more. We'll see you at the Fort!
[Linda Lay playing the songs of the Carter Family onstage]
Linda Lay, along with David Lay, will be hanging out at the 2007 Voiceworks: A Week of Singing; she'll be teaching, singing, and performing many bluegrass songs, most of them learned directly from the Carter Family.
At Voiceworks: A Week of Singing, you'll be able to study singing under the tutelage of Christine Balfa Powell, the daughter of the legendary Cajun fiddle ambassador Dewey Balfa. She currently leads the With the Balfa Toujours, Christine has recorded six CDs; appeared in numerous films and television shows; toured North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia; enjoyed features in magazines, and taught classes in Cajun culture internationally, in both French and English. Christine Balfa Powell appeared in the film The Big Easy. She grew up playing triangle with her father and absorbed music and language from the thriving culture around Basile, Louisiana. Her singing is full of the raw emotion that enables the best Cajun singers to communicate powerful feelings directly to the heart. She collaborates on many of the group's heartfelt original songs, and is the founder and director of Louisiana Folk Roots, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Louisiana traditions. | |
Check out YouTube video footage of pioneering blueswoman Gaye Adegbalola at www.centrum.org/blues. Adegbalola will lead workshops in blues singing the week of July 29-August 4 at the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival. In addition, talented performer Shirley Powell will lead gospel workshops.
[The Birmingham Sunlights performing onstage]
The Birmingham Sunlights will be teaching and performing at Fort Worden State Park, June 24 - July 1, as part of VoiceWorks: A Week of Singing. They will give a mainstage performance at Fort Worden's McCurdy Pavilion on Saturday, June 30, at 7:30 pm.
[Laurie Lewis singing "I'm Gonna Be the Wind" onstage]
Grammy Award winner Laurie Lewis will be teaching and performing at VoiceWorks: A Week of Singing, June 24 - July 1, at Fort Worden State Park. She will give a mainstage performance at McCurdy Pavilion on Saturday, June 30, at 7:30 pm.
[Wylie Gustafson onstage with his band, Wylie and the Wild West]
If you've ever wanted to yodel—or tried to yodel in the shower, or while driving in your car during rush hour—you won't want to miss Wylie Gustafson, the Yahoo! yodeler, who will be teaching and performing at VoiceWorks: A Week of Singing, June 24 - June 30.
A CAPELLA GOSPEL QUARTET SINGING
The Birmingham Sunlights are joyous keepers of a deep American tradition, the art of unaccompanied four-part gospel harmony singing. This tradition has an especially brilliant heritage in their home place of Jefferson County, Alabama. Organized by music director and lead tenor James Alex Taylor, this delightful quintet includes James’ brothers Steve and Everett Taylor switching off singing baritone, big brother Barry who sings bass, Reginald Speights (baritone), and Bill Graves singing lead.
Jefferson County is the heartland of African-American a cappella gospel quartet singing, and is home to one of the richest regional traditions in America. Local quartet activity began in the period immediately following World War 1, and had its incubation in the steel mills, mines, and related industries that provided jobs for a large percentage of the area’s black residents. By 1930, Jefferson County had earned a reputation as one of the nation’s great centers of gospel quartet singing.
With deep respect for their musical heritage, the Sunlights sought out and received priceless musical instruction from older local quartet masters, repositories of decades of accumulated wisdom in vocal arrangement, quartet technique, and traditional repertoire. However, they also bring fresh ideas to the quartet format, and have developed a repertoire of impressive original gospel compositions to augment their traditional songbook. This will be a rare opportunity for workshop participants to study the four-part a cappella gospel style.
BLUEGRASS SINGING FOR WOMEN; DUETS
Laurie Lewis, with Tom Rozum, will teach bluegrass singing for women. Laurie Lewis’s stage shows are renowned for their musical virtuosity and front-porch friendliness. She has released over a dozen CDs, won a Grammy for True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, and twice been named Female Vocalist of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Rozum mixes traditional bluegrass and old-timey music with Western swing. Rozum was born in New England and lived in Arizona for a time before moving to California; in San Diego, he played with a swing band called the Rhythm Rascals, and upon moving to Berkeley, he worked with the traditional-music outfits Summerdog and Flying South. In 1996, Lewis and Rozum released a duet album The Oak and the Laurel, which was nominated for a Grammy. more about Laurie more about Tom
YODELING AND COWBOY SONGS
Wylie Gustafson’s wild blend of western swing, classic country, cowboy, and folk music is infused with integrity. Despite his successful career as one of America’s most popular traditional entertainers, he still gets up everyday and tends to his livestock. It grounds him, and is the backbone of his art. Although his home base is near Dusty, Washington (population 11), he has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry more than 50 times, and also performs at such prestigious venues as the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the National Folk Festival, Merlefest, A Prairie Home Companion, and The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He has recorded 12 albums with his band “Wylie & the Wild West,” and was recently honored by the Academy of Western Artists and the Western Music Association with the Yodeler of the Year, and the Best Western Swing Album. And, in case you didn’t know, that’s Wylie’s voice echoing in millions of homes as the ever-familiar Ya-hoo-ooo! in the Yahoo.com advertising campaign.
CAJUN REPERTOIRE
Christine Balfa Powell is the youngest of the four daughters of Dewey Balfa, one of the finest fiddlers of any style to ever draw a bow. She grew up playing triangle with her father and absorbed music and language from the thriving culture around Basile, Louisiana. She plays guitar and is the primary vocalist in Balfa Toujours, a brilliant young band from Louisiana that has been making a name for itself not only in the Cajun music scene of Southwestern Louisiana, but also in the larger realm of all traditional music Her guitar style is very close to that of her uncle, Rodney Balfa, who was famous for his driving rhythm. Her singing is full of the raw emotion that enables the best Cajun singers to communicate powerful feelings directly to their listeners whether or not they can understand the French lyrics. She collaborates on many of the group’s heartfelt original songs and is the founder and director of Louisiana Folk Roots, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Louisiana traditions.
EARLY COUNTRY SONGS; HARMONY SINGING
Mary Lucey will teach a class called "Overcoming Fears with Singing." Her main goal, simply, is to get people singing. She says “Singing can bring such great joy, yet so many folks are afraid to sing outside of their cars or showers. Some of these fears can be overcome by becoming aware of our bodies while we sing and learning how to breathe and relax as much as possible. We will work on relaxing, singing with correct pitch, exploring tone, and singing in time. We will expand repertoire, learning some bluegrass, old time and classic country songs. We will work on expressing individual style while singing and explore how different keys affect your ability to sing. We will also spend time every day singing harmony, because it sounds and feels great!”
Mary Lucey is a singer, songwriter, and the bass player for the original mountain music group The Biscuit Burners. The Biscuit Burners have been in high demand on the festival circuit the last few years, after their debut CD was voted in the Top 10 Bluegrass Albums of the Year by the Chicago Tribune and their follow up album was voted as the Indie Acoustic Project of the Year. She is a popular studio musician for her unique and distinctive harmony singing. Mary teaches private lessons on the bass, and taught bass as well as singing workshops at the California Bluegrass Association Camp last summer. She has also designed an Appalachian cultural music program for The Biscuit Burners which they perform at schools throughout the country.
ANGLO-CELTIC TRADITION
Jon Wilcox (Marley’s Ghost) will teach the repertoire and style of the music from the Anglo-Celtic tradition, including ballads and how to accompany them. He'll also lead some sessions on "parts"singing, such as how to find a high harmony, or how to find a bass part.
In addition to his records with Marley’s Ghost, Jon has solo recordings on the Folk-Legacy, Sierra-Briar and
Sage Arts labels and has toured internationally as a singer-songwriter and interpreter of traditional American and British Isles music. He’s also intimately familiar with the groves of academe, having graduated from Stanford Law School and taught high school history. Jon has been heavily influenced by the tenor vocal styles of Ralph Stanley and Sam Cooke, the songwriting of Van Morrison and Jesse Winchester and the gospel genius of Sweet Honey in the Rock. Jon's solo CDs on the Sage Arts label are "Song Traveler" and "Still Life."
SIMPLE MUSIC THEORY FOR SINGERS
Jerry Fletcher (Marley’s Ghost) will teach basic music theory specifically as it applies to singing. His sessions will include pitch-matching skills, basic sight-singing, hearing the I, IV, and V chords, recognizing and singing intervals, finding harmony parts, and ear training. At the music academy that he founded he is renowned for his ability to put his students at ease.
Jerry sings and plays drums, percussion, and keyboards. He’s been in the music business for over 30 years performing, touring, and recording, working with John Denver, Steve Martin, Jimmy Rodgers and the Dirt band to name a few. He has a B.A. from the California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks Ca. with a major in voice and a minor in piano. After many years working as a musician and teacher he started his own branch of Junior Music Academy (which is a music school for young children) In Kalispell MT. His solo CD is entitled We're Here To Love.
The entire Marley’s Ghost band will be in residence, with some members teaching at Voiceworks, some at the Slide and Steel workshop, and some at both.
SONGS OF THE CARTER FAMILY
Linda Lay began singing in church and on stages when she was six years old. She’s from Bristol, Virginia, a city at the center of one of the nation’s richest breeding grounds for traditional musicians, the place where the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were first recorded in 1927. She grew up in a family string band, often hearing local tradition-keeper Ralph Stanley, and one of her favorite people on earth is Jeanette Carter - the sole surviving member of the original Carter Family. Linda’s wonderous vocal power and incredibly timed bass playing made her a local favorite while she was still in her early teens. Linda has performed on many famous stages and in well-known halls, but her favorite place to play remains the Carter Family Fold, a performance place at Hiltons, Virginia, west of Bristol, and operated with strict discipline and good humor by Jeanette. "I have a Bristol sound," Linda says. "I’m proud of the music that was given to me."
Linda sang lead and played bass with Appalachian Trail, one of the most respected bluegrass bands to come out of this bluegrass heartland, and currently sings with the Stony Point Quartet and Springfield Exit.
David Lay plays guitar and sings the low harmony part in the Springfield Exit. He grew up in the coalfields of Virginia and in the little towns of the tobacco and vegetable farmlands of northeastern Tennessee, always wanted to be a farmer, and he is. But David has also always been a musician. Singing in church was learned as he learned to walk, and he developed a keen ear for the traditional music of the region.
07/19/09-07/26/09: Jazz Port Townsend
07/26/09-08/02/09: Port Townsend Country Blues Festival
07/19/09-07/26/09: Jazz Port Townsend
07/26/09-08/02/09: Port Townsend Country Blues Festival
