TIM ERIKSEN WEDNESDAY FOLK TRADITIONS JUNE 12, 2024
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON FOUNDATION, INC.
130 RIVER DRIVE HADLEY MA 01035
WEDNESDAY FOLK TRADITIONS at the
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM KICKS OFF ITS 43rd SEASON WITH
TIM ERIKSEN
JUNE 12, 2024
HADLEY—The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum kicks off the 43rd season of Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series on Wednesday, June 12th with the return of Grammy nominated ethnomusicologist, experimentalist, and legend in folk music, Tim Eriksen. His music ranges from the heartbreaking to the rollicking, weaving a tapestry of shape note hymns, ballads, traditional fiddle and banjo, Balkan love songs and striking originals. This and all other performances are held Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Sunken Garden at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, 130 River Drive, Route 47, Hadley MA 01035. Admission is $12, $2 for children 16 and under. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm. The museum and its grounds are a smoke-free site. For further information please call (413) 584-4699 or view www.pphmuseum.org.
Tim Eriksen’s music springs from fierce curiosity and radical exploration, is best known as a pioneer of postpunk American folksong. He received a PhD in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 2015 and has published related work on early New England music in connection to 19th century Abolitionism, apocalyptic religion, technology and the birth of science fiction. He is currently serving as musician in residence at Historic Deerfield. He has crafted his own distinctive, hardcore Americana sound that combines thrilling vocals, banjo, fiddle, guitar, and bajo sexto–a Mexican acoustic bass.
Using this sound, Eriksen has transformed the American folk tradition with his unmatched interpretations of love songs, ballads, shape-note gospel, and dance tunes from both New England and Southern Appalachia. His own compositions, dubbed “strange and original works” by NetRythems UK, have been featured in numerous films, including the 2004 Oscar-winning film Cold Mountain, directed by Anthony Mingella. Eriksen has worked with legendary producers such as T-Bone Burnett, Joe Boyd, and Steve Albini, and several of his songs have been covered by folk innovators such as Alison Krauss and Joan Baez. He is the only musician to have performed with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson.
Along with his extensive performance career, Eriksen is a prolific educator: he has taught multiple courses on songwriting and music history at Dartmouth College, Amherst College, Smith College, and others. He also regularly appears at festivals, museums, art centers, and universities all over America and across Europe to teach workshops on American music history, shape-note harmony and ballad singing, and instrumental accompaniment. Nicole Kidman, Elvis Costello, and Sting are among his previous students. Eriksen is also the founder of the world’s largest Sacred Harp singing convention in Northampton, MA: the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention. Above all, Eriksen’s work, in both performance and education, is an investigation into the human experience and an unapologetic expression of its truths.
Wednesday Folk Traditions continues on June 19th with The Amherst Area Gospel Choir with a compilation of songs deriving from slave spirituals, African Diaspora, Boyer’s music, and contemporary pieces to celebrate Juneteenth.
Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from: the Marion I. And Otto C. Kohler Memorial Fund at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts; Robinson and Cole; Gage-Wiley and Company; Easthampton Savings Bank; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils; New England Foundation for the Arts; local agencies; and with generous support from many local businesses.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive, Hadley MA on Route 47 just two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47 North in Hadley. For information concerning tours or special events, phone (413) 584-4699 or check the museum website: www.pphmuseum.org
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation acknowledges that it occupies the unceded lands of the Nonotuck people. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House was built in 1752 by Moses and Elizabeth Porter and was central to the 600-acre farmstead known as “Forty Acres.” Today, the property is surrounded by over 350 acres of protected farmland, forest, and river frontage. The Museum portrays the activities of a wealthy and productive 18th-century household including numerous artisans, servants, and enslaved people who made "Forty Acres" an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks. Since 1799 there have been no structural changes to the house. In the 19th century the house evolved into a rural retreat for family and in the mid 20th century became an early example of historic preservation. The museum is listed on the National Historic Register and contains a collection of the belongings of seven generations of one extended Hadley family. Open May 18th through October 15th, Saturday through Wednesday. For more information check out our website at: www.pphmuseum.org or call the museum at (413) 584-4699.
PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM
WEDNESDAY FOLK TRADITIONS 2024
June 12th Tim Eriksen, leader in the “shape-note” tradition, experimentalist and ethnomusicologist, performs traditional ballads from the Appalachians to the Pioneer Valley and original pieces that have been described as “magical realism in song.”
“…a storyteller at heart, with a distinctive, unvarnished voice.” -Washington Post
June 19th Our 12th annual Horace Clarence Boyer Memorial Gospel Concert features The Amherst Area Gospel Choir who continue Boyer’s tradition of bringing gospel to all with a compilation of songs deriving from slave spirituals, African diaspora, Boyer’s original music, and contemporary pieces to celebrate Juneteenth.
June 26th The Talamana Trio create cosmic rhythm and order in a world fusion ensemble performing original songs, incorporating elements of Indian and Middle Eastern music with jazz and folk music, based on the lyrics of visionary poets. Musicians include Laila Salins on shruti, Jim Matus on laouta and Robert Markey on sitar.
July 23rd Stories of Slavery and Independence: Stopping Stones remembrances of Caesar Phelps and Margaret (Peg) Bowen, freedom songs, and a reading of Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" A free program offered in partnership with Ancestral Bridges & funded with a grant from MassHumanities.
July 10th Zikina - featuring Uganda native Gideon Ampeire, play an exciting fusion of Ugandan folk music with contemporary influences of traditional East African vocals and instruments including enanga, adungu, and kalimba. Mike Cardozo, Roston Kirk and Kade Parkin ensconce Gideon’s vocals within a sonic landscape that flows seamlessly from intense grooves to joyous dance beats to dreamy textures with Gideon’s vocals cutting powerfully through the fabric or floating lightly above
July 17th StompBoxTrio features Evelyn Harris, the powerhouse vocalist, former member of Sweet Honey In The Rock, and Grammy nominated composer performing with John Cabán on dobro and stompbox and Paul Kochanski on upright & electric bass and foot-percussion. The group explores the multicultural depths of 20th-century American blues, rock, and soul with some 21st-century mojo.
July 24th Jose Gonzales and Criollo Clasico- contemporary rhythms of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic led by one of today’s foremost exponents of Caribbean music, acclaimed for his original compositions featuring the cuatro. “Full of rhythms, flowing melodies and masterly guitar playing.” – Union News
July 31 Thea Hopkins, acclaimed singer songwriter and member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard, performs modern “Red Roots Americana,” the scope and reach of Indigenous music in the 21st century along with a sprinkling of traditional, timeless tribal artistry. Grand Prize Winner of the 22nd Great American Song Contest for her song, "The Ghost of Emmett Till"- “a stand out writer” The Washington Post
Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from The Adams Foundation; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council; Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company, and with generous support from many local businesses.
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