Folk art, traditional and contemporary craft, blacksmithing, felting, pottery, stained glass, quilting, flint knapping, musical instrument repair and construction, and much more are all taught as week long workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins West Virginia on the campus of Davis & Elkins College.
Duration : 0:1:5
The Cajun Music band L’Esprit Cajun consisting of members Lisa Trahan on accordian , Kelli Jones on fiddle and Bobby Michod on guitar playing “Ossun One Step” for MusicBox Project’s upcoming folklore film documentary on AMERICANA WOMEN – Roots musicians, women’s tales and tunes. To see more from Lisa and other roots women go to: hyyp://www.youtube.com/musicboxproject
Duration : 0:5:3
Learn how to make the basic notes using the basic five note scale on arpeggio exercise on the fiddle with expert music training tips in this free online instrument instruction video clip for beginners.
Expert: David Kaynor
Contact: www.DavidKaynor.com
Bio: David Kaynor has over 30 years of fiddle playing experience. He currently teaches and plays the fiddle in the Connecticut River Valley.
Filmmaker: Jay Holzer
Duration : 0:3:5
Here is a clip From the “Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler from Randol’s” show featuring Nous Autres cajun band. Randols is an authentic cajun resturant/dance hall located in Lafayette, Louisiana. They feature live Cajun Music almost every night of the week. I would recommend a trip there.
Check them out at http://www.randols.com
I do not know much about the Nous Autres band. If anyone does, please let me know and I’ll post it.
Enjoy, thanks
Duration : 0:3:15
See a demonstration of a classic British fiddle jig, Gobby-O, with expert music training tips in this free online instrument instruction video clip.
Expert: David Kaynor
Contact: www.DavidKaynor.com
Bio: David Kaynor has over 30 years of fiddle playing experience. He currently teaches and plays the fiddle in the Connecticut River Valley.
Filmmaker: Jay Holzer
Duration : 0:1:50
…from the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Michael Doucet, fiddler, composer, and bandleader, is perhaps the single most important figure in the revitalization of Cajun Music in the USA. Cajun is the shorthand name for the French settlers of southwest Louisiana who were expelled from the Acadian region of Canada in the 18th century. During the first half of the 20th century, both the language and music of French Louisiana seemed to be in decline. In 1975, Doucet applied to the National Endowment for the Arts for an apprenticeship grant to study with and document the master fiddlers of his region. As a result of this project, he was able to learn first-hand from the great masters of Cajun and Creole music with links to an earlier era.
Find Michael Doucets Smithsonian Folkways album, From Now On, at http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=3207
To learn more about Smithsonian Folkways visit http://www.folkways.si.edu
To find out more about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival visit http://festival.si.edu/
The content and comments posted here are subject to the Smithsonian Institution copyright and privacy policy (www.si.edu/copyright/). Smithsonian reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove any content at any time.
Duration : 0:4:25
Track: Parlez Nous A Boire
Artist: The Balfa Brothers
Album: The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music: Vols. 1 & 2
Label: Swallow Records
This is a studio version of the wonderful track featured in the movie Southern Comfort. Unfortunately, as best I know, the complete movie soundtrack was never released, so if you want to hear it in all its glory you’ll have to buy the DVD. It’s a good movie and the soundtrack, produced by Ry Cooder, is excellent.
Here’s Dewey Balfa describing his 1964 appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, the first time Cajun Music had featured there –
“I had played in house dances, family gatherings, maybe a dance hall where you might have seen as many as two hundred people at once. In fact, I doubt I had ever seen two hundred people at once. And in Newport, there were seventeen thousand. Seventeen thousand people who wouldn’t let us get off stage.”
http://www.balfatoujours.com/brothers.html
Duration : 0:3:13
Savoy Family Band playing an in store concert at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, Ca.
Duration : 0:3:26
Ryan’s web site – http://www.captainfiddle.com Ryan demonstrates an english banjo from London maker Leon Clerc. He plays his original tune “Great Bay Stomp” which is taught in his clawhammer banjo video DVD/book instructional course. Ryan is a multi instrumentalist fluent in numerous instruments including piano, violin, fiddle, accordion, celtic flute, and pennywhistle. Visit his web site to see descriptions of his tune books, videos, recordings, and books.
Duration : 0:4:47
Feufollet playing at the Bluemoon, February 23, 2008