Promised Link on WIOX December 18!

Dear readers and listeners,

I promised a link to that beautiful Christmas song I feature each year, "Brightest and Best," this time a version sung by Jean Ritchie herself along with family members.  It is in the archive at Berea College near where Jean Ritchie now lives.  http://sandbox.berea.edu/specialcollections/ac-vr-001-007-13/

The Ritchie family, from Perry County, Kentucky, in the Cumberland Mountains, preserved a large number of songs and ballads and Jean Ritchie became  a nationally recognized folk singer and performer in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, noted for her accompaniments on the mountain (lap) dulcimer. 

You can look her up in the usual on-line places, but if you want her own view of her roots, read her book, The Singing Family of the Cumberlands. 

I hope you enjoy the Ritchie family Christmas song, and find more of their music to enjoy. 

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  My next radio program, on New Years' Day itself at 7 p.m. on WIOX Radio 91.3 FM and on the internet at WIOX radio.org, will talk a little about New Year's traditions in the Northeast U.S.   See you then!

Ginny Scheer, Folklorist, Catskills Folk conection. 

Delhi Jacquard Coverlets on WIOX Tonight!

 

Conventional overshot coverlet, most likely handwoven in a household, not a factory.

All photos courtesy of the Delaware County Historical Association

 

On Catskills Folk, our biweeky program at 7 p.m. Wednesdays on WIOX 91.3 FM (and WIOXradio.org on the internet), host Ginny Scheer will talk about an historical folk art in Delaware County , the hand weaving of woolen coverlets – specifically the ones woven in Delhi, New York, in the early 19^th century.  Hand weaving was common in Delaware County households in the 1830s, but our county was benefitted by the arrival of a  coverlet weaver from Scotland who used the Jacquard loom to create elaborate double weave coverlet figures when most families had coverlets that were single layers in geometric  patterns.

The Jacquard coverlets that this weaver and subsequent weavers produced were the subject of a study by Shirley Houck and the Delaware Rural Crafts Guild in the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in an exhibit in 1982 at the Delaware County Historical Association in Delhi.  At the time 77 Delhi coverlets were known, and since then 57 more have come to light, totaling 134.  DCHA keeps a register of the coverlets and would be happy to hear from anyone who has or knows of coverlets with the word Delhi woven in the corner.

On her program tonight Ginny will talk about the traditional coverlets and the Delhi Jacquard coverlets from the point of view of a weaver and a folklorist.  Take a look at the coverlets illustrated above and below and listen at 7 p.m. to Catskills Folk!

 

 

 Jacquard coverlet woven by John Homes, Delhi, 1834, using a loom

 that lifted individual threads to make the fancy curvilinear patterns..

 

 

Reverse of the 1834 coverlet, above.

Note the colors are reversed.  This coverlet is two layers thick,

 interwoven a the design motifs.

 

 

 

Jacquard coverlet woven by Asahel Phelps, Delhi, 1848

Occasionally both handloom and Jacquard loom weavers used red wool yarn.

 

 

Jacquard coverlet in more common blue, woven by Asahel Phelps, Delhi, 1848.

 

Note the linked motifs in the border of this Jacquard coverlet

 woven by John Benjamin Phelps II, the son of Asahel Phelps, Delhi, 1854.



More photos of Halloween in Roxbury in this blog's Gallery, on the right!

Another Square Dance Master's Class!

 

The Tremperskill Boys

with

John Jacobson

featuring special guest

Hilt Kelly

Sunday, October 20, 1-4 p.m.

at the
Pine Hill Community Center

287 Main Street

Pine Hill, NY  12465

$7 admission.  Age 12 and under free 

 

 

 

Join us for another afternoon of fiddle music and square dancing.  This is the third in a series of very successful classes in Pine Hill,  thanks to the creative efforts of the Center's director, Ann Epner, and the generosity of the Messinger family.  Catskills Folk Connection is happy to step in to present the third Master's Class.  Beginners are welcome and are often in the majority.   Come learn from the Catskill Mountains' own legendary fiddler and caller, Hilt Kelly, and an up and coming caller, John Jacobson and his band, The Tremperskill Boys.

Presented by the Pine Hill Community Center, Catskills Folk Connection, and the New York Folklore Society.  Funded in part by the Messinger Family Fund, the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O'Connor Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Catskills Folk Connection is sponsored by the Manhattan Country School.

On WIOX 91.3 FM or wioxradio.org Wednesday, August 28 at 7 p.m.

 

Catskills Folk presents

 

SHAPE NOTE SINGING

with Ben Bath and Ben Fenton

Listen to a singing tradition being revived in the Northeast and here in the Catskills.  Shape note singing is a kind of traditional group singing that you can try. There will be more here on the blog and at Ben's and Ben's sites after the program.  Check on Thursday or Friday.

Square Dance Master's Class

Sunday August 18

 

July 28 Maser's Class at Pine Hill Community Center





From 1 to 4 p.m. at the Pine Hill Community Center (287 Main Street, Pine Hill, NY) find out what it is like to learn square dancing from legendary fiddler and traditional square dance caller Hilt Kelly and his band, The Sidekicks.  Hilt, his wife Stella, plus Don Strausser and Don Irwin, will treat you to square dances that have been danced in the Catskills for decades if not longer.  Hilt and the Sidekicks will share the stage with John Jacobson and the Tremperskill Boys, passing on the tradition of square dancing and fiddling to a new generation. 

Beginners are welcome and all dances will be taught - at least until it is clear that the dancers need no more instruction!  If we can stop dancing long enough, we'll engage the musicians in a discussion of square dancing in the Catskills, fiddle styles, former square dance bands, and more.

We hope you'll be there!



Catskills Folk Connection Back in Action July 28

The Tremperskill Boys play for a square dance at the Vega Hall, Roxbury.

 

After several months without programing, Catskills Folk Connection has again begun to initiate events, first a square dance on July 13 at the Vega Hall in Roxbury and then this weekend at the Pine Hill Community Center. 

On Sunday, July 28, from 1-4 p.m. Hilt Kelly and His Sidekicks will offer a Master's Class at the Pine Hill Community Center on Main Street in Pine Hill, NY.  There will be square dancing during which Mr. Kelly and his band will pass on traditional tunes and calls to their protégés, the Tremperskill Boys.

Thanks to increased funding from the New York State Council on the Arts Folk Art Program, and the New York Folklore Society's project with the National Endowment for the Arts, the O'Connor Foundation and private and community funders, there will be two events per month for the next few months instead of just one.

On August 10, Mr. Kelly and members of his band will appear at the 200th anniversary of the Town of Lexington where a plaque will be dedicated to them and displayed on the Westkill Community Hall where Mr. Kelly has been calling dances for over 70 years.  The Tremperskill Boys will again play with Hilt and his Sidekicks, with John Jacobson calling dances alongside Mr. Kelly.  The event begins at 4 p.m. with a potluck supper, and includes a fiddle jam, a demonstration of the Cotillion - the dance that preceded the square dance - as well as square dancing. 

Then again on August 18 there will be a dance and master's class at the Pine Hill Community Center.

Hope to see you at any and all of our events!