In Person Concert September 4, 2021, at 5 pm

TREMPERSKILLL BOYS IN-PERSON FIRST TIME SINCE 2019! Covid Update: After declining from a high earlier in August, the rate of positive tests and Covid cases has recently started to rise. Therefore, Catskills Folk Connection has stayed with its alternative plans for a concert, not a square dance, on Saturday, September 4 with Covid precautions. See below. NOTE THE NEW STARTING TIME 5 P.M. We will continue to try to plan dances in the future.

Tremperskill Boys put on a square dance at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts a few years ago. The Tremperskill Boys, will offer a lively free outdoor concert of Catskills tunes, original songs, plus Irish and Scottish melodies, on Saturday, September 4 at 5 pm, sponsored by Catskills Folk Connection. Please note the time change to 5 pm. This way you can get supper from the food truck, Health on Wheels, which will be there even after the concert begins. The concert will take place under a tent on the lawn at Dirty Girl Farm, 114 Delaware Avenue, Andes, NY 13731. Some chairs will be provided, but for your comfort bring your own lawn chairs. Should rain interfere, the concert will be postponed. Covid precautions are planned. Masks and hand sanitizer will be available at the gate, and the audience area will indicate social distances. Originally, Catskills Folk Connection had planned to offer on this date its first in-person square dance since 2019. But the Delta variant made us change our plans, and we will hold the concert instead. As soon as the infection rate falls sufficiently, even if it is in the depths of winter, CFC will offer in-person dances on short notice. The Tremperskill Boys band was founded in 2008 by John Jacobson with several string players, and was named for the creek that runs past John's home in Andes. In addiiton to John's fiddle the band included a guitar, banjo, and mandolin – later adding string bass, button accordion and flute, and an occasional keyboard. The current group has been together for many years: John Jacobson fiddle and calling; Dane Scudder fiddle, banjo and calling, Chris Carey banjo, Sheila Addison guitar, Amy Lieberman string bass, and Ginny Scheer silver flute. Though the genders are evenly divided, the band decided to keep their “Boys” name. They say “We’re an old-time string band – but we’re not all strings; and we’re the Tremperskill Boys – but we’re not all boys!” The concert will include a wide variety of tunes – some fast and toe-tapping and others more mellow. They will be drawn from a repertoire of Catskills tunes, especially ones learned from Hilt Kelly, Irish and Scottish jigs and reels common in northern and southern regions, and original songs by John Jacobson. John Jacobson's songs are thoughtful. "Red Hill" reflects the experience of Catskills farmers in the face of “progress,” and "We'll Say a Prayer" is a meditation on on the prevalence of personal loss. If you enjoy traditional music there is something for everyone to like in this concert: danceable tunes, engaging melodies, and wonderful songs. Join us on Sept. 4 at 5 pm. Dirty Girl Farm is going all out to make this Labor Day event memorable.

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For more information visit CFC’s blog www.catskillsfolkconnection.blogspot.com or contact Ginny Scheer at 607-326-4206 or gscheer.mcs@gmail.com.

Catskills Folk Connection is sponsored by the Roxbury Arts Group and is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, by Action and Vision Grants from HumanitiesNY, by Gov. Hochul and the NYS Legislature, and by the O'Connor Foundation

LINK Wednesday August 25 at 7 pm "Diversity iin Square Dance"

Tony Parkes

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4140851861

Meeting number 414 085 861

Tony Parkes, the nationally and internationally known caller from Massachusetts, will present an on-line talk for Catskills Folk Connection on Wednesday, August 25 at 7 p.m. Tony and his wife Beth Parkes have presented dances and offered workshops in 35 US states and in several countries in Europe, and Tony has written two books on calling and dancing. According to the Square Dance History Project, Tony’s calling has “specialized in old and new contra dances, traditional and contemporary New England squares, and squares from the 1950s (arguably the Golden Age of recreational square dancing).” He has long been interested in square dance history and has unearthed “long-forgotten dances and developed an appreciation for the breadth and depth of American dance traditions.

Tony’s current research has focused recently on inclusiveness in the square dance tradition, especially by people of color in North America, from the Caribbean to above the Arctic Circle. His talk, entitled “Diversity in Square Dance,” will review the influence of African and African American music in the history of American traditional dance – and especially the development of calling dances – and then will use lively videos to visit a wide variety of living traditions of square dance. Among them will be Jamaican dancers, US Western club square dancers, community dances in far north indigenous communities, and dance performances by First Nations people in Canada.

Join Catskills Folk Connection on August 25 at 7 p.m. for this review of the vibrant living tradition of square dancing in unexpected places. The link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4140851861 For those who can attend Zoom meetings with just the meeting number it is 414 085 1861. 

 For more information, contact Ginny Scheer gscheer.mcs@gmail.com or 607-326-4206.

Catskills Folk Connection is sponsored by the Roxbury Arts Group and is funded in part by NYSCA Folk Arts Program, by Gov. Cuomo and the NYS Legislature, by Humanities NY and by the O’Connor Foundation.