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Savannah Folk Music Festival
2012 Festival
Sunday, October
14, 2012
Concert in Grayson
Stadium
DOUG MACLEOD
3:55 & 6:45 PM
Doug MacLeod is a
singer-songwriter in the American tradition. He is a traveling artist that
writes and sings original songs that are based on his own life and
experiences. He learned from the old masters, lived the music, survived the
life and carries forward a valuable tradition. MacLeod is known for his
superb songwriting, guitar wizardry, warm soulful vocals, wit and
unforgettable live performances. At the heart of this is his knack for
storytelling, bringing characters, from the faceless to the legendary, to
strikingly real life.
While he developed his rich, soulful voice MacLeod also
worked out a unique, unorthodox and powerfully rhythmic acoustic guitar
style, which was a byproduct of pent-up rage from his turbulent childhood
and the segregation drama in his new home of St. Louis. The rage of his
youth was eventually channeled through his guitar, using his relentless
right hand to pound out an insistent, churning beat to complement his
intricate bottleneck and finger-style technique. MacLeod's playing landed
him sideman gigs with George 'Harmonica' Smith, Big Joe Turner, Pee Wee
Crayton, Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, Lowell Fulson, and Big Mama Thornton.
Under their tutelage, he learned how to thrill and enrapture a crowd.
Over 28 years, 18
studio albums, several live records, compilations, a blues guitar
instructional DVD, and a live performance DVD, MacLeod has consistently earned raves. His
songs have been covered by many artists including Albert King, Albert
Collins, Joe Louis Walker and Eva Cassidy. He has co-written songs with
Dave Alvin and Coco Montoya. MacLeod's songs have been featured in many TV
movies and the hit show In the Heat of the Night. Two of his songs are on
Grammy-nominated albums by Albert King and Albert Collins.
From 1999 to 2004
he hosted Nothin' But The Blues, a very popular weekend blues show on Los
Angeles' KLON-KKJZ. He has also been the voice for The Blues Showcase on
Continental Airlines and contributed his soulful slide guitar playing to
the Los Angeles opening of the August Wilson play Gem of the Ocean. For ten years he penned Doug's Back Porch, a regular feature column in Blues Revue Magazine, in which he
shared his humorous and insightful stories with thousands of readers. He
won the Golden Note Award in 1997 for his AudioQuest album You Can't Take My Blues. In
2006 Solid Air/Warner Bros. released Doug's guitar instructional DVD 101* Blues Guitar Essentials.
MacLeod signed with
FRESH a subsidiary of Reference Recordings in 2010. His new album Brand New Eyes was released in March
of 2011. In every note he performs and records, MacLeod subscribes to the
rule-of-thumb learned from country bluesman Ernest Banks who instilled in
him to "Never play a note you don't believe", and "Never
write or sing about what you don't know about."
Like the old masters who taught him, MacLeod's music
expresses life and times via an intangible, elusive quality that may simply
be a keen sense of what matters most. There is a philosophic and healing
side to MacLeod's music and his stories that has helped others overcome the
hardships of their lives.
As Pee Wee
Crayton's widow Esther once told Doug, "You have a message and you'll
send that message mainly to the people who don't go to church." Amen.
AL PETTEWAY & AMY
WHITE
3:20 & 6:10 PM
Award-winning, critically acclaimed, passionate
and playful, Al & Amy offer an intoxicating blend of musical styles.
Their repertoire includes original, traditional, contemporary Celtic- and
Appalachian-influenced music with occasional nods to rock and jazz. Their
performances feature acoustic guitar, mandolin, Celtic harp, piano, banjo,
lap dulcimer, world percussion, and a touch of vocals.
Before moving from the Washington, DC area to
the mountains of Western North Carolina, Al & Amy won 50 WAMMIE Awards
from the Washington Area Music Association. In addition, they were awarded
5 separate grants from the Maryland State Arts Council for both music
composition and instrumental performance. They won an INDIE from The Association
for Independent Music, and Al won a GRAMMY from the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences. Al was voted one of the Top 50 Guitarists of
all time by the readers of Acoustic Guitar Magazine and in 2008 he won
Silver and Bronze medals in the magazine’s “Players’ Choice Awards.”
Al & Amy’s music was featured throughout the soundtrack of the 2009 Ken
Burns EMMY-winning documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.
And in 2010, their album, Caledon Wood, (which includes the main theme of
the National Parks documentary) was counted among the essential albums of
the past 20 years in the Acoustic Guitar Magazine 20th anniversary issue.
Al & Amy enjoy living in their mountain
aerie at 4300 feet elevation, with stunning long-range views and wildlife
as constant inspiration. This mountain-top setting has greatly influenced
their recent musical works, and has also spurred their return to
photography. Both Al & Amy’s photographs are represented by The
National Geographic Society’s Image Collection, where Al worked as an image
editor for 18 years. In addition to concerts and workshops, Al & Amy
now also offer winter-themed and 4-season multi-media shows which feature
live music performed against a backdrop of nature photography.
Among many other pursuits, Al continues to teach
private lessons and records video lessons for “Dream Guitars,” a high-end
music store in the Asheville area. He also coordinates “Guitar Week” for
the world famous music camp, The Swannanoa Gathering. And in early 2010, Amy
launched Cat Angel Press which released its first full-color gift-book, Cat Angels: The Secret Lives of Cats.
There are more angels and books to come.
High in the Blue Ridge, Al &
Amy’s most recent recording of Appalachian- and Celtic-inspired melodies,
was released in early 2011. Due to high demand, the duo is currently
planning a DVD of nature photography and original music as a companion to
their popular multi-media shows.
CURLEY MAPLE
2:45 & 5:35 PM
Athens,
Georgia string band Curley Maple has elicited appreciation from fans of all
styles of acoustic music for its inspired embrace of traditional fiddle
music and contemporary style. The renowned and creative playing of ace
fiddler David Blackmon is the driving force behind Curley Maple. He is
complemented by the tight harmony singing of Noel Blackmon and Christian
Lopez and their guitars, mandolins, and bouzouki, and upright bassist Chris
Enghauser's prodigious skills and groove. An unconventional "trad.
band," Curley Maple's figures drone and swirl, nodding to both old and
new and branching across time with a blend of old-time and Celtic fiddle
tunes, songs, ballads and original compositions. David Blackmon is a well-known
mandolin and fiddler whose roots are firmly planted in traditional and
bluegrass music. In the 80's, he toured and recorded with country music
legend Jerry Reed. David is also a founding member of Blueground
Undergrass, a veteran of the Normaltown Flyers and has shared the stage
with the likes of Vassar Clements, Sam Bush, and Jerry Douglas. Having
toured and recorded extensively with Widespread Panic, David is considered
by many to be a pioneer in fusing bluegrass with blues, jazz and rock yet
keeping old-time sensibilities.
Noel Blackmon's multi-instrumentalism is well known in the Athens music
scene. A veteran of many bands and groups over the 15 years, she is best
known for her work with the eclectic world-music band Calliope Fair. Noel
is equally at home on upright bass, accordion, piano and percussion, but it
is her lead and harmony singing and elegant guitar and mandolin playing
that stands out in Curley Maple. In 2005, Noel and David married in North
Carolina at her family home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Christian Lopez,
singer-songwriter and mandolin player, is a native son of Reno, Nevada. His
path has taken him from the West to Austin, Texas to Athens, Georgia, where
he's also been a sideman in several string bands playing festivals and
dances. In 2004, he released the acoustic Down By The Drowning Creek, a "through-the-glass-darkly
look back into the 19th century," which garnered favorable reviews
from the local press for its dark and lyrical ballads. His mandolin style
combines fiddle and clawhammer banjo sounds to back David's fiddling.
Chris
Enghauser has an MM in music performance on bass from the UGA and a BM in
music performance from George Mason University. He also plays in the Macon
Symphony as section bass. He is presently an Academic Program Specialist
teaching jazz bass in the Jazz Studies Program at UGA. He has performed
with Jeff Coffin, of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and played on his debut
record Commonality, which was
nominated JazzTimes Indie record of the year in 2000. Featured along with
Buddy Spicher on Mike Dowling’s Swing
Guitar for Homespun Video and recorded for National Public Radio, Sugar
Hill Records and Compass Records. Once a member of Roy ’Futureman’ Wooten’s
Roy-El Phi-Harmonics Orchestra and of Badabing BadaBoom, he has also played
with Sara Evans, Barbara Lamb, David Greir, the Columbus Symphony, and the
Gainesville Symphony.
DEIDRE
MCCALLA
2:10 & 5:00 PM
Playing For Keeps is an apt title
for the latest CD from singer/songwriter Deidre McCalla. From the moment
Deidre takes the stage, her engaging presence and irresistible blend of
folk, country, rock, and pop seize the listeners by the heart and won't let
go.
Deidre McCalla came of age in the fiery blaze of NYC's
folk heyday, a time when Greenwich Village clubs were filled with the likes
of Dylan, Baez, and Ochs, a time when Motown ruled the top of the charts
and the streets of America screamed with anger and civil unrest. Her first
album, Fur Coats and Blue Jeans,
was released when Deidre was 19 and a student at Vassar College. With a theater
degree tucked under her belt and an acoustic guitar tossed in the back of a
battered Buick station wagon, Deidre McCalla hit the proverbial road and
never looked back. Deidre later majored in jazz guitar at the Wisconsin
Conservatory of Music and released three albums with the pioneering women's
music label Olivia Records.
The Miami Herald affectionately dubs her a
"dreadlocked troubadour." From Maui to Maine, college
coffeehouses to Carnegie Hall, Deidre McCalla is a much beloved performer
in both folk and women's music circles and has shared the stage with a long
list of notables that includes Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Holly Near,
Odetta, Cris Williamson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. With five
critically-acclaimed albums to her credit, Deidre McCalla remains the ever
seeking road warrior, her words and music chronicling our strengths and
weaknesses and celebrating the power and diversity of the human spirit.
A single parent residing in Georgia with her son, Deidre
has taught Performance at Warren Wilson College's Swannanoa Gathering. Her
work has been published in Home
Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, The
Original Coming Out Stories, and Chrysalis:
A Feminist Quarterly, and she is featured in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader.
Deidre is a proud member of AFM Local 1000 and the North American Folk
Alliance.
Also, the winner of
the Youth Songwriting Competition will present his or her winning song at
the Sunday Concert. Performance at 4:45 PM.
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