English folk musicologist Cecil Sharp and his secretary Maud Karpeles spent several months of 1916-1918 on multiple trips through the Appalachian Mountains collecting folk songs, largely those Sharp believed to be of British origin. Sharp’s Appalachian diaries are the focus of an upcoming residential project sponsored by the English Folk Dance and Song Society and the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

Participants include British folk artists Steve Knightley, Jackie Oates, Andy Cutting, Jim Moray, Patsy Reid and Kathryn Roberts; American folk artist Caroline Herring and Canadian folk artist Leonard Podolak. The week-long project begins March 18 and is intended to result in new folk music works. Concerts and a CD release will follow.

[Photo © rosta - Fotolia.com.]

Southern folk singer Caroline Herring was recently given a 2010 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award in the Popular Music Composition category for her album Golden Apples of the Sun. Herring will be performing at the All Good Cafe in Dallas on Friday evening.

The Old Settler’s Music Festival will be held Thursday, April 15 through Sunday, April 18 near Austin, Texas. Among the scheduled artists are Green Mountain Grass, The Joe Ely Band, Jimmy LaFave, The Wronglers, Ruthie Foster, The Special Consensus, Mindy Smith, Elizabeth Cook and many others including Patty Griffin with Buddy Miller.

American folk musician Peggy Seeger and New Zealand Celtic group Cairde team up Saturday night in a benefit performance for the Nelson Women’s Centre in Nelson, New Zealand. The Centre was partially burned by arsonists a few years ago. Seeger being very active in gender issues, this is a project dear to her heart. Irish singer Irene Pyper-Scott and New Zealand instrumentalist Nathan Torvik will join Seeger on stage….

The 2010 International Folk Alliance Conference is being held in Memphis Wednesday through Sunday. Public events include a Roots Music Spectacular on Friday and Songwriters in the Round on Saturday, both free at the Center for Southern Folklore, and paid performances at the Bartlett Center of a Sacred Steel Gospel Review on Friday and Songwriters in the Round on Saturday. More details are available on the conference web site.

The White House hosted two special events Tuesday in honor of Black History Month: a high school workshop in the afternoon and a concert Tuesday evening. Both featured performances by noted folklorist and musician Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. Concert artists included, among others, Yolanda Adams, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Smokey Robinson, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. An article in The Root has a thoughtful analysis of Dylan’s role in the civil rights movement.

PBS will broadcast the concert at 8:00 p.m. EST Wednesday, February 11. Beginning Thursday, February 12, the performance will be available online.

I’m always looking for new music and for time to write about it, and sometimes I have to be reminded to look in my own backyard. I became aware of a recent performance by a fairly new local group called Seryn, and once I listened to some of the concert online I wanted to share it with you.

Folk-pop singer Bethany Yarrow and cellist Rufus Cappadocia, aka Bethany & Rufus, will join Peter Yarrow in concert October 17 at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Performances include an evening show and an afternoon children’s concert. New Bethany & Rufus group members Yacouba Moumouni and Bonga Jean-Baptiste bring a world-music influence.