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Category: Homegrown Premieres

In this photo of The Chosen Few, eight men sit in pews in a church.

Homegrown Plus Premiere: The Chosen Few’s a Cappella Gospel from Virginia

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with The Chosen Few, a Virginia gospel group that stands firmly in the great tradition of unaccompanied religious singing by African American residents of the Tidewater region of the mid-Atlantic states. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

In this photo of Rodopi Ensemble, five men play musical instruments: Kyriakos Petras (violin), Nikos Angousis (clarinet), Alkis Zopoglou (kanun), Yorgos Pagozidis (drum), Drosos Koutsokostas (lute).

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Rodopi Ensemble’s Traditional Music from Thrace

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Rodopi Ensemble, an accomplished traditional band playing music from the Thracian mountains of Greece, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

A woman plays the hammered dulcimer

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Chinese Hammered Dulcimer with Chao Tian

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Chao Tian, a master of the yangqin, or Chinese hammered dulcimer, as well as a sound designer and visual artist. For her concert, Chao Tian is joined by Tom Teasley, a multidimensional percussionist, performer, and composer. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

Pamyua. Photo courtesy of the artists.

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Pamyua’s Modern Yup’ik Drumsongs

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're excited to continue the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Pamyua, a trio performing traditional Inuit (Yup'ik) drumsongs from Alaska with a distinct and unique American sound. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore! Together for more than 15 years, Pamyua (pronounced Bum yo-ah) has entertained millions with their fusion of traditional Inuit music and Yup’ik dance performance. Founding members Phillip Blanchett, Stephen Blanchett and Ossie Kairaiuak are from the Yukon/ Kuskokwim River Delta region in southwestern Alaska. Pamyua found national recognition in 2003, winning Record of the Year at the Native American Music Awards, and is now considered a cultural treasure across the circumpolar north. Native People magazine praised their "blizzard of interlocking harmonies" and Alaska magazine rated them "one of the 10 greatest Alaska artists of the millennium." The group has performed at distinguished events worldwide, including the 25th Anniversary of Greenlandic home rule, which was attended by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and the grand opening of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

A man plays a Ukrainian Bandura

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Ukrainian American Bandura Master Julian Kytasty

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Julian Kytasty, a third generation player of the bandura, a Ukrainian stringed instrument with similarities to the lute and the zither. Julian also sings beautifully and composes for the bandura and other instruments. In this blog you'll find an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

A man plays ukulele

Homegrown Plus Premiere: ‘Ukulele Master Herb Ohta, Jr.

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with international recording artist Herb Ohta, Jr., who is one of today's most prolific ʻukulele masters. In this blog you'll find an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore! We're very excited to present Herb Ohta, Jr. in the series. Influenced by jazz, R&B, Latin and Brazilian music, as well as traditional Hawaiian sounds, he puts his stamp on Hawaiian music by pushing the limits of tone and technique on this beautiful instrument. The son of ʻukulele legend "Ohta-san," he started playing at the age of three, and began teaching at the age of nine. Based in Honolulu, he shares the music of Hawaiʻi and the beauty of the ʻukulele with people around the world, performing concerts and conducting instructional workshops. As a special treat, Herb asked his good friend Jake Shimabukuro to join him for a medley of traditional Hawaiian songs. Shimabukuro, also a Honolulu native, is one of the most highly acclaimed ʻukulele players in the world, and has collaborated with many great musicians, including Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Loggins, and Amy Mills. He's never forgotten his roots in Hawaiian music, though, and was kind enough to join Herb in his Homegrown concert.

Head and shoulders portraits of four women with a backdrop of trees.

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Kongero, Swedish Folk’appella

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're beginning the 2022 Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Kongero, a Swedish vocal group which consists of four women who sing folksongs: Lotta Andersson, Emma Björling, Sofia Hultqvist Kott, and Anna Wikénius. The women of Kongero like to say their music tells tales of life, with moving love songs, dramatic medieval ballads, witty ditties, and spirited dances, all sung in their native Swedish tongue. Traditionally, Swedish songs are usually sung solo. Kongero adds harmonies and arrangements created by the band members. Kongero’s polyphonic music is characterized by tight harmonies, stirring rhythms, and the clarity of their beautiful voices, which bring traditional Swedish folksongs into modern times. Since 2005, Kongero has performed their polyphonic a cappella folk music (which they have dubbed Folk’appella) all over Europe, Asia, and the Americas, singing in concerts and leading workshops in traditional Swedish vocal music and vocal harmonies. In this blog you’ll find videos of the concert and an interview with the singers.

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Homegrown Plus: Walter Parks

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're filling in the Homegrown Plus series with one that got away, our great 2020 concert with Walter Parks, one of the first "Homegrown at Home" concerts. Walter is a consummate guitarist who founded the duo The Nudes before spending more than a decade as the lead guitarist for Woodstock legend Richie Havens. We're particularly happy to present this concert, which showcased our collections in a unique and compelling way. Walter has done extensive research on our 1944 recordings of Okefenokee Swamp music made by Francis Harper. He has arranged material from the collection for his own performances, including his Homegrown Concert, which is almost entirely made up of material from the collection. If that weren't enough, Walter made the journey from his current home in St. Louis all the way down to the Chesser homestead, so he could record part of his concert video in the same place where the archival recordings were made. It gives his concert an extraordinary sense of place, and we're particularly delighted to present it to you here.

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Homegrown Plus: Reggie Harris

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus series with Reggie Harris, who is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller on a mission to educate, entertain, and inspire. Many of us here at AFC have admired Reggie for years. In particular, his tours and recordings educating people about the Underground Railroad through song and story have made an important contribution to countless Americans' understanding of African American history. We knew that Reggie included a lot of traditional songs in his repertoire, from labor songs to spirituals. So we thought it would be fun to ask Reggie to perform a set of mostly traditional songs, including a version of "Free at Last," inspired by a version in the AFC archive...which made his concert also an example of an artist taking the Archive Challenge. Watch his concert and interview in this blog post!