Last night, I sat for over two hours in a room with no heat. This is significant considering it was the first 30 degree weather we had received in Atlanta following an entire week of make-you-want-to-wear-a-tank-top weather in the 80's.
What kept me in this room for so long, was the body heat of over a hundred scarf-wearing locals and more particularly, the presence of John McCutcheon. John was kind enough to share his thoughts on performing with me during a pre-show interview (the full interview will be posted in March) and again throughout the entire show - he is an amazing storyteller. Not to mention the fact that he plays so many musical instruments that he could not give me an accurate count of that number. And, he plays these instruments well. Listen to John "warming up" on the hammer dulcimer. John's formal musical training started with piano lessons as a young boy, but eventually spiraled into an adventure of hitch-hiking and word-of-mouth referals during a 3-month study "abroad" in the mountains of Kentucky with a banjo.
Although from Atlanta, John travels quite a bit - he was able to spend some real time here thanks to the Southern Order of Storytellers (SOS) and the Interfaith Story Circle (ISC). These two organizations help support story-tellers in the region with Conferences and meet-up storytelling sessions. Audrey Galex, storyteller and video biographer, told me how the ISC chapter got started in Atlanta and about the annual "Winters Light" event (Listen now). If you are interested in getting involved, Audrey can be reached at audrey@rootswings.com. SOS President, Feriel Feldman told me about the SOS and gave one of the best observations about storytelling that I've heard in recent memory (Listen now).
I encourage those in town reading this to attend the next Winter's Light event, with or without an extra pair of gloves. Also, mark your calendars for January 25-26th when Winter StoryFest hits, headlined by storyteller, NPR guest, and children's book author, Carmen Deedy.
John McCutcheon and Winter's Light Festival
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
Hannah, I'm so glad you interviewed John. He's a terrific musician and storyteller. I've known him since 1974, when I was a new folklorist and he was fairly new at professional performing as a career. I'll go the SAF website to listen to the interview!
Mom
Post a Comment