May 13, 2008
Hosmer Auditorium, Everson Museum of Art
But for the Erie Canal, New Orleans would have been the biggest city in North America. Historians agree that it is because of its extensive canal system that New York State became the Empire State.
Erie Canal balladeer and folklorist George Ward tells stories and performs songs from the golden age of America’s canals with particular reference to New York's Erie Canal.
Life, work and travel on the canal are recreated in this excellent program throughstories and songs performed on concertina, banjo, guitar, jaw harp and George'svoice.
Carefully researched over a thirty-year period, this authentic presentation is a must for anyone interested in the history, traditions and folk culture of America’s past and present canals.
A lifelong collector and performer of traditional songs, Geroge Ward draws on the rural singing tradition of the American Northeast for his main inspiration. Ancient ballads migrant in the New World, songs of the rural home and hearth, songs of the lumber woods, the rivers and canals are central to his repertoire.
A folklorist by academic training has been active for over thirty years in the documentation and public presentation of the true tradition-bearers within whose families and communities’ traditional arts are carried on. He is bestknown for providing the music soundtracks for no less than four productions telling the story of the Erie Canal and for his acclaimed CD Oh! That Low Bridge! Songs of the Erie Canal.
