Jennifer Masada and I were thrilled to produce another successful Fall Concert at New Song Episcopal Church in Coralville! Special thanks to all of our wonderful students who worked so hard and played with so much energy and passion and to their families who helped them to achieve their goals. We knew already that Rey… Read More Fall Concert 2017
The Folk Songs You Never Sang In Grade School team has been quiet for the last couple of months. Keith battled a walnut and the walnut bested him, taking a broken wrist as payment for being trodden upon. Keith has proved to be the tougher nut and his healing is proceeding well so we will… Read More Sandburg Songbag
Introducing Dannye and Rob, my featured musicians for September and October! There is a special place in my heart for family music-making so it’s an extra thrill to be featuring a mother and son for the first time in my featured musician series. In addition to making music at home, in school ensembles and at… Read More Congratulations to Dannye and Rob!
Many thanks to Little Village Magazine and to Kent Williams for his kind review of Folk Songs You Never Sang In Grade School. Some of the best musicians in Iowa City and environs are not chasing a career in music. Keith Reins, for example, is a player and collector of folk songs who also works… Read More Little Village Magazine Review
There is always magic to be found at the Iowa State Fair! Our first stop was Pioneer Hall for the Iowa State Fair Fiddlers Contest. The friendly face of David Bellegante, 9 Time State Grand Champion Fiddler and the annual host of the Iowa State Fair Fiddle Contest, is always a welcome sight. I’ve been… Read More Iowa State Fair 2017
Thank you all so much for coming to our CD Release Concert! We really enjoyed playing for you and look forward to seeing you next time. photo by Patti Cooper I’m thrilled and grateful to report that our friends Tom, Emily and Henry Landmann not only made a weekend trip from Wisconsin to attend our… Read More Video from the CD Release Concert
Borrowing from my charming, talented and articulate pal Jeffrey C. Capps because it all applies to me too (and why reinvent the wheel?): Dear Friends, It’ll be a busy musical weekend for me, and I hope to see many of you! On Friday, I am honored to join Tara in opening for John Rapson’s must-see… Read More Ready, Set, Summer!
I don’t know how I got lucky enough to be a part of this project but I am surely grateful. “Over and over, we forget what being American means. The radical premise of our nation is that one people can be made from many, yet in each new generation we find reasons to limit who… Read More Hot Tamale Louie
Captain Charles Boycott was a land agent of absentee landlord Lord Erne living in Lough Mask House, County Mayo, Ireland in 1880. Harvests were poor that year and the farmers working Erne’s land were unable to afford the rent. There are vast swaths of context that I’m not including here because so many valuable resources… Read More Boycott
St. Patrick’s Day as it is observed in most American cities is a consumerist sham. Sure, it started in the early 17th century as a religious feast day honoring the death day of St. Patrick in 462 AD, but it has devolved to a level of kitsch that deters many from any desire to observe the day at all.… Read More St. Patrick’s Day 2017
Tara McGovern 