Grand Ole Opry - I listened to this as a kid with my Dad in the early 1950s Metropolitan Opera - Listened to the Sat. morning broadcasts with my Mom in the early 1950s. 1960s Folk Music - Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Malvina Reynolds, Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Joan Baez, and many others. Pomona College Glee Club, Dallas Civic Chorus, St. Olaf College Choir - Choral Music. Northfield (MN) Arts Guild - performed in musical theater, opera workshops, and recitals. SingOut! Magazine. Victory Music - 40-year old acoustic music non-profit in Seattle. Learned to perform at their open mics, learned to produce concerts and organize open mics. Seattle Song Circle - learned a ton of songs and met many good musicians. Klezmer Music - Klezmer fiddle lessons with Sandra Layman. Irish Fiddle - lessons with Dale Russ. Dusty Strings (Seattle) - various music workshops. and way too many instruments and CDs purchased. Irish Sessions played in Seattle and elsewhere. Ireland - three trips so far. The Mudcat Cafe - a great resource of music, people, and much more. The Pacific Northwest Folklore Society - founded in 1953 in Seattle, incactive for many years, but we just revived it a couple years ago. There are still some original founding members around.
ASHES ON THE SEA (Utah Phillips)
sung at the Stan James tribute concert
at the NW Folklife Festival, May 24, 2009
Quare Bungle Rye sing by Stewart at the Wayward Coffeehouse, Seattle, Dec. 12, 2008.
Pacific Northwest Folklore Society Coffeehouse Concert
..
Sounds Like
Like me, I hope! I try not to sound like anyone else.
I play fiddle and sing traditional songs, unaccompanied or with guitar. I play in Irish sessions, perform at local open mics, and have performed at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle.
My musical education began with piano lessons at age 7 and classical violin at 8. During high school I gave up violin, bought my first guitar and began to sing. I studied voice at Pomona College and the University of Illinois while majoring in Chemistry. I taught Chemistry at St. Olaf College (Minnesota) for 28 years and was active in the Northfield Arts Guild, singing lead roles in summer musicals and opera workshops. I moved to Seattle in 1996 as research professor at the University of Washington, and picked up the violin again to become a fiddler. I later retired to begin a new career as an unemployed folk musician (something I can now afford!).
With Victory Music I helped set up open mics and an acoustic music venue in north Seattle, and write a monthly column, "Musical Traditions," for the Victory Review. I am a member of the Haller Lake Arts Council and chair of their Performing Arts Committee. I have produced CDs: “Paddy Graber – The Craic Was Great” (2004), songs by an Irish traditional singer and story teller from Vancouver, B.C.; “Songs of the Pacific Northwest” (2005), original and traditional songs of the Pacific Northwest sung by various regional musicians; and my own CD, "Erin's Green Shore" (2007).
Hey Stewart! Thanks for letting me know you have a new site. I hope to see you in the coming year. Let me know if you ever need a singer/songwriter for an event! Tamara
