Musicians and Callers
GRFAS Highlighted Musicians and Callers' Bios
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| Musicians | Callers' Bios |
| Musicians | |||
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Name |
Type |
Web site/contact information |
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Blue Water Ramblers |
Folk |
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Brookfarm String Band |
Old Time, Irish, Civil War |
Kent Fisher 269-342-6551 |
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Celery City Sodbusters |
Old- time |
Jim Cooper: 269-343-5280 |
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| Dublin Station | Celtic and Canadian |
www.dublinstationband.com e-mail: sid@octoberday.com |
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FONNMHÕR |
Irish rock |
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Hawk & Owls |
Old-Time, Appalachian |
www.hawksandowls.com |
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| J Oscar Bittinger | Singer/songwriter |
www.joscarbittinger.com e-mail: sid@octoberday.com |
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Java Junkies |
Old Time music for dances |
E-mail:
Hanno Meingast |
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Java Jive |
Swing |
e-mail: Mark Porter 616-363-1686 |
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Jive at Five |
Swing |
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Joel Mabus |
Ballads & storytelling |
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| Lare Williams and New Direction Bluegrass Band | Bluegrass | www.larewilliams.com | |
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Lucy Webster |
Singer/Songwriter |
www.lucywebster.com |
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Nobody's Darlin' |
West Michigan's all female old-timey stringy band |
www.nobodysdarlin.com |
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| Oxter/Mahone |
Traditional/Celtic, American folk & pop |
www.oxtermahone.com e-mail: sid@octoberday.com |
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| Puck Faire | Irish/Scottish |
www.puckfaire.com e-mail: theband@puckfaire.com |
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Rhythm Billies |
Old Time |
Bruce Bowman 989-561-2308 |
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Ruth Bloomquist |
Singer-Songwriter |
Ruth Bloomquist: 231-798-3660 |
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Smash the Windows |
Irish |
e-mail: David Molinari |
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Sparks Rant |
Irish, Old Time |
Fred Wilson: 616-891-1690 |
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Tanglemere |
Irish/Old time |
Shelly Van Liere: 616-735-1634 |
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Three's a Crowd |
English Country, Irish Jigs, Waltz |
Jody Hershel: 616-682-1680 |
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| Caller Bios | |||
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Name |
Information |
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| Mike Clark | Mike was introduced to traditional dancing as a teenager living in St. Marys, a small town in Ohio. His interest expanded at college in Oberlin, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the mid 1980’s he joined the local dance scene in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Around 1990 he began to call an occasional dance or two at the Country Dancing in Kalamazoo dances, at the Oshtemo Grange. By the mid ‘90’s, Mike was calling entire evening programs at many of the CDK dances. In more recent years, Mike has led caller workshops in Michigan and calls dances throughout southern Michigan and northern Indiana. In his travels around Michigan and in other states, Mike has had the opportunity to watch, listen to, and learn from many of the great callers. Their examples are the source of his own strengths as a caller: efficient teaching of dance figures and moves, clear calling, programs with variety and challenge, and the mentoring of novices. Mike also plays piano in the band Thorn Among the Roses at the monthly English Country Dances at the Oshtemo grange. Contact Mike at michael.clark@wmich.edu | ||
| Barry Dupen | Barry Dupen learned to contra dance in New England in the mid 1980s, learned to call and write dances in North Carolina in the mid 1990s, and moved to northeast Indiana in 2000 as a contra dance missionary. His teaching style is clear and succinct, designed to bring beginners up to speed quickly and easily. Barry enjoys calling interesting and playful dances. He is an active co-conspirator in northern Indiana's Goshen Community Contra Dancing, which has the memorable web address http://godancing.org | ||
| Carol Jacobs | Carol Jacobs has been calling in the Ann Arbor area since 2002, and has been an avid contra dancer since 1980. She also calls Family dances and English country dances and is currently chairing the committee for a new 4th Saturday dance series in Ann Arbor. Their goal is to bring new dancers into their regular dance community. Carol is a special education teacher and enjoys playing music, and variety of outdoor activities. catmom@digirealm.com | ||
| John Legg |
John Legge grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. In 1989 he
happened upon an international folk dance in Baltimore, Maryland, and
nothing has been the same for him since. Over the past 15 years John has
enthusiastically embraced several dance styles, including contra, English
country, international, Scandinavian, modern Western squares, two-step, and country-western line dance. He started calling contras in 1997, and has called in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Ann Arbor. John lives in Grand Rapids, where he works as a conservation scientist for The Nature Conservancy. |
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| Julie Levy-Weston | Julie lives in Lansing, Michigan. She started contra dancing in 1992 while living in Ithaca, NY, and loved it from the start. In 1997 she moved back to Michigan and began calling occasionally at some multi callers nights. In January of 2003, she called her first entire dance. Since then she has called in Lansing, Midland, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, and couple dances in Indiana. Julie favors dances that flow and tries to teach carefully and concisely. Julie credits Becky Hill, Joseph Pimentel, Erik Hoffman, Darlene Underwood, Carol Ormand and other callers who have helped and inspired her. When she's not dancing or calling, Julie works at the Michigan State University Museum helping with event planning (including technical production of the Great Lakes Folk Festival) and with the moving of Museum's many Traveling Exhibits. | ||
| Danika Murray | Danika and her sisters were home-schooled. As such, the Murray’s looked for a family activity outside of the home. Some friends told them about folk dancing and they were intrigued. They went to an English Country Dance and soon after a Contra and Square dance in Kalamazoo and loved it. Danika began calling in the spring of 2001 when she attended a caller workshop at a local hootenanny. Within a year or two she was calling whole evenings of contra dancing and adding squares, circles, and triplets to her repertoire. In these past few years she has traveled to call dances throughout Michigan (including Clawson, Ann Arbor, Traverse City), to Indiana, Illinois and even Barcelona, Spain. Danika stays active in south-west Michigan as a caller and dance organizer. She loves to share her passion for music and dance with new dancers and experienced dancers alike! Reach her through email - bellaestvita@yahoo.com or better yet, dance to her calling! | ||
Last update:
06-11-01
For updates or corrections, please e-mail:
updates@grfolkarts.org
