FieldSong: Sing-In the Seedlings
For our first FieldSong of the Season, come enjoy LIVE MUSIC among the 215 acres of green fields and open sky at the farm, bring friends and family out for a day singing in the seedlings and celebrating music transmitted exclusively from person to person without digital technology.
~ Featuring performance & storytelling by folklorist Derek Piotr @derekpiotr on IG
~ Sing-a-Long among the Seed Song fields led by our own Creek Iversen & @Honey Sweet Harmony
You’re invited to Bring Your Own picnic blanket, camp chairs, musical instruments, and/or songs to share!
AND ~ feed and pet the farm animals ~ romp on the playground ~ peruse the farm store & plant sale
sliding scale admission, register now! https://form.jotform.com/241274806785162
~ Locally-made food, fresh-ground coffee, hot tea, and cold drinks will be available for purchase from the Farm Store, as well as native & pollinator-friendly seedlings, saplings, maple syrup, and more!
In the event of inclement weather, we we gather in The Curiosity Center / greenhouse adjacent to the farmyard. Please watch our social media and webpage for additional announcements prior to coming out.
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About our Special Guest’s project, to which you are welcome to contribute if you choose!
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About our Special Guest’s project, to which you are welcome to contribute if you choose!
Derek Piotr is a folklorist, researcher and performer whose work focuses primarily on the human voice. His work covers practices including fieldwork, vocal performance, preservation and autoethnography; and is primarily concerned with tenderness, fragility, beauty and brutality. He has collaborated with artists including Scott Solter, Nathan Salsburg and Thomas Brinkmann across various disciplines. His work has been supported by The Traditional Song Forum and The Danbury Cultural Commission, and has featured on Death is Not the End and the BBC.
He recently launched The Derek Piotr Fieldwork Archive (fieldwork-archive.com) in August 2022. The Archive contains over eight hundred audio recordings made from March 2020 onward, and preserves diverse representations of folklife; ballads, hymns, tales, poems, children’s songs, and interviews among them. The focus of this collection is on the “non-singer”: someone with no background in musical performance who can nevertheless
relate a song or folkloric memory. The vast majority of the recordings in the Archive showcase unaccompanied vocal performances.
relate a song or folkloric memory. The vast majority of the recordings in the Archive showcase unaccompanied vocal performances.
In browsing the Archive you will hear singing from all walks of life: from nuns to bartenders, twentysomethings to centenarians, folk-song scholars, siblings making barnyard noises in unison, residents of a nursing home collectively recalling patriotic standards, farmers singing murder ballads, and legends of the folk
scene sharing their earliest remembrances of learning through home-singing.
scene sharing their earliest remembrances of learning through home-singing.
You will hear memories of hospice journeys, faith healing practices, tornado survival, and supernatural hauntings.
Key figures from the tradition bearers of Appalachia also candidly offer personal songs to the Archive: original compositions by the likes of Rick Ward, Bobby McMillon, and Orville Hicks are represented here.
Folklorists with a keen eye will also spot familiar names within the collection — descendants of Charles Seeger, Almeda Riddle,
Frank Proffitt, Lester Hubbard, Margaret MacArthur, Lydia Gydesen and Oscar Parks are all documented.
Frank Proffitt, Lester Hubbard, Margaret MacArthur, Lydia Gydesen and Oscar Parks are all documented.
Though the vast majority of this material is recorded by Piotr on-site in informants’ homes, twenty-first century fieldwork allows for telephony and Zoom to be used as methods to collect material. “Donated” recordings, made on-site by others on behalf of the Archive, are also periodically included.
● Countries represented so far: The United States, Canada, Great Britain, Scotland, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Serbia
● Languages represented so far: English, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic,
Italian, Missouri French, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss German, Polish, Portuguese, Ukrainian Yiddish,
Yorkshire Dialect
● U.S. states represented: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin
● Musical instruments represented so far: accordion, balalaika, banjo, banjo-ukulele, concertina, dulcimer, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, jaw harp, kazoo, keyboard, piano, slide whistle, spoons
● Languages represented so far: English, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic,
Italian, Missouri French, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss German, Polish, Portuguese, Ukrainian Yiddish,
Yorkshire Dialect
● U.S. states represented: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin
● Musical instruments represented so far: accordion, balalaika, banjo, banjo-ukulele, concertina, dulcimer, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, jaw harp, kazoo, keyboard, piano, slide whistle, spoons
photo by @Honey Sweet Harmony @honeysharmony
