American Music Research Center sponsors two-week festival of free concerts, talks and community gatherings on campus and throughout Boulder County.
As part of the Recreate Your Roots festival, Dom Flemons and Anna & Elizabeth (pictured here) will perform a free concert on Feb. 7.
The American Music Research Center听(AMRC) at the College of Music is bringing together musicians representing a diverse cross-section of American roots music traditions鈥攖hink banjos, fiddles, drums鈥攊n an ear-opening festival for present-day listeners. Over two weeks鈥擩an. 22-25 and Feb. 5-7, 2018鈥�Recreate Your Roots will include concerts, TED-style talks and community gatherings for all ages throughout Boulder County.
鈥淩ecreate Your Roots celebrates a range of folk music in various formats鈥攆rom concerts to colloquia鈥攊n campus and community settings that invite and inspire conversation,鈥� says AMRC Director Tom Riis of the festival that was two years in the making. 鈥淭hrough free and public programs on campus and in Lafayette鈥攁s well as school outreach鈥攚e aim to engage a broad audience in different community circumstances.鈥�
Indeed, Recreate Your Roots is a little like a summer camp in the woods brought to the city, featuring visiting musicians and collaborators鈥擩ayme Stone鈥檚 Folklife, Anna & Elizabeth, and Dom Flemons鈥攚ho honor and explore the origins and social underpinnings of the songs they play.
鈥淛ayme has listened to thousands of pieces preserved in the Library of Congress鈥� archives,鈥� continues Riis, who will retire in June and considers Recreate Your Roots his swan song of sorts. 鈥淛ayme had the idea to go into this collection to uncover the seeds of modern folk music. These beautiful songs have a rich history, a legacy.
鈥淚n Recreate Your Roots, we present songs in a modern, collaborative context that鈥檚 both exciting and engaging鈥攂eyond a history lesson.鈥� Specifically, the festival presents songs that come with stories of black cowboys, slyly political Caribbean dancers, and the kind of woman who wouldn鈥檛 leave her house without her fiddle and her rifle.
鈥淲e treat old field recordings not as time capsules, but as heirloom seeds passed down from a bygone generation,鈥� says Stone, internationally-known banjoist, composer, song curator and coordinator of Recreate Your Roots. 鈥淭he festival presents amazing musicians who share a certain electricity in their work and who have found ways to create conversations with the past that are still relevant and resonant today.
鈥淲e鈥檙e recreating and reworking timeless melodies with an approach that鈥檚 both studied and freewheeling. All the performers and presenters have a great respect, knowledge and understanding of these traditions and an equal appreciation for what it means to express their own voices.鈥�
For example, Anna & Elizabeth learn old traditional songs from master elders (especially women) and archives, then weave in new musical ideas and add elements of performance, including dance and moving panoramas or 鈥渃rankies.鈥� They also take inspiration from other musicians dwelling in storytelling and landscape places鈥攍ike Laurie Anderson and Nick Cave鈥攁nd put an avant-garde spin on traditional bluegrass and progressive folk.
鈥淔rom Black Lives Matter to #MeToo, we鈥檙e witnessing cultural shifts that are sometimes easier to recognize and contextualize when you look backward,鈥� says Stone. 鈥淔or my part, I have more questions than answers, and I think that鈥檚 perfectly wonderful as a starting point to real conversations about this cultural moment鈥攁nd how we got here.鈥�
The festival will also feature Dom 鈥淭he American Songster鈥� Flemons, a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, slam poet and multi-instrumentalist who brings his own take on ragtime, Piedmont blues, spirituals, Southern traditional music, string band music, fife and drum music and jug-band music.
鈥淭he caliber of artists and the intimacy of Recreate Your Roots events are both unique and rare,鈥� adds Stone. 鈥淚n a world of quick soundbites, it鈥檚 nice to create space where deeper conversations and sustained engagement with music are possible.鈥�
The festival further includes a diverse Latin American program by Steve Mullins, a flamenco guitarist, composer and ethnomusicologist, in conjunction with University of Colorado professor Brenda Romero, singer-violinist and expert on New Mexican, Native American and Mexican styles.
鈥淯ltimately, Recreate Your Roots is a celebration that embodies the values we associate with folk music,鈥� concludes Riis. 鈥淭hrough music and storytelling鈥攂etween the performers and our audiences鈥攚e鈥檙e sharing common experiences of humanity.鈥�
Widespread support for Recreate Your Roots comes from Women and Gender Studies, Center for Humanities and the Arts, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement, Roser Visiting Artists Endowment, President鈥檚 Fund for the Humanities, local businesses and volunteers.
(all events are free)
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