Woods Hole Traditional Music Stroll offers an afternoon and evening of lively traditional music, from Native American to contemporary folk, in Woods Hole Community Hall and various pubs, restaurants, businesses, and public spaces.
Trad Stroll 2019 took place on Saturday, April 27, and was a celebration of the contributions of immigrants from many different countries who brought their music with them. The result was a vibrant, cross-cultural mix of influences and genres that delighted both listeners and dancers. The information below relates to the 2019 Trad Stroll.
The Stroll takes place rain or shine!
Saturday, April 27, 2019, noon to 10 PM
New this year is an Artisans’ Market at the Old Fire Station, 72 Water Street, from noon to 6 PM. Here you can find a variety of local artisans and craftspeople showing their creations.
The Trad Stroll begins at noon at the Woods Hole Historical Museum with a performance by The Familiars of Cape Cod. At 1 PM, The Resemblance plays at the Woods Hole Library, and John Yankee performs at the Water Street Kitchen. At 1:30 PM, Black Whydah will be at the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, and the Falmouth Fiddlers start things off at the Woods Hole Community Hall.
Buzzards Bayou performs at 2 PM at Quicks Hole Tavern, and Cat’s Melodeon will be entertaining passersby from the Coffee Obsession front porch. The music continues throughout the day at the Community Hall, with performances by Kim Moberg, the Sonnay Fiddlers, the Nobska Lights, the Kanaley School of Irish Dance, Stanley & Grimm, the Solstice Singers, and Tom Goux, who is bringing both Triple-Slide and the Rum-Soaked Crooks to the stage for a rollicking evening of music.
Restaurants and pubs will be open throughout the day and evening to keep you energized!
Thanks to WHOI and MBL, parking will be available at the WHOI lots on School Street and Dyer’s Dock on Water Street and at the MBL overflow parking lot behind Lillie Auditorium.
Bus service from Falmouth to Woods Hole: www.capecodtransit.org/sealine-route.htm#outbound
2019 Woods Hole Trad Stroll Schedule
Noon to 1 PM, The Familiars of Cape Cod, Woods Hole Historical Museum, 579 Woods Hole Road. The Familiars, Manny and Linda Dias, sing and play a unique blend of folk, country, rock, fiddle, and popular music on guitar, violin, mandolin, harmonica, and Irish low whistle. www.familiarscapecod.com
1 to 2 PM, The Resemblance, Woods Hole Public Library, 581 Woods Hole Road. The Resemblance is Anna Magee and Oliver Farrell, a mother-and-son duo. Anna, a life-long musician, has been performing with Oliver for about 10 years, ever since he started learning the fiddle (training with Nikki Engstrom and the Sonnay Fiddlers, among others). Both are members of two large New England contradance bands and various other groups and ensembles, large and small. They play old-time, Celtic, and contradance tunes at many local arts markets, harvest fairs, and contradances on the Cape and along the Southeast Coast on fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and keyboard.
1 to 2 PM, John Yankee, Water Street Kitchen, 56 Water Street. A dynamic and versatile musician, John Yankee will sing folk songs and play hammered dulcimer. Among his many musical activities, he is artistic director of the Falmouth Chorale, founder and music director of the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra, director of choruses at Falmouth Academy, and plays piano with the Woods Hole Folk Orchestra. In addition, he coaches ensembles, teaches privately, and offers a variety of concerts, workshops, and community sings such as “Old Time Gospel Night.”
Since coming to Falmouth in September 2007, he has also been active in various musical venues as a folk musician, singing and performing on the hammered dulcimer and keyboards. In addition, he coaches ensembles, teaches privately, and produces a variety of concerts, workshops and community sings. www.johnyankee.com
1:30 to 2:30 PM, Black Whydah, Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, 2 Water Street. Black Whydah is Jean Sagara, Cathy Hatch, and John Best, a vocal and instrumental group offering three part harmonies drawn from a mix of Irish, old-time, bluegrass, folk and original compositions. Band members play fiddles, guitars, cittern, mandolin, banjo, ukuleles, and other amazing things with strings. They are known for their lively and entertaining concerts with something for everyone.
1:30 to 2:30 PM, Falmouth Fiddlers, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. The Falmouth Fiddlers play and sing old-time, bluegrass, and Celtic fiddle tunes on fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo, dobro, tin whistle, bodhran, cello, and string bass. They are joined this year by members of the Monday Night Session and Ladies’ Choice. www.falmouthfiddlers.org
2 to 3 PM, Buzzards Bayou, Quick’s Hole Tavern. Buzzards Bayou performs traditional Cajun music from French S.W. Louisiana. Jonathan Larkin plays Cajun accordion, Amy Larkin plays fiddle, and Aaron Mayo plays guitar. The trio has been performing for the last couple of decades in the Cape area.
2:30 to 3:30, The Harper and the Minstrel, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. The Harper and the Minstrel, Abby and Jay Michaels, are passionate performers of music from the past, sung and played on a variety of traditional plucked, bowed, hammered, and woodwind instruments. They sing and play beautiful love songs, jigs, reels, and dances, medieval, Renaissance, and Celtic music. www.theharperandtheminstrel.com
3 to 5 PM, Cat’s Melodeon, Coffee Obsession Porch. Cat’s Melodeon, led by Bill Black, specializes in Irish traditional music, played on fiddle, flute, recorder, accordion, banjo, guitar, uilleann pipes, and bodhrán, a goat-skin frame drum. The group’s name comes from a local expression in Ireland’s County Mayo and refers (among other things) to an informal get-together for enjoyable purposes. www.capeirish.com/cats/home.html
3:30 to 4:30 PM, Kim Moberg, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. Kim Moberg was born in Juneau, Alaska, the daughter of a classical pianist mother and a US Coast Guard veteran father from Kansas. Music has always been an integral part of Kim’s life, helping her to adjust to the frequent moves associated with growing up in a military family.
A fingerpick-style guitarist, Kim taught herself to strum and finger pick to her favorite songs by singer/songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s. Her original songs speak to reunion, awakening, and social consciousness.
Due to debilitating stage fright, Kim played and sang only in her basement, unable to pursue her dream of becoming a professional performer. In 2014, after a decade hiatus from music to foster a business career, to marry and raise two daughters, Kim set out to overcome her stage fright. In 2017, Kim released her debut CD titled “Above Ground” that celebrates the achievement of that goal.
4:30 to 5:30 PM, Sonnay Fiddlers, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. The Sonnay Fiddlers is an impressive group of Nikki Engstrom’s fiddle students ranging in age from 5 on up performing a large repertoire of Celtic tunes. Nikki Engstrom is an award-winning fiddler and a member of the Celtic duo Stanley and Grimm. She has performed, competed, and taught throughout New England and Canada. www.stanleyandgrimm.com/
5:30 to 6:30, Nobska Lights and Kanaley School of Irish Dance, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. Nobska Lights is a youth morris and sword dancing team that performs traditional dances from England. They dance in three styles: Morris from the Cotswolds, longsword from Yorkshire, and rapper sword from Northumberland. Some dances feature bells on the dancers’ legs and sticks in their hands; others involve straight or bendable swords that are woven in patterns. Don’t worry, the swords aren’t sharp! The group is led by Jan Elliott. www.vineyardswordfish.org
The Kanaley School of Irish Dance is an Irish Dancing School accredited by an commission le rinci gaelacha (CLRG) the Irish Dancing Commission of Dublin, Ireland. Dancers learn solo steps and sets as well as group ceili dancing. Enrollment is always open in locations in Pocasset and Hyannis. www.kanaleyschool.org
6:30 to 7:30 Stanley & Grimm, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. Stanley and Grimm takes its name from the makers of Nikki’s fiddle and bow, fiddlemaker and inventor of the Stanley steam engine, F.O. Stanley, and Grimm, respectively. Stanley & Grimm celebrate traditional music through old and new interpretations of jigs, reels, and songs played with lively fiddle, guitar, and voice. Fiddler Nikki Engstrom and singer/guitarist Sean Brennan create a musical journey through a bounty of fiddle tunes and ballads of all origins, alongside modern tunes and songs they have composed. Their second CD, Another Round, was awarded the Celtic Radio Music Award for the 2008 Album of the Year, and also took top honors in the “Jigs & Reels” category. Celtic Radio Network describes their music as “emotionally stirring, exhilarating, perfectly splendid!” The infectious fun they have on stage and their intense playing have helped them to become fan favorites on the New England traditional music scene. Their newest CD Stanley and Grimm, “Open the Gate” is available now.
7:30 to 8:30 PM, Solstice Singers, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. The Solstice Singers will present a panoply of songs illustrating the influence of a variety of countries and musical traditions, ranging from European madrigals of the 16th century to folk songs of Mexico, Canada and America, including Cape Cod. The program, especially developed for ArtWeek Massachusetts, will include historical notes, audience participation and guest appearances by the Solstice Singers’ children’s chorus “Les Enfants du Soleil.” Also featured will be a skit based on a re-imagined fable with special relevance to the scientific community in Woods Hole, and a musical mummers play.
Solstice Singers is a Falmouth-based group that has performed in venues across New England since their inception in 1992, and is directed by Woods Hole resident, Lore Loftfield DeBower. For more information, visit www.solsticesingers.org.
8:30 to 10 PM, Tom Goux, with Triple-Slide and the Rum-Soaked Crooks, Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street. Tom Goux brings two of his performance groups to Woods Hole for the Stroll. Triple-Slide features Tom and his friend Rusty Strange. They offer up the timeless echoes of Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, the Gershwins, Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and others. Rusty plays lead on both resonator guitar (dobro) and his 8-string lap steel guitar, personally designed and crafted by Rusty himself. Tom sings, while providing the jazz harmonies on his Hawaiian slide guitar, using a unique slide technique he’s developed over the last decade.
The Rum-Soaked Crooks are Tom Goux, Jacek Sulanowski, and Dan Lanier. They have been cruising the New England shoreline (and beyond) for the last three decades and offering a pungent mix of sailors’ chanteys, ballads and ditties. The Crooks have shared their songs and stories, both historical and contemporary, at festivals and maritime events across the country and in Europe, and have recorded on the Smithsonian-Folkways and Whaling City Sound labels. Their repertoire spans three centuries of seafaring songs and poetry, featuring an exceptional sampling of Cape and Islands sea songs and poetry.
Woods Hole Trad Stroll is an event of ArtWeek Massachusetts 2019 and received funding from Music Drives Us.org in 2018.
