Saturday May 18, 2024

The Early American Shape Note Singing Workshop with visiting artist Dr. Tim Eriksen will be based on The Sacred Harp tunebook, first published in 1844 in Georgia, is at the heart of one of America’s most vital homegrown musical practices. Within its pages, “Amazing Grace” meets the toe-tapping “fuging tunes” of early New England, all harmonized for four-part social singing and written in a unique and practical notation system. Dr. Tim Eriksen has been teaching this music around the world for over thirty years, his students ranging from inner-city kindergarteners to the cast of the film "Cold Mountain." This workshop, designed for absolute beginners and more experienced singers alike, begins with the basics of the human voice and group singing and includes an introduction to reading shape-note music, notes on important aspects of history, traditional practice, and lots of full-on singing. No prior experience is required! This workshop would be interesting for anyone practicing or studying Voice, Conducting, Choral Music, Music in Film, Arranging, Early American/African American Music History, Voice Techniques, and Ethnomusicology. Apart from being the coolest-looking man in folk song, Eriksen is an uncompromising performer, ethnomusicologist, Sacred Harp singing master, musical adventurer and punk-folk pioneer, who seems to play every instrument under the sun and has shared a stage with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson. – The Guardian, UK Dr. Tim Eriksen is acclaimed for transforming American tradition with his startling interpretations of old ballads, love songs, shape-note gospel, and dance tunes from New England and Southern Appalachia. He combines hair-raising vocals with inventive accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, guitar, and bajo sexto – a twelve-string Mexican acoustic bass – creating a distinctive hardcore Americana sound. There are very few artists in the same league as Eriksen and fewer who possess the credentials and praise. Known for his interpretations of American traditional music from New England to Southern Appalachia, Eriksen embodies the music he studies. An ethnomusicologist and teacher, he has researched music in New England, and the Sacred Harp tradition. He has also taught courses ranging from American Balladry to Bollywood at prestigious institutions like Dartmouth College, Amherst College, and Smith College just to name a few; however, Eriksen is better known for his work in films like Billy Bob Thornton’s Chrystal and his contributions to the 2004’s Cold Mountain. As a consultant and performer for the soundtrack of the award-winning soundtrack of film Cold Mountain Eriksen was enlisted to teach Sacred Harp singing to the cast by T-Bone Burnett, the producer of the Cold Mountain Soundtrack. Eriksen performed on the soundtrack, singing with Riley Baugus on traditional songs such as “I Wish My Baby Was Born” and “The Cuckoo”, and his solo track of “Am I Born to Die?”. He was then part of The Great High Mountain Tour, which celebrated the traditional music of Cold Mountain and O Brother, Where Art Thou?