Événement

Darol Anger, Emy Phelps & Mila Phelps-Friedl

Fiddler Darol Anger in concert at 8pm with vocalist, writer and guitarist Emy Phelps and Emy's daughter Mila Phelps-Friedl, a cellist studying journalism at Ithaca College.

Joining the trio for a few swing jam tunes will be Eric Aceto and others from the Djug Django ensemble.

Opening for Darol and Emy at 7:30pm, will be Grietzer Hodgson Manning performing a brief preview of tunes from their upcoming CD Yellow Barn.

Darol Anger helped found the David Grisman Quintet in 1975, with David Grisman, Tony Rice, and Todd Phillips. The appeal and challenge of traditional American music also stems from the way it melds other countries' musical styles, which people are still discovering, said Anger, recounting how Grisman listened to music from around the world and wove it into the group's work. Feeling this was the music he was born to play, Anger strove for symphonic, orchestral sounds in his own compositions, writing increasingly complex and difficult music as he integrated jazz and classical elements. Anger went on to found the legendary Turtle Island String Quartet, and sold over two hundred thousand records in the 80's on the Windham Hill label, with his various influential bands. He still tours and is now a professor at the prestigious Berklee College in Boston.

Six years ago, he encountered someone with the opposite approach while at a fiddle camp. The mother of a young cellist sat down with a guitar and sang a simple song, instantly drawing people into her music - including Anger. That woman was Emy Phelps.

"My emphasis is on making music accessible to everyone, to make it inviting and fun, and to have children and adults want to participate," said Phelps, who had no formal training at that time but had been writing songs for a little more than 30 years. "I hope people are humming before the end of the song." Phelps soon left the West Coast and moved into a small house in Maine with Anger, where each could hear everything the other was playing.

"We sit and play and talk. We cook a lot together, which is kind of the same thing," Phelps said. "We're not good at following recipes, but we start with an idea and say, 'Wouldn't it be great to add this? Let's try this. Let's toss that away.'"