Media Information For Immediate Release Grey Towers National Historic Landmark Information Contact: Lori McKean (570) 296-9630 lmckean@fs.fed.us July 1, 2011 Release #15-11 Free Festival of Wood Music Features Fiddles and Flutes, Drumming and Traditional Acoustics MILFORD, PA – A variety of free music is planned throughout the weekend for the Seventh Annual Festival of Wood at Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford, PA on Saturday, August 6 and Sunday, August 7. Performers are scheduled to perform in the outdoor amphitheatre and will be strolling throughout the grounds each day. Featured this year during this family-friendly and free event are: Saturday, 12-3 pm: Fiddlin’ Around, Folk and Fiddle music Saturday, 4 pm: Little Bear, Native American Flutist and Dancer Sunday, 12-3 pm: The Bluebirds, Traditional Acoustic Sunday, 3 pm: Maxwell “Kofi” Donkor, West African Drumming and Dancing Fiddlin’ Around was formed in 1992 by fiddler Steve Jacobi of Equinunk, PA. Steve Jacobi is featured on fiddle, Craig Gehrig on guitar, Dale Teeple on piano, and Jay Brooks on acoustic bass and cello. In an effort to preserve many types of traditional music, Fiddlin’ Around performs a wide variety of styles including Irish, Scottish, Appalachian, bluegrass, New England, and Canadian. The group also performs newer compositions that fit within the realm of traditional music. In 1999 Fiddlin’ Around released its initial CD titled; At Home with Friends. This CD is a compilation of Irish, Scottish, and bluegrass music. A second CD, Elizabeth Creek, was released in 2006. This CD features a selection of standard old time fiddle tunes played on fiddle, guitar, banjo, piano, accordion, and acoustic bass. Steve Jacobi has won numerous contests throughout the northeast, and for three consecutive years won his age group at the Pembroke Old Time Fiddling Championships held in Pembroke, Ontario, Canada. Steve was the only contestant from the United States to perform in Pembroke. The Bluebirds include banjo player Dave Nauman and bassist Pete Pappalardo, who began to make the bluegrass circuit of southern NY state and the northern tier of Pennsylvania in the 1980s. The band began as a standard bluegrass band playing festivals and concerts, but with the addition of Barb McMahon to the line-up, they have recently reached back to the Celtic roots of bluegrass and begun playing traditional Celtic tunes and songs as well. McMahon, a classically USDA Forest Service, PO Box 188, Milford, PA 18337 Media Information For Immediate Release Grey Towers National Historic Landmark trained musician, was raised in the Celtic tradition, as evidenced by the fact that her grandfather penned the words to “When Irish Eyes are Smiling.” The band consists of Nauman and Pappalardo, Barb McMahon on flute and pennywhistle, and the newest members of the group, Jeff Gibbons on guitar and Celeste Aldridge on vocals. Together the instrumental quartet plays traditional Celtic instrumentals ranging from hornpipes and reels to jigs, as well as bluegrass instrumentals. Aldridge, who once worked for Shanachie Records, has a broad and eclectic individual vocal repertoire which includes ballads, aires and the more familiar Irish pub songs, as well as bluegrass and American roots songs, while Pappalardo sings traditional gospel, country and bluegrass standards influenced by the Stanleys, Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash. Little Bear, also known as Frank Burke, dresses in full Native American garb and plays the flute, dances and sings. Little Bear invites lots of audience participation and speaks throughout his performance of the connection that Native Americans feel with the Earth and its natural resources, as told through music and dance. Maxwell Kofi Donkor, known regionally as “Kofi,” first learned the skills essential to a drummer as a child in his native village, Otumi, located in Ghana, West Africa. Throughout his career, he has figured out a way to combine his unique and comprehensive skills of sculpture, art, dance, storytelling and drumming as a way to educate others and to preserve the culture of his homeland. Kofi has been instrumental in forming a significant number of drum circles in the region and his work is award-winning. In addition to the music, there will be unique wood crafts, children’s activities with wood, chainsaw carvings, educational exhibits, live woodland wildlife, beekeeping, films and lectures about wood, wood demonstrations, music created with wood and much much more will be offered on the grounds of the historic estate throughout the weekend. All are offered for free by the US Forest Service, the Grey Towers Heritage Association, the Pocono Arts Council and numerous partners, participants and collaborators. • Craftsmen and artists from throughout the region will exhibit, sell and demonstrate their crafts, all made from wood. Some examples include: wood furniture, pipe boxes, Shaker boxes, sawdust folk art, wooden snowflakes, wooden bowls, wood turning, fretwork and hand-carved sculpture. Co-sponsored by the Pocono Arts Council, the crafts component will illustrate how beautiful objects that we use in our everyday lives are created from wood. • Children’s activities include games and toys using wood and other craft activities. A Storytime and Activity is planned for Sunday. The Gifford Pinchot Audubon Society will USDA Forest Service, PO Box 188, Milford, PA 18337 Media Information For Immediate Release Grey Towers National Historic Landmark host a bluebird box building activity and the New Jersey Forestry Department will have a cross-cut saw activity. Visits from Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl also are planned. • Lectures on alternative forest products, forest land conservation and a program called Women and Their Woods are scheduled. Films about wood and forestry and the Pinchot family are planned. Educational exhibits and informational handouts will be ongoing throughout the weekend. • The Pike and Wayne County Beekeepers Association will demonstrate beekeeping techniques throughout the weekend. A free wildlife show is planned for Saturday. • The Master Chain Saws of America will demonstrate chain saw carving three times a day, each day. • PA Woodmizer will demonstrate “From Logs to Lumber” throughout the weekend. • All three floors of the historic Grey Towers mansion are open for visitors both days; a $4 fee will be charged. Visitors can pick up free materials and learn from exhibitors who will be sharing information about such things as reintroducing the American Chestnut Tree, private forest landowner information, tree identification and Forest Service wood technology initiatives. A variety of refreshments will be available. The Seventh Annual Festival of Wood is “a celebration of our natural and cultural heritage of wood.” The activities, exhibits and programs are meant to heighten awareness of the many uses of wood in our everyday lives. The US Forest Service and numerous partners are hosting the event at Grey Towers, ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, who founded and served as first chief of the Forest Service from 1905-1910. The Festival hours are 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday August 6 and 10 am to 4 pm Sunday August 7. For a schedule of events or more information, call (570)296-9630 or email us at greytowers@fs.fed.us. A schedule of the Festival activities can be downloaded at www.greytowers.org. USDA Forest Service, PO Box 188, Milford, PA 18337