Holiday Sing with song leader Sally Potter, Doug Berch, Doug Austin and spoken word artist Ruelaine Stokes
For 17 years, song leader and banjoist Sally Potter has invited the community to sing holiday songs - together. With familiar faces Doug Austin on the grand piano and Doug Berch on hammered dulcimer, Potter and special guests lead familiar selections surrounding winter, Solstice, peace, Christmas, and beyond. Lyric sheets provided.
For almost 20 years, the Ten Pound Fiddle has presented an annual Holiday Sing, produced and hosted by singer/ song leader, Sally Potter. The Holiday Sing is an annual fund-raiser for the Ten Pound Fiddle.
Watch the New York Times video about community singing in Lansing:
Read the New York Times article.
Learn more about community singing at www.singingfestival.com.
Sally Potter
When Sally Potter isn’t directing the Mid-Winter Singing Festival, the annual Holiday Sing, monthly Community Sings, or singing with Sistrum, The Greater Lansing’s Women’s Chorus, she is teaching Personal Finance to 150 seniors at Waverly High School, Lansing.
Sally’s grandmother, Lillian Paulson Potter was an opera singer, and later, a church choir director, producing countless community events over a fifty-year span. Her uncle, Brian Shanley, played Dixieland jazz clarinet with Bob Scoby in Chicago in the 50’s. Yet it was when her brother Tom taught her Old-Time tunes on his back-up banjo that Sally settled into the folk music world.
A mainstay in the Mid-Michigan folk music community since 1984, Sally was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from FARM, Folk Alliance Region Mid-West. From 1989 – 2001, Sally, Betsy Clinton and Pat Madden were members of the very popular folk trio, Second Opinion. In 2005, Sally released her fifth CD, this one together with Madden, entitled, “it’s about time.”
In 2003, Sally organized the first Mid-Winter Singing Festival, now an annual event where hundreds of people get together on the first weekend in February – just to sing. (www.singingfestival.com) Since then, she has continued to perform, song lead, and help produce numerous music events, including the annual Holiday Sing. She is also the volunteer concert booking manager for the 45 year-old Ten Pound Fiddle Concert and Dance Series.
Doug Berch
By day, luthier Doug Berch makes mountain dulcimers in Haslett, Michigan.
By night, multi-instrumentalist Doug Berch can be found on stage and in the studio, playing a wide variety of styles. He has been performing, teaching and making dulcimers since the mid 1970’s. During the 1980’s, he toured throughout the United States and performed at many folk festivals, dulcimer festivals and concert venues. He recorded two solo recordings for Kicking Mule Records.
In 1983, Doug took first place in both the National Hammered Dulcimer Championship and the National Mountain Dulcimer Championship in Winfield, Kansas.
In the early 1990’s, he recorded a tune he composed on hammered dulcimer called, “Ocean of Wisdom” that has been performed and recorded by several other hammered dulcimer players. His work appears on dozens of albums and soundtracks as a support musician. For ten years, he performed, recorded and toured with the Celtic ensemble, Colcannon, and taught at The Swallow Hill School of Music in Denver. “Musically I am inspired by the traditional music of the world, the rock and roll I grew up with and anything else that comes along,” Doug says.
Doug has added hammered dulcimer pieces, stories and inspired commentary to the annual Holiday Sing for 10 years.
www.dougberch.com
Ruelaine Stokes
Ruelaine Stokes is a spoken word artist, writer and teacher based in Lansing, Michigan. She gives poetry readings, lectures, and workshops on poetry, spoken word, and creative writing. Her goal is to bring poetry to life and to bring people to poetry.
For almost 20 years, the Ten Pound Fiddle has presented an annual Holiday Sing, produced and hosted by singer/ song leader, Sally Potter. The Holiday Sing is an annual fund-raiser for the Ten Pound Fiddle.
Watch the New York Times video about community singing in Lansing:
Read the New York Times article.
Learn more about community singing at www.singingfestival.com.
Sally Potter
When Sally Potter isn’t directing the Mid-Winter Singing Festival, the annual Holiday Sing, monthly Community Sings, or singing with Sistrum, The Greater Lansing’s Women’s Chorus, she is teaching Personal Finance to 150 seniors at Waverly High School, Lansing.
Sally’s grandmother, Lillian Paulson Potter was an opera singer, and later, a church choir director, producing countless community events over a fifty-year span. Her uncle, Brian Shanley, played Dixieland jazz clarinet with Bob Scoby in Chicago in the 50’s. Yet it was when her brother Tom taught her Old-Time tunes on his back-up banjo that Sally settled into the folk music world.
A mainstay in the Mid-Michigan folk music community since 1984, Sally was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from FARM, Folk Alliance Region Mid-West. From 1989 – 2001, Sally, Betsy Clinton and Pat Madden were members of the very popular folk trio, Second Opinion. In 2005, Sally released her fifth CD, this one together with Madden, entitled, “it’s about time.”
In 2003, Sally organized the first Mid-Winter Singing Festival, now an annual event where hundreds of people get together on the first weekend in February – just to sing. (www.singingfestival.com) Since then, she has continued to perform, song lead, and help produce numerous music events, including the annual Holiday Sing. She is also the volunteer concert booking manager for the 45 year-old Ten Pound Fiddle Concert and Dance Series.
Doug Berch
By day, luthier Doug Berch makes mountain dulcimers in Haslett, Michigan.
By night, multi-instrumentalist Doug Berch can be found on stage and in the studio, playing a wide variety of styles. He has been performing, teaching and making dulcimers since the mid 1970’s. During the 1980’s, he toured throughout the United States and performed at many folk festivals, dulcimer festivals and concert venues. He recorded two solo recordings for Kicking Mule Records.
In 1983, Doug took first place in both the National Hammered Dulcimer Championship and the National Mountain Dulcimer Championship in Winfield, Kansas.
In the early 1990’s, he recorded a tune he composed on hammered dulcimer called, “Ocean of Wisdom” that has been performed and recorded by several other hammered dulcimer players. His work appears on dozens of albums and soundtracks as a support musician. For ten years, he performed, recorded and toured with the Celtic ensemble, Colcannon, and taught at The Swallow Hill School of Music in Denver. “Musically I am inspired by the traditional music of the world, the rock and roll I grew up with and anything else that comes along,” Doug says.
Doug has added hammered dulcimer pieces, stories and inspired commentary to the annual Holiday Sing for 10 years.
www.dougberch.com
Ruelaine Stokes
Ruelaine Stokes is a spoken word artist, writer and teacher based in Lansing, Michigan. She gives poetry readings, lectures, and workshops on poetry, spoken word, and creative writing. Her goal is to bring poetry to life and to bring people to poetry.