Who’s fiddling around?
I live between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough NC, near Durham and the RTP. I have two donkeys, ten chickens, and two kids. I play fiddle, concertina, piano, and sometimes viola with two bands you can see and listen to at Wedding Music in North Carolina...
One is Mappamundi, which means "Map of the World" and which plays popular wedding music of Western and Eastern Europe, Jewish traditions (klezmer, yiddish, hebrew, israeli, sephardic, songs in Ladino) and American swing tunes for dancing and a little bit of Hispanic music as well.
The other is the Pratie Heads, a duo specializing in music of the British Isles (Celtic, Irish, Scottish, English) and early America - but recently branching out into many other traditions as well!
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Romantic songs from the British Isles for Valentine’s Day
Celtic music is so popular for weddings that my bands, Mappamundi and the Pratie Heads, have accumulated loads of beautiful love songs from Ireland, Scotland, and England (which is not a Celtic nation but provides a lot of gorgeous songs … Continue reading
Krampus and the Laily Worm: worse than the Grinch for cranky Christmas festivity
Not everybody is all “sweetness and light” about Christmas. There’s quite a fan-club for Krampus, an imaginary Christmas-time beast from the Alpines who was invoked to make children behave well – he would snatch bad children, stuff them in his … Continue reading
Posted in Holiday music, Uncategorized
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Brand new Hanukkah music for 2012: Mrs Maccabee’s Kitchen
I was director of the Triangle Jewish Chorale in Durham NC for 14 years and must admit I got dead sick of the relatively small list of Hannukah songs available for us to perform. Then I started performing Jewish music … Continue reading
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What’s happening in Durham NC June 2? Cabaret Warsaw concert cd/release
My world band Mappamundi just spent a year putting together a program of music from Warsaw, Poland between the World Wars. In the interwar period this sophisticated city was full of nightclubs, theaters, kleynkunst revi-teaters, and hordes of enthusiastic fans! … Continue reading
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A site reviewing wedding venues and vendors in North Carolina: weddingsinnc.com
I don’t think I’ve ever linked to the blog I started when my daughter was getting married in 2010: Weddings in North Carolina. As we researched venues and vendors, I put the information we found up on the site. It … Continue reading
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St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Durham NC: the Pratie Heads 30th anniversary concert
If you’re in the RDU Chapel Hill – Research Triangle area in North Carolina, come on out to our concert Saturday night at the Shared Visions Retreat center at 3717 Murphey School Road in Durham. This building is actually the … Continue reading
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Polish cabaret music: Bo to się zwykle tak zaczyna (This is just how it gets started)
Click the image to hear a bluesy 1934 “slowfox” from our new cd. The singer’s pointing out: when you’re first falling in love, you can’t wait to be with that person but … after a while … you can’t wait … Continue reading
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Cabaret music from Warsaw Poland, 1920s and 1930s: our new cd, Cabaret Warsaw
Tomorrow I go back to the recording studio for three days of mixing and mastering our latest cd comprising Yiddish songs, couplets, and tangos and old Polish tangos and popular music from the 1920s and 1930s. If you’re interested in … Continue reading
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Preparing a cd of Polish Jewish music from the 1930s: Cabaret Warsaw
Miracles, miracles from Mappamundi The world music band Mappamundi has always liked obscure projects but this one takes the cake: music from Warsaw, Poland between the wars, in Yiddish and in Polish – old tangos from dance halls and cabarets, … Continue reading
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Christmas lock-down
Tonight’s the longest night of the year and it’s very quiet here – the donkey and miniature horse are having a late dinner and I’m ready to settle in with a movie. When you don’t celebrate Christmas this can be … Continue reading
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