Skyler Ashley
For nearly two decades, the Mid-Winter Singing and Folk Festival has warmed the hearts of folk fanatics in the dead of Michigan’s perennially harsh winters. The two-day celebration begins with a dual-headliner gig Friday and leads into a massive community sing Saturday. Between these two main platters is a clever array of workshops and jam sessions, such as Mark Dvorak’s spontaneous folk ensemble and Joel Mabus’ class on songwriting.
Ten Pound Fiddle booking mastermind Sally Potter has been with the festival since its inception and is in charge of keeping it fresh as the winters drift by. The festival was originally two nights of singing, dubbed the Mid-Winter Singing Festival, but the exhausted lungs of its attendees eventually made that no longer viable as a multiday format.
“Frankly, by Saturday night, people were exhausted,” Potter said. “They were singing Friday for two hours, and then Saturday for another three or four hours. People started going to one or the other, so we thought let’s have a concert and just have one big singing night.”
Potter said the original singing-only festival took off simply because it was the first of its kind in Mid-Michigan. She got the initial idea driving home from upstate New York in 1994 after leading a sing-along with her trio, Second Opinion, at a folk festival. After a breakfast conversation with fellow Ten Pound Fiddle stalwarts Pat Madden, Bob Blackman and Mabus, the wheels for the Mid-Winter Singing Folk Festival started to turn.
“I put it in the back of my head, if you want to get a lot of people around and make them really happy, just let them sing all the songs. If you go to a concert, whether it’s Springsteen or anybody else, and you ask people to sing, what happens? Everyone sings along,” Potter said.
Friday’s concert features Liz Carroll, a Ten Pound Fiddle veteran and internationally renowned powerhouse fiddler from Chicago, as well as Philadelphia up-and-comers House of Hamill. The talent of Scotland-born Celtic harpist Maeve Gilchrist, now based in New York, and the sublime dancing skills of East Lansing’s own Nic Gareiss will amplify Carroll’s set.
House of Hamill, while having performed elsewhere in Michigan several times, will be performing its first Ten Pound Fiddle gig. The duo, composed of Rose Baldino and Brian Buchanan, has the perfect rockumentary origin story. Balindo and Buchanan’s original bands, Enter the Haggis and Burning Bridget Cleary, were booked together on a bill in Kansas City, but flight cancellations left Balindo and Buchanan stranded without their bandmates. With virtually no time to rehearse, the two decided to perform onstage together. And, hey, it actually worked. Buchanan eventually joined Balindo in Philadelphia, and House of Hamill was formed.
“We trusted each other, but we both had been playing with our own bands for so long — that to play with somebody new and do an entirely different set of music is hard. I think we were both really scared; our nerves definitely showed,” Balindo said.
Balindo and Buchanan have been immersed in the world of folk and Irish traditional music since their adolescence. Growing bored with her classical music lessons on violin, Balindo transitioned to the Irish fiddle.
“I started playing fiddle when I was 13. I joined Burning Bridget Cleary when I was 16 and I played with them for 12 years,” Balindo said. “Brian has been with his group Enter the Haggis for almost 20 years. Between the two of us, we’ve got more than 25 years of experience with this instrument.”
One of Balindo’s major influences and favorite fiddle artists coincidentally happens to be Liz Carroll herself.
“It’s slightly terrifying to open for her now,” Balindo laughs. “She’s so sweet and gracious. I’m really stoked to be opening for her.”
After House of Hamill and Carroll kick things off Friday, Dan Chounaird, a world-class pianist hailing from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, will lead the fabled community sing for his fourth time. Chounaird carefully curates his song list, with help from Mabus, to craft a fitting tribute to the old standards, newer American classics, artists’ birthdays and pay homage to musicians who died in 2019.
“I feel a slightly higher pressure to pick songs that are off the well worn sing-a-long repertoire and bring something a little bit different,” Chounaird. “I also like to think about bringing the Minnesota perspective. There’s often Bob Dylan on the list. We haven’t sung any Prince, but it’s never too late.”
Mabus, a longtime Ten Pound Fiddle song leader and Michigan folk stalwart, is leading one of Saturday’s workshops. It’s split into two parts, one focused on improving attendees’ songwriting and the other aiming to improve their lyricism.
“Songwriting isn’t something I’ve done in recent years at the festival, and it made sense to break it into two parts,” Mabus. “Somebody that wants to do both can take the entire two-hour class, and somebody who doesn’t have the time can attend the hour that interests them the most.”
Mabus will focus on the relationship between words and music and help guide people in crafting better chord progressions and structures, along with penning streamlined, melodic lyrics to harmoniously go along with the music. A full schedule of the Mid-Winter Singing and Folk Festival’s workshops is available on Ten Pound Fiddle’s website.
Potter looks at the festival’s past and future fondly.
“Signature event? Is that the word I want? It’s our festival. A lot of folk groups have a festival; a lot of them are in the summer,” Potter said. “In the middle of winter, what do you need? You need community, singing and you gotta stay warm.”
Mid-Winter Singing and Folk Festival
$5 Student, $18 member, $20 public
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, events begin at 11 a.m.
Hannah Community Center
819 Abbot Road, East Lansing
Full schedule available at tenpoundfiddle.org
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Thawing Lansing's pipes at the Mid-Winter Singing and Folk Festival - City Pulse
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