Sheesham and Lotus

“These guys can make music with anything!” said Rose Wornoff of the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board. “They have washboards, jaw-harps, and harmonicas. And that is aside from the incredible fiddle, banjo and singing. Our group was simply transfixed from the moment they started playing.”

Sheesham and Lotus will be appearing on Friday, May 25th, 8PM, at the Kynoch Community Hall in Kynoch, ON; on Saturday, May 26^th, 8 PM at the Richards Landing Old Town Hall, on St. Joseph Island; and on Sunday, May 27^th, for a 2PM children’s show and a 7PM concert at the STW Studio Theatre, 121 Pittsburgh Ave in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.  Tickets are now available on line  here or can be purchased at the door for all concerts. Reservations can also be made by calling 705 782 4311.  Tickets for all evening shows are $20/person, $15/student, $10/12 and under.  Tickets for the one-hour Children’s Show at the STW Studio Theatre are $12/child, $15/adult.

Sheesham and Lotus are Teilhard Frost and Sam Allison, who met as the rhythm section for Canadian fiddle band Flapjack. For seven years they toured together throughout Canada and the USA playing dances, dance-camps, concerts and workshops. It was during this time that both Frost and Allison took a keen interest in the folk traditions of North America, particularly the American south. Both became enthusiastic historians of old-time fiddle and banjo music, learning from the old masters across the regions south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Through personal instruction, perseverance and osmosis they learned harmonica, jaw-harp, flatfoot stepdancing and song. Since then, Sheesham and Lotus have performed at major Canadian folk festivals in Winnipeg, Ottawa, Peterborough, Lunenberg, NS, as well as Vermont’s Champlain Valley Folk Festival and Sudbury’s Northern Lights Festival Boreal, endearing themselves to audiences around the North American festival scene with their witty live show and astonishing musicality.  During August of 2010, Sheesham and Lotus played dates in Paris and Bordeaux, France.

Sheesham and Lotus’ self-produced debut CD, “Old-time Fiddle and Banjo” was met with critical acclaim from Canadian folk music publication, ‘Penguin Eggs’.  They have recently released their third recording, entitled “1929”.

“Like lightning, Kingston’s duo, Sheesham and Lotus magically hit the room with their old time banjo, fiddle, harmonica, harmonies and antics, harkening us all back to ragtime and vaudeville” – The Kingston Whig-Standard

AlgomaTrad concerts are supported by grants from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the “Fresh Start!” Program, Department of Canadian Heritage.

Paddy and Laddie

Springtime is here, AlgomaTrad headquarters (home of the O’Schraves) is celebrating the arrival of 2 calves, the crocuses are raising their wary heads,  the first buds are appearing on the trees AND it’s time to start planning the SUMMER!  So, folks, the bell has rung, the gates are open and it’s time to be off and running….straight for your AlgomaTrad registration.  Staff bios and pictures are up (there are a few more to come but we have been promising people since the beginning of March that the website will be updated SOOOOON !).  The camp runs from Sunday, August 12 to Sunday, August 19 this year.  You can register on line at our website  or there is a Registration form available as a PDF download if you prefer to register by mail.  Click here if you want to go straight to the registration page!

In 2012, we are welcoming back Shane Cook, Brian Pickell, Kimberley Holmes, James Stephens, Karen Light and Martha Cooper from the 2011 staff.  Sam Allison, who was a volunteer musician last year, will be on staff this year with his playing partner, Teillhard Frost, both of whom make up the old-time duo “Sheesham and Lotus”.  New to AlgomaTrad is the fantastic fiddler and piano player, Troy MacGillivray, who put on an amazing show with Shane this past January for one of our “AlgomaTrad Presents” concerts.  Jake Charron, who was last with us in 2009, is returning to pass on some more tasty piano and guitar licks.  New to the camp is Sheila Graziano, a wonderful stepdancer who we have known since we all taught together at the Goderich Celtic College over 10 years ago.  Sheila was artistic director of the Saline Celtic Festival in Michigan for many years and has collaborated often with our very own  Dan Gorno, so there should be some fun times  on the dance boards this year.  We are also excited to welcome whistle player extraordinaire, Loretto Reid, who hails originally from Sligo, Ireland, to the Camp for the first time.  You can see photos and read all about our teaching team by clicking  here.

Stay tuned, as there are a few more staff members to add to the website as we confirm some details.  We will also be letting you know about several volunteer staff who are attending the Camp this year.

UPCOMING CONCERTS AND DANCES!

Sheesham and Lotus

Sheesham and Lotus (www.sheeshamandlotus.com) will be appearing in several “AlgomaTrad Presents” concerts in the Algoma Region at the end of May.  They are a duo that plays old-time and homegrown music with fiddles, banjos, jawharps, harmonicas, hambone, sousaphones and more…all in a super fun way which evokes a step back in time to the 30′s and 40′s when LOTS of folks made their own music. We will send you more info soon!

Sheesham and Lotus

Sheesham and Lotus (www.sheeshamandlotus.com) are Teilhard Frost and Sam Allison. Teillahrd and Sam have been making music for most of their lives, both from musical families, Teilhard was raised on Manitoulin Island playing some fiddle, Sam rambling around Toronto, loving the guitar and old raggy blues.  As very young children they were both given jaw harps and harmonicas and continue this day enjoying and sharing the music of the people with the people.

While living in Toronto, Teilhard co-founded experimental band ‘Subtonic Monks’ and Cuban Son band ‘Klave y Kongo’, and was recording as a session musician for T.V. and radio. Sam Allison was composing award winning music for the Canadia Dell’arte Theatre, spent time playing with the Jelly Roll Orchestra, and toured with pop/folk musicians John Southworth and Hawksley Workman.

Frost and Allison then came together as the rhythm section for bush swing band Flapjack. Flapjack specializing in Canadian fiddle repertoire, including the songs of legendary Mack Beattie and his Ottawa Valley Melodiers, Newfoundland fiddlers Emile Benoit, and Rufus Guinchard, and played the tunes and songs of Jamie Snyder as well as new original material in the old time style.

Touring for seven years in the U.S. and Canada playing for contra dances and festivals, Sam and Teilhard had the time to really fall into a good groove. They played constantly while on the road, on stage and off. With Flapjack, Teilhard played bones, washboard, harmonica, jaw harp, stepped and sang, Sam played upright bass, bass harmonica and sang. Outside the band, they were taken by the sound of old time Appalachian string band music and would ceaselessly play fiddle and banjo together till the mornings light. Eventually, Flapjack packed it in, but Teilhard and Sam continued to play occasional gigs together, with great response. Encouraged by their community to carry on and make more music together, Sheesham and Lotus were discovered, covered in dust.

As Sheesham Crow and Lotus Wight, Teilhard Frost and Sam Allison have played all across Canada, including appearances at Blues Skies Festival, Millrace Festival of Traditional Folk Music, Summerfolk, Mariposa, Northern Lights Festival Boreal, Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, Barrie Folk, Little Slokan Valley Fest, Cree Fest (Kasheshawan, On), Champlain Valley Folk Fest, (V.T.), Shelter Valley Folk Fest, and Winnipeg Folk Fest. They have acted as host to the main stage at both Peterborough Folk festival and Shelter Valley. In January 2010 they held a two week residence at Queens University, faculty of education, teaching harmonica, step dance, and square dance to teacher candidates. They have played theatres and concert venues all across Canada, coast to coast.

With Prologue to the Performing Arts, they are currently touring an educational show called “Old Time Ways”. The show gives a brief history and practice of music and entertainment from a time before mass media.

Sheesham and Lotus acted as mentor and host in the youth program, part of Ontario Conference of Folk Festivals, 2009. They have released 4 CDs, “Old time Fiddle and Banjo” in 2006; “Everytime” in 2008; and “Five Miles from Town. More Old Time Fiddle and Banjo”, in 2010; This year, 2012, they have released heir fourth recording “More Hokum with Sheesham and Lotus & ‘Son”, with new member Brian Sanderson playing Sousaphone and pocket Cornet.

In 2009 the recorded a DVD, “Live, at the Acoustic Grill”, slated for later release. Sheesham and Lotus also appeared in the Dan Levatin documentary, “The Musical Brain”.  They have been awarded the Jack Hayes Award for keeping traditional music and dance alive.

Sheesham and Lotus

Troy MacGillivray

Troy MacGillivray (www.troymacgillivray.com) grew up  Nova Scotia  surrounded by a family of musicians and began to play fiddle and piano and to stepdance at 6 years of age.  He has released 5 recordings, including the 2008 East Coast Music award-winning CD “Live at the Music Room”.  Troy won the East Coast Music Award for Instrumental Recording of the Year in 2009, with Shane Cook,  for their duet recording “When Here Meets There”.  He has also showcased at the Celtic Connection Festival in Scotland, the Celtic Colours International Festival in Cape Breton, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Barbados Celtic Festival and the Edinburgh Fiddle Festival.

Sheila Graziano

Sheila discovered her passion for dance at an early age.  Rooted in ten years of tap dance lessons as a child, her enthusiasm grew with the discovery of Appalachian clogging and other forms of traditional dance.

Smitten with the art, Sheila devotes much of her time to continually developing her skills and knowledge of traditional dance, including Appalachian, Canadian, Celtic-inspired and historic American dance steps.   She was a founder and member of The Crosstown Cloggers, Crow’s Feet, and The CommonWealth Dance Collective.   Her solo dancing was a spotlight feature of The Raisin Pickers Stringband’s show for many years. She teaches ongoing lessons for adults and teenagers and presents workshops at various festivals and events.

She is also the dance instructor and choreographer for two performing high school groups in southeast Michigan (The Saline Fiddlers and Fiddlers ReStrung).    For more information, please to http://www.matterandghost.com/BRIDGE.htl and click on the ‘step dance’ link.

Sheila is very committed to passing on the “common wealth” of knowledge of the dances and dance styles that she has learned over the years, and welcomes the opportunity to work with the AlgomaTrad campers this summer!

Loretto Reid

Loretto Reid immigrated to Canada in December 1988 from Co. Sligo, Ireland, one of the most famous musical counties for traditional music in Ireland.  Loretto began playing Tin Whistle at the age of five and is considered a virtuoso player on this instrument.  She also plays Irish Flute, Concertina and Button Accordion and is a composer of  original material and arrangements of traditional tunes.    Loretto began performing with multi-instrumentalist Brian Taheny in 1978.  With the Reid-Taheny band, Loretto played at all the major Festivals in Ireland and toured through out Europe & North America with performers such as Christy Moore, Clannad, and Glass Tiger.  The group also performed on Radio and Television in Ireland, England, France, Germany, the U.S.A. and Canada and at many major Canadian and American festivals some of which include: the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, St. John’s & Labrador Folk Festival, Goderich Celtic Summer College and Folk Festival, Kentucky Folk Festival, Milwaukee Irish Festival, Saline Celtic Festival, Cincinnati Celtic Festival, Mariposa Folk Festival, and the Summerfolk Festival, Owen Sound.  Concert performances include the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts,  Massey Hall, Glen Gould Studio, Art Gallery of Ontario, Du Maurier Theatre ,Toronto;  Regent Theatre, Picton;  Stanley A Milner Theatre, Edmonton;  Irish Cultural Centre, Calgary;  Capitol Theatre, Nelson;  National Library Auditorium, Ottawa;  Symphony Orchestra London,  Ontario.  The Reid-Taheny Band produced 4 recordings, including the Juno-nominated “Children of Lir”.  Loretto has also performed on numerous other recordings including the “Celtic Reverie” (with Dan Gibson) nominated for the 2005 JUNO “Instrumental Album of the Year”.

Loretto composed and/or performed music for several documentaries, plays, and shows including: “Hungers Children”, (concerning Gross Isle, the quarantine island for the Irish immigrants to Canada, fleeing the famine which resulted mainly from the failure of the potato crops of the 1800′s), which was broadcast on CBC TV’s ‘the Witness’ Series in ’94 and released in Europe and America, in 1996; The Barrens Quest, with Jim McGrath, first broadcast in March ‘97 as part of the CBC series “The Nature of Things”; the Vision TV network documentary “The Village Of Widows” with George Vacval, which won the award for “Best Humanitarian Documentary” at the Toronto Hot Docs 2000;  “The Riverdale Hospital Project”, broadcast September, 2000;   “The Celtic Dance Company of Canada”, Jan. 2001; “The Immortal Hour”, by Fiona MacLeod, a 19^th century playwright, staged at the Ignatieff Theatre, University Of Toronto, 2001; and “Mummers & Masks” documentary for the CBC & Vision TV late 2002-2003

Jake Charron

Jake is continuing to build a reputation as one of Canada’s finest accompanists for fiddle music.  He has been in high demand for many traditional styles, playing piano and guitar with artists around the world.  Since graduating from the University of Western Ontario with an honours degree in Kinesiology, Jake has pursued music, and had the privilege of performing and recording with many elite musician including Shane Cook, Mark Sullivan, Brian Pickell, Louis Schryer, Pierre Schryer, Dan Stacey, Stephanie Cadman, ECMA winner Troy MacGillivray, and the acclaimed Irish-American fiddler, Liz Carroll.  Jake also frequently performs with his brother, 3-time Canadian Fiddle Champion Kyle Charron.

March 8 and 9- The O’Schraves, Dan Gorno and Pierre Schryer performing school concerts in Thunder Bay -9 am –École Franco-Supérieur, 1 pm -  École LaVérendrye

Evening of March 9 – joining Pierre Schryer’s Traditional Music Session at Gargoyles Grille & Ale, Thunder Bay

March 10 – step dance workshops (afternoon) and March Ceilidh Dance with caller Dan Gorno! Port Arthur Polish Hall, Thunder Bay

March 11- St. Patrick’s dinner and concert catered by Rose Valley Restaurant at South Gillies Community Hall, South Gillies

Sat. Feb. 11, 2012 – The O’Schraves  – Bruce Station Hall at 8:00 p.m. – Ages 6 – 13 $5.00; Adults $10.00  + refreshments -  sponsored by Royal Canadian Legion Ladies Auxillary, Br. 211 – Fundraiser for Legion Building Fund & Community Program.  You can view or download a concert poster here: legion concert poster

Sat. Feb. 18, 2012 – The O’Schraves – at CRAPO, 187, rue Sainte-Louise, Saint-Jean-de-Matha, PQ, 8:30 PM. www.crapo.qc.ca .  Tickets are $15, or $13 for CRAPO members. We  are visiting Dentdelion at their home in St. Beatrix, PQ, and Dana has so kindly organized a local gig for us again this year at a wonderful performance space and art centre that is housed in an old parish manse. We had a blast last year, if you know anyone in the Joliette area, please let them know!

Thursday, February 23, 7PM – The O’Schraves and Dan Gorno – yes, it’s true, an AlgomaTrad dance in TORONTO at  Christ the Saviour Russian Orthodox Cathedral Church Hall, 823 Manning Ave, Toronto, ON M6G 2W7.  The ROC Church Hall is a wood-floored hall in the Annex, three blocks north of Bloor, four blocks west of Bathurst.    A 10-minute walk from the Bathurst subway station.  Admission: suggested donation $10.

Friday and Saturday,  February 24th and 25th, The O’Schraves with Shane Cook and Brian Pickell -  Gravenhurst Opera House, as part of the Gravenhurst Winter Carnival. www.gravenhurstwintercarnival.com. Shows are at 8PM both nights, and we will also be performing for a children’s show at 5Pm on the Friday. Admission to all events is by purchasing a $5 Festival Button….amazing! Check out the poster here: WinterCarnival 2012 PRESS READY

The O'Schraves

Dan Gorno