Our October concert brings together three strong individual singers for a rare appearance on the same stage. Barbara, Lisa, and Helen have been folk song collectors, performers, and organizers for many years. They are also good friends, which is hardly surprising. While each has her own distinctive style, the three have many things in common: powerful, rich, deep voices; a desire to sing with people, not at them; a repertoire that includes Black-influenced gospel, ballads, and sea shanties; and last, but hardly least, a terrific sense of humor.

Barbara's wonderfully rich, bluesy voice immediately captures your attention. When she moved to Atlanta in the early 60's, she became part of the local "kitchen music" scene, a vital singing community that, despite the outbreak of commercial folk music throughout the nation, remained a pocket of unselfconscious music-making. There she found her own voice, deep and gutsy, and tried her hand at singing the blues. When she moved to New Bedford (lucky for us), she became interested in the history of the area, and added sea shanties to her repertoire. She was also one of the founders of the Tryworks Coffee House, and was involved with the late lamented Eisteddfod festival at UMass Dartmouth.

Lisa has the ability to go straight to the soul of a song, and her warm, down-to-earth style is infectious. Garrison Keillor has called her "sassy and wonderful." She specializes in songs with easy-to-follow chorus lines with lots of harmonies, and her singing has been strongly influenced by Black cer friendship with Bessie Bullock Lyman of North Carolina and Bessie Jones of the Georgia Sea Islands. She has made a number of records, three of which have been with Scottish singer Jean Redpath and the Angel Band, and has appeared on NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion." Lisa was also an active member of the Folk Song Society board and president of FSSGB in the 1970's.

Helen's strong contralto voice and the emotional impact of her songs never fail to knock me over. Jean Redpath has said that in listening to Helen she "discovered what singing should be all about: compassion rather than erudition, spontaneous joy and sorrow rather than affectation." Helen commands your full attention, whether the song be silly, joyous, or gut-wrenching. One can't help but be caught up in the story, as well as in the choruses, harmonies, and improvisations. For many years, before she retired to Vermont, Helen lived in Washington, D.C., where she was a mainstay of in the Folklore Society of Greater Washington.

We are really excited and pleased to be starting our 1997/98 concert season with this special concert. Hope you'll be there!

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