Event Videos

The Nick Gaitan Band, based in Houston, Texas, celebrates the vibrant musical cultures of Tejano and Chicano communities on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The group blends the genres of conjunto, cumbia, Louisiana swamp pop, country, and rhythm and blues, creating a sound they call “Tejas Roots Music.” This concert took place as part of a symposium honoring recipients of the Community…

Houston’s native son, Nick Gaitan, is a singer-songwriter, bandleader, and music historian, with deep roots in the wide-ranging musical culture of Houston’s East End and the broader Gulf Coast. Gaitan is proficient in the many genres of music that co-exist in the region ranging from Tejano and conjunto to honky-tonk, blues, rockabilly and soul and ska. The occasion for this interview was a concert…

Joe Zavaan Johnson is a multi-instrumentalist, arts educator, and Black music researcher. He is an Ethnomusicology Ph.D. Candidate at Indiana University-Bloomington where he is completing a dissertation that examines the Black banjo renaissance through the lenses of Black studies, human geography, folklore, and ethnomusicology. Johnson frequently collaborates with grassroots organizations focused on coalition building, community healing, and cultural reparations.

The exciting old time duo The Creek Rocks, the recipients of the 2024 Artists in Resonance Fellowship from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, bring old songs back to the Library in shiny new arrangements! Accomplished singer and banjo player Cindy Woolf and veteran guitarist and singer Mark Bilyeu established the group in 2015. Much of their work has been interpreting…

Accomplished singer and banjo player Cindy Woolf and veteran guitarist and singer Mark Bilyeu established The Creek Rocks in 2015. Much of their work has been interpreting the traditional music of the Ozarks region. The Artists in Resonance Fellowship provided Cindy and Mark the opportunity to immerse themselves in the field recordings of folklorist Sidney Robertson Cowell, who in December 1936 and January 1937…

The Henhouse Prowlers are an American four-piece band who have been playing together and promote bluegrass music for 20 years. All four members possess a knack for storytelling, compelling songwriting and intricate instrumentation. Working with the US State Department and under their own nonprofit, Bluegrass Ambassadors, the Prowlers have toured more than 25 countries across the globe. The group’s experiences with people and musicians…

After two decades of touring and performing, bluegrass quartet the Henhouse Prowlers proudly look to the future, expressing their passion for music and humanity. Banjoist Ben Wright and upright bassist Jon Goldfine have been the heart of the band since its inception, while guitarist Chris Dollar and mandolinist Jake Howard (who joined 7 and 5 years ago respectively) bring fresh energy to the band’s…

“El Motor: Coffee and the Heart of Puerto Rico” immerses viewers in the world of Puerto Rican coffee, revealing how this cherished crop serves as both economic lifeline and cultural heartbeat. Through intimate portraits of generational farmers, dedicated harvesters, and innovative processors, “El Motor” uncovers the profound relationship between the land, its people, and the coffee that has shaped Puerto Rico’s identity for centuries.…

Susana Behar sat down with Stephen Winick to discuss her concert at the Library. For almost 20 years, she has focused her artistic career on the preservation and performance of the Sephardic musical repertoire. Passionate about the richness of traditional music and its connection to cultural memory and storytelling, she has performed across the U.S., Latin America, Canada, Israel, and Japan. In 2017 she…

Susana Behar was born in Havana to a Cuban family with roots in the Sephardic community of Turkey. From an early age, she was immersed in the traditional music of her homeland as well as the evocative kantikas in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) passed down by her grandparents. In 1965 she emigrated to Venezuela, where she started to explore and perform the music of her adoptive…

Ensemble Sangineto is one of the most popular folk groups on the Italian scene, comprised of three talented singers and instrumentalists. Adriano and Caterina Sangineto are twins; Adriano plays Celtic harp and Caterina plays bowed psaltery and flute. Jacopo Ventura rounds out the trio on guitar and bouzouki. The group sings in three-part harmony, with Caterina’s clear voice taking the lead. The Sanginetos are…

The ensemble Sangineto is one of the most popular folk groups on the Italian scene, comprised of three talented singers and instrumentalists. Adriano and Caterina Sangineto are twins — Adriano plays Celtic harp and Caterina plays bowed psaltery. Jacopo Ventura rounds out the trio on guitar. The group sings in three-part harmony, with Caterina’s clear voice taking the lead. The Sanginetos are children of…

Led by Boots Lupenui, the Kohala Mountain Boys are committed to uncovering and preserving musical treasures that helped to define the moku of Kohala on Hawai’i Island. Old-time Kohala music is soulful, playful, poetic and fierce, the manifold voice of a vibrant and extraordinary people. We want to recover and share the heirloom songs currently known only to a few isolated and precious old…

Led by Boots Lupenui, The Kohala Mountain Boys are committed to uncovering and preserving musical treasures that helped to define the moku of Kohala on Hawai’i Island. Lupenui was selected as a 2022 awardee of the AFC Community Collections Grant to document unrecorded or “heirloom songs” of the Kohala region of the Big island of Hawai’i.

Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla performed traditional French-language music from Louisiana. Louis Michot is a fiddle player and lead singer for the Grammy-award-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers. He is passionate about Louisiana French and local folklore. These interests fuel his career as a musician. In addition to fiddle and vocals, Louis plays guitar, bass, ti-fer (triangle), and accordion–all the instruments of a typical Cajun band.…

Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla sit down with Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center to discuss their personal musical histories prior to their concert at the Library. Louis Michot is best known as the fiddle player and lead singer for the Grammy-award-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers. He is passionate about Louisiana French and local folklore, and about sustainability in the fastest disappearing landmass in…

Skye Consort and Emma Björling perform transatlantic music from Scandinavia, Ireland, the British Isles and French Canada, as well as tunes of their own devising. They find enchanting stories and melodies, then bring them into the 21st century with worldly chamber-folk settings. They call their music “voices, fiddle, nyckelharpa, cello, bouzouki, banjo and percussion riffing on whirling polskas, groovy reels, passionate love songs, breathtaking…

Stephen Winick sat down with Emma Björling, Seán Dagher, Amanda Keesmaat and Simon Alexandre following their concert at the Library. Skye Consort and Emma Björling performed transatlantic music from Scandinavia, Ireland and the British Isles and French Canada, as well as tunes of their own devising.

Lynn Mahoney Rowan, Will Thomas Rowan and Lauren Breunig of Windborne sit down with Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center. Along with Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Windbourne grew up immersed in the traditional song and dance communities of New England and discovered a love of world folk music in their teens. All four have traveled extensively throughout the world with Village Harmony, Northern Harmony and…

Windborne is Lynn Mahoney Rowan, Will Thomas Rowan, Lauren Breunig and Jeremy Carter-Gordon. The four singers grew up immersed in the traditional song and dance communities of New England and discovered a love of world folk music in their teens. All four have traveled extensively in throughout the world with Village Harmony, Northern Harmony and the Renewal Chorus, leading workshops and giving concerts. Over…

Jon Lohman, director of the Center for Cultural Vibrancy, sits down with members of the Swanky Kitchen Band. The band is on an essential quest to revive the traditional music of the Cayman Islands. Set amidst the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, the three tiny islands are home to kitchen dance music, an infectiously danceable fiddle-driven style. The kitchen dance sound, created…

Performance by the Swanky Kitchen Band, which is on an essential quest to revive the traditional music of the Cayman Islands. Set amidst the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, the three tiny islands are home to kitchen dance music, an infectiously danceable fiddle-driven style. The kitchen dance sound, created through a crossroads of European and African influences, might have disappeared save for…

Stephen Winick sits down with Rachel Sumner, Kat Wallace and Mike Siegel of Traveling Light to discuss their music. This Boston based acoustic trio come bearing new interpretations of traditional folk songs and lend their deeply rooted bluegrass know-how to tightly crafted original songs written by Lennon-Award-winning songwriter Sumner. In addition to their own songs, the group will performed their own take on songs…

Lennon-Award-winning songwriter Rachel Sumner sits at the helm of the string band Traveling Light (fiddle, guitar, bass). This Boston based acoustic trio come bearing new interpretations of traditional folk songs and lend their deeply rooted bluegrass know-how to tightly crafted original songs written by Sumner. In addition to some of their own songs, the group performed their own take on songs taken from the…

John Fenn sits down with Anne K. Rasmussen, Jared Holton, Albert Agha and Anne Elise Thomas of Istiwanāt Live! Arabic Music Ensemble. The group reinterprets music that was originally performed 100 years ago for a transnational industry of Arab, Arab American and international record labels, and which has recently been released into the public domain. The concert is inspired by the “Archive Challenge,” an…