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• LAURIE LEWIS
• 2012 FESTIVAL
• AFRICAN DRUMMING IN THE SCHOOLS

SW Roots Music & SF Performance Exchange welcome bluegrass master
LAURIE LEWIS

Friday, Feb. 17, Santa Fe Sol, 37 Fire Place, Santa Fe
$25 advance, $29 door. General Admission. Minors must be accompanied by adult.
Tickets at 800-838-3006 or
BUY ONLINE

One of the preeminent bluegrass and Americana artists, Grammy winner Laurie Lewis is a deeply versatile singer, guitarist and fiddler who came of age in the 1970s Bay Area bluegrass scene, where she submerged herself in both region's historic progressivism and its hardcore commitment to musical tradition: primarily the gospels of Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. She co-founded the all-female Good Ol' Persons bluegrass band and later the Grant Street String Band, in which her own songwriting came to the forefront. Nowadays, she often plays under different names with a fairly regular roster of the best bluegrass musicians, several of whom will be joining her in Santa Fe. Her latest release is Skippin' & Flyin', a tribute to Bill Monroe.

mark your calendars for the 13th annual
THIRSTY EAR FESTIVAL
June 7-10, 2012. Various venues, Santa Fe, NM

Photo by Justin Thor Simenson
Artists, venues & lineup TBA
MORE INFO

AFRICAN DRUMMING IN THE SCHOOLS
featuring AKEEM AYANNIYI

In 2010-2011, Southwest Roots Music continues its K-12 music programming by bringing acclaimed Nigerian drummer Akeem Ayanniyi into NM grade schools, summer children's programs, and to the Thirsty Ear Festival for an interactive program with kids.

Akeem heads the Santa Fe-based troupe Agalu, an ensemble from Nigeria that keeps alive traditional Yoruba stories, rituals and mythology through drumming, storytelling and dance. A ninth-generation practitioner of the Yoruba talking drum, Akeem engages students in conversation about the continent of Africa, framed within his own personal story about growing up as a drummer in Nigeria. In addition to stories and song, he demonstrates the traditional talking drum, ashiko, djembe and bata drums, which children have the opportunity to play and experience. A drummer from the age of five, Akeem descends from a family lineage that can be traced back 700 years to the Yoruba deity of drumming, Ayan Agalu. He has toured much of the world and performed at the Smithsonian Institute; the Brooklyn Academy of Music; the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe; Afrikadey! in Calgary, Canada; and the New Mexico Jazz & International Music Festival.

We have teamed with Akeem and his guest musicians for 2010 programs at Atalaya, Wood Gormley and La Mariposa Montessori schools in Santa Fe, for two workshops at the Thirsty Ear Festival, and for an amazing afternoon at Children's Adventure Company in which Akeem accompanied the folk group Po' Girl during its interactive workshop with the kids.

If you are involved with a NM school and would like to enjoy free Southwest Roots Music K-12 programming, please call 918-289-0482.