The Family Folk Machine, Iowa City’s intergenerational choir, presents the spring edition of “Dreaming Iowa” at 3 p.m., Saturday, May 2, at the Englert Theatre. It’ll be the second in a two-part concert series exploring facets of Iowa’s past and our dreams for its future. We hope you can join us for old songs, new songs, and brand-new songs performed by the FFM and our band.
During our historical research for the Dreaming Iowa project, we found references to “singing schools” as a way of establishing music education in Iowa when it was newly a state. Many of the singing schools used shape-note music as a pedagogical tool, and the Folk Machine gave this method of learning a try this spring. We’ll include a couple of shape-note songs in the concert. We were honored to present several shape-note songs at Hancher’s Stop/Time festival a few weeks ago, alongside New York City brass quartet The Westerlies.
Songs about the movement for women’s suffrage are well represented in archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and as we explored them, we were surprised to learn that seeking the right to vote was connected to women beginning to wear pants and ride bicycles. One of the songs in our concert set, with words from a pamphlet published in 1895, is a reaction to seeing a woman wearing bloomers and riding a bike. The negative attitudes in this song resonate in our current atmosphere of threats to voting rights and people trying to limit what others can wear and do. But we offer the song as a historical lesson because, despite our continuing struggles, we know how this story turned out.
We’re really looking forward to singing at the May 2 concert with three guest artists who are also friends of the FFM. Jeff Capps has written a beautiful song called “Hardly Breaking” that he’ll perform with us; Nicole Upchurch will sing her haunting song “Heartland” with the choir; and Sam Knutson will lead us in his super-catchy tune “The Whole Time.” Our band and singers have really loved working with these artists and learning their music.
The concert will feature several new songs written by Folk Machinists, including a group song written by the FFM kids, a song called “Home in Iowa City” by intergenerational songwriting duo Alma Drake and Morgan Brown, songs about Iowa places, Wildcat Den and The Rippey Dumps, and a song written by Michael Sauder and Alma Drake that encapsulates many of our dreams for Iowa. Alongside these brand-new and topical songs, we’ll include some recent folk music, a Woody Guthrie classic, and the classic favorite “How Can I Keep from Singing.”
We hope you can join us for the spring edition of Dreaming Iowa on Saturday, May 2.
Jean Littlejohn is the artistic and executive director of the Family Folk Machine and director of music at Trinity Episcopal Church. She lives in Iowa City with her husband, Michael Sauder, and kids Sebastian and Ben. For more information on the Family Folk Machine, including how to join, visit familyfolkmachine.org or send a note to jean@familyfolkmachine.org.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Family Folk Machine: Dreaming Iowa, spring edition | Music Column
Reporting by Jean Littlejohn, Special to the Press-Citizen / Ames Tribune
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