Instructor: George Thompson. What makes a song great? What are the unique features of the songs we love? In this 3-day workshop we will explore the kinds of songs that have stuck in our collective memory and that people have loved to sing. We will play and listen to songs from the depression, sea chanties, cowboy songs, railroad songs, and any number of blues classics representing the past 100 years. We’ll also look at the ballad, a peculiar kind of song that usually dates back at least three or four hundred years with its origins in places like Ireland, Scotland, England, and frontier America. Come learn more about appreciating ballads, blues, and broadsides. Anyone who can, please bring an instrument to play and a recording device if you have one.

Contact: Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, (541) 994-5485, www.sitkacenter.org, info@sitkacenter.org