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Arts & Entertainment

150th Civil War Anniversary concert event

Branford Folk Music Society

April 14 2012: Dan Milner and Jeff Davis with Jeanne Freeman and Ben Gagliardi

Dan Milner is a renowned ballad singer and folk song collector. Jeff Davis is one of America's most respected collectors and interpreters of traditional music. This will be a program of Civil War era songs from the sea, land and home front and you never know who else might show up and join them on stage.

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Dan Milner is a renowned ballad singer, especially of traditional Irish songs in North America, and folk song collector, while Connecticut’s Jeff Davis is one of America’s most respected collectors and interpreters of traditional folk music. Dan and Jeff teamed up last year with David Coffin to record a groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed album on Smithsonian Folkways of authentic maritime songs from the era of the American Civil War (1861-65) from the Union and Confederate Navies as well as the home front. This will be a concert and program of songs from that era culled from Northern, Southern and British sources. Dan and Jeff offer inspiring concerts and you just never know who might show up during the night to help them out! Dan Milner’s plunge into Irish music began with traditional songs his father, a fine singer, had learned from his mother and maternal grandfather. He then learned Thomas Moore songs and Irish-American lyrics from Tin Pan Alley and has continued to broaden his repertoire through the decades, learning Irish “big” ballads and maritime, Canadian and Irish-American songs from all manner of sources. Jeff Davis, Dan’s singing partner for the evening, has traveled far to visit “source singers” — farmers and miners who remembered the old songs and tunes — and closer at hand to libraries and archives, always look for the best of the music that was once common in our towns and villages. His repertoire includes New England ballads, sea songs, African-American banjo tunes, cowboy ditties, rare Yankee fiddle tunes and more. Jeff plays fiddle, banjo, mandocello, guitar, spoons, jaw’s harps and a few instruments hand-made by folk craftsmen. In addition the new Civil War songs album with Dan, Jeff recently released a solo album, “Some Fabulous Yonder” and worked on an English anthology, called “song Links” of old English songs and their American variants. Dan and Jeff are joined by Jeanne Freeman on fiddle and Ben Gagliardi playingconcertina.

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