John Roberts/Tony Barrand in Concert

It's been thirty years, folks! It was thirty years ago right here in Ithaca that two graduate students a long way from home discovered each other's music and joined their lively voices together. It was in 1969 that John Roberts and Tony Barrand started singing together and unleashed their unique harmonies and general explosive outrageousness on the North American folk scene. Their energy was pivotal in the early years of the Cornell Folk Song Club.

Since it has been decades since John and Tony could be considered "locals," and since neither one has performed in Ithaca in quite a few years, there may be a few of you uninitiated to the music of these two remarkable Brits. John and Tony are indeed the premier singers of British traditional songs in North America today. Their repertoire is vast, filled with ballads, lyric songs, music hall ditties, sea shanties, pub songs, morris dances, seasonal songs, and parodies. Famous for their unaccompanied two-part singing, they are quite adept instrumentalists as well, with John on concertinas, hurdy-gurdy, and banjo, and Tony on a variety of implements of percussive persuasion. But they don't just sing and play; John and Tony brighten the stage. They may provide you with the most fun you'll have all winter.

We can't think of a better way to start the Cornell Folk Song Club's 1999 season than to bring back our old friends, John Roberts and Tony Barrand. Give them a hearty welcome!

(John Henderson and Margaret Shepard)

Tickets at Rebop, Borealis, Bound for Glory, and the door.
Call Ginny, 607.272.3471 for reservations or e-mail Bill (and follow up with a call to Ginny, 'cause he'll forget).

More info about John Roberts and Tony Barrand

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Author:	Ted Crane
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