Considered a master of America roots music, Scott Ainslie brings a wealth of personal and musical history to the stage. With expertise in Ragtime & Delta Blues – and the banjo and fiddle traditions of the Southern Appalachians – in Ainslie’s hands the African and American roots of the music come alive in an engaging mix of history, stories, and song.
A musician all his life, Ainslie took up guitar at age 15 about five weeks after hearing Virginia Bluesman John Jackson play a couple of songs in the middle of one of Mike Seeger’s concerts in Alexandria, VA in 1967. A Phi Beta Kappa and honors graduate of Washington & Lee University, Ainslie also studied with elder musicians on both sides of the color line – in the Old-Time Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, as well as with black Gospel and Blues musicians.
He transcribed the original recordings and published a book on Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson, Robert Johnson/At The Crossroads (Hal Leonard, 1992), and has an instructional DVD on Johnson’s guitar work, Robert Johnson’s Guitar Techniques (Hal Leonard, 1997). Ainslie has six solo CDs to his name and maintains an active recording, performing and teaching schedule that carries him around the country, to Canada, and to Europe. He has received numerous awards and grants for his work documenting and presenting traditional music. These include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency in Washington DC) and from the Folklife Section of the North Carolina Arts Council. Ainslie was presented with the annual Independent Weekly Triangle Arts Award; the National Slide Guitar Festivals’ Living Heritage Award; and the 20th Annual Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, NC.
As a traditional musician with expertise in both the Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo tradition, and Piedmont and Delta Blues, Ainslie has specialized in performing and presenting programs on the African roots of American music and culture in community and educational settings. He joined the prestigious North Carolina Visiting Artist Program and took the first of his many Artist-in-Residence positions in a dramatically racially segregated community in eastern North Carolina in 1986.
Peppered with humor and stories, Ainslie’s teaching concerts help students and teachers learn to listen for the musical building blocks that continue to influence the music they hear all around them today – contemporary Rock, Bluegrass, Country, Gospel, Metal, R & B, and Hip-Hop. Question and answer periods are welcome at the end of each performance.
susan@loydartists.com
http://cattailmusic.com/
16 Santo Lane, c/o Loyd Artists, Au Sable Forks, NY 12912
518-647-5916
In this varied program, Scott Ainslie tours the music of the American South where European and African musical traditions cross-pollinated to create the powerful musical hybrids that have long dominated American popular music. With a calabash gourd banjo, his one-string diddley bow, guitars, stories and song, Scott explores the Africanization of old-time mountain music, and African musical and cultural retentions in the Blues, Gospel and work songs of our African-American communities. Students will come away with a broad appreciation for the movement of cultural information across geographic, cultural and class lines, and be able to hear and identify traditional African musical conventions today’s popular music.
Susan Lounsbury, Loyd Artists
518-647-5916
info@loydartists.com
Available year-round with routed dates at several times during the school year.
Flexible
8′ x 8′ performance space; Access to 110v grounded outlet, 60 minutes before & after to set-up and load out. Scott will provide sound for schools.
In schools, libraries, theater, performing arts centers
$650 for one performance / $1,200 for two in the same day when routed in the area
SL2 = Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
SL4 = Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
R7 = Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
From the Social Studies 3-5 Standards:
4.C.1 = Understand the impact of various cultural groups on North Carolina.
8.C.1 = Understand how different cultures influenced North Carolina and the United States.
From the Arts Education, Music Standards:
CR.1 = Understand global, interdisciplinary, and 21st century connections with music.
When the Artist has incurred significant travel expense to honor a contract and the contract or a portion of the contract is canceled due to weather, the artist will be paid in full and every attempt will be made to reschedule the services within the following 12 months at no additional charge to the Artist or the Presenter/School. If the Artist is at home or has not traveled to reach the venue location when the cancellation occurs, payment is not required and every attempt will be made by all parties to reschedule the work within the following 12 months. It is understood that make-up dates will be rescheduled when the artist is traveling through an area and the Artist is under no obligation to pay additional travel expenses to make-up services canceled due to weather.