Free public performances of traditional music and dance drawn from communities across the United States. Reviving a Library tradition of folk music presentations that dates to the 1940s, most of the noontime concerts will be held on the West steps of the Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress at noon (see below for alternate locations and times). Generally, no tickets are required; however, please see below for any alternative arrangements.

Masters of Mexican Music explores the musical traditions of an important and growing segment of the U.S. population. Master musicians from four distinct regional traditions - the mariachi of Jalisco, the Veracruz harp tradition ensemble, the accordion-based conjunto of the Texas-Mexican border area, and the marimba of southern Mexico will be performing. Featured artists include Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, José Gutiérrez, Mingo Saldivar, and Marimba Chiapas. The national tour is produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
Tickets are required; no reserved seating.

Presented by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress

NORMAN and NANCY BLAKE
Old Time country music from Georgia
Thursday, April 15, 2004 at 8:00 pm
Coolidge Auditorium

Norman Blake is one of the most respected musicians in the field of country music. His career, spanning almost fifty years, includes over thirty recordings, as well as hundreds of sessions and appearances, with artists ranging from the Carter Family and Johnny Cash to Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and John Hartford. A virtuoso guitar and mandolin player, he and his wife, Nancy, have received four Grammy nominations for their traditional music recordings.

DON ROY TRIO and FLORENCE MARTIN
Franco-American music from Maine
Tuesday, May 18, 2004 at noon
Neptune Plaza

Don Roy is one of the finest Franco-American fiddlers in the Northeast. Roy learned to play the fiddle from his uncle, Lucien Mathieu, a master of the French Canadian style. He organized and played with the Maine French Fiddlers for eleven years, during which he played at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wolf Trap, and on A Prairie Home Companion. In 1990 he won the Maine State Fiddle Championship. Also in the group are Don’s wife, Cindy, a pianist and step dancer, and bassist Jay Young. Florence Martin, from Lewiston, Maine, is an accomplished singer of Acadian songs which she learned when growing up in the Saint John’s Valley on the Maine-New Brunswick border.

AMERICAN MUSICAL CELEBRATIONS!
The Army Blues Jazz Ensemble of the US Army Band (Pershing’s Own)
Friday, June 4, 2004 at 12:00 Noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Formed in 1972, The Army Blues carries on a tradition begun by the Army Dance Band which entertained soldiers and civilians in the battle zone during World War II. As the premier jazz ensemble of the U.S. Army, and one of the few remaining professional groups of its kind, the Blues' present-day mission is to promote America's art form: jazz. The Blues pay tribute to the big bands of yesterday by performing music by such greats as Ellington, Basie, Miller and Herman. The Army Blues perform their own versions of the latest and most innovative sounds of contemporary composers, as well.
Free--no tickets required

FREEDOM SONGS
Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon
Tuesday, June 8 at 12:00 Noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Songs of the Freedom Singers and the music of the civil rights movement will highlight this stirring concert.
Free--no tickets required.

PASCHALL BROTHERS
African American gospel quartet from Virginia
Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at noon
Neptune Plaza

The Paschall Brothers stand firmly in the great tradition of unaccompanied religious singing in Tidewater Virginia. The black gospel quartet tradition can be traced back to plantation life in the South. The style blossomed in the region and by the 1920s found a national following with groups such as the Heavenly Gospel Singers and, notably, the Golden Gate Quartet of Norfolk. Formed in 1981 by the late Rev. Frank Paschall , Sr., the Paschall Brothers carry on this remarkable tradition and bring new life and energy to this venerable style.

OINKARI BASQUE DANCERS from IDAHO
Wednesday, July 14, 2004 at noon
Madison Hall

The Oinkari Basque Dancers, from Boise, Idaho, perform the traditional dances brought from the Basque region of the Pyrenees Mountains of France and Spain to the West by immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1960 a group of young Basque Americans traveled to the town of Donosti in Basque country and became inspired to form a group that preserved these dances. Now after forty years, the sons and daughters of the founding members carry on the tradition. The name "Oinkari" means "fast feet," an apt description of the acrobatic dance style.

PHONG NGUYEN ENSEMBLE
Vietnamese Music from Ohio
Wednesday, August 18, 2004 at noon
Madison Hall

Phong Nguyen is one of the world’s foremost performers and scholars of Vietnamese music, and has received a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts for his efforts to preserve and present this music in the United States. Raised in the Mekong Delta region, he comes from a family of prominent musicians, and was traditionally trained to play numerous instruments in various regional styles. He left his native land in 1974, received a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the Sorbonne in Paris, and came to United States shortly thereafter.

NEA NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOW
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Anjani Ambegaokar - 2004 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship awardee, North Indian Kathak dance.

NADIM DLAIKAN
Arabic music from Michigan
Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Nadim Dlaikan, maker and virtuoso player of the nay, a single-reed wind instrument, is a highly respected member of the dynamic music community of Arab Detroit, the largest Arab American community in the United States. Nadim was born in the village of Alai in Lebanon and began to play the nay at an early age. He went on to study under master musicians at the Lebanese Conservatory and moved to Beirut, where he became a member of Lebanon’s best-known folk troupe, traveling throughout the Middle East. He moved to the Detroit area in 1970 and became a leader in the Arabic musical community, playing with musicians from throughout the Middle East. His four-piece ensemble will be playing with him in Washington. In 2002 Nadim Dlaikan received a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

AMERICAN INDIAN MUSIC and DANCE TROUPE
from Oklahoma
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at noon
Coolidge Auditorium

The American Indian Music and Dance Troupe is directed by Tom Mauchahty - Ware, a Kiowa whose family has presented the traditions of the Plains peoples since the 1930s. Tom’s great uncle, noted artist Stephen Mopope, appeared at the Second National Folk Festival in 1935, his father performed at festivals during the 1940s, and Tom began performing at National Festivals in the 1960s. Tom Ware, a noted flute player, brings a troupe from the Kiowa and Comanche nations, who will be performing the Eagle, Hoop, Fancy, and Grass dances, among others. This program is cosponsored by the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution.

JERRY GRCEVICH with TAMBURITZA ORCHESTRA
Tambura music from Pennsylvania
Wednesday, December 8, 2004 at Noon
Coolidge Auditorium

Jerry Grcevich is a master player, composer, and arranger of tambura music, the intricate and virtuosic string-ensemble music of Eastern Europe, notably Croatia and Serbia. For over thirty years he has been a mainstay of tamburitza music in the United States, mastering all of the string instruments, and recording over twenty records, tapes, and CDs. He frequently travels to Croatia to play and gather new material. Grcevich, like his father, from whom he learned, has been elected to the Tamburitza Hall of Fame.

About the Capital Roots Concert Series:
The American Folklife Center and the Public Service Collections Directorate of the Library of Congress will continue to present noontime concerts highlighting outstanding Washington area traditional artists through the fall months. DC is home to many talented folk musicians, and this series celebrates our nation's "Capital Roots" music.

About the Homegrown: The Music of America series:
Presented by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, and the Music Division of the Library of Congress.