Roots Music Stomp – Geoff Kaufman

UNITED Gallery Events Space

Join us for the April edition of Roots Music Stomp featuring beloved regional folk musician Geoff Kaufman. 

Over a performing career of more than fifty years, Geoff Kaufman has been leading audiences to find truth, humor, and beauty in folk music. Whether singing sailor songs with the chantey group Forebitter, environmental songs on board the Sloop Clearwater in the Hudson River, or in solo performances at coffeehouses throughout the Northeast United States and festivals in Europe, Geoff has entertained and touched audiences near and far.

Geoff is perhaps best known for his thirty-five years of singing as a chantey man at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, where for twenty-five of those years he was the Coordinator of Maritime Music Programs and Director of the annual Sea Music Festival. In the latter role he was instrumental in bringing together the best of maritime music performers and scholars from across the United States and Europe (France, England, Poland, Germany) as well as source singers of work song traditions such as net hauling for menhaden, linin’ track chants and rowing songs from whaling in the Caribbean.

Early in those Seaport years the group Forebitter formed and quickly became renowned across the U.S. and Europe, in particular traveling annually to festivals in France (Brest, Paimpol, Douarnenez, Vannes, Boulogne), England, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Poland.

Another side of Geoff’s career began by his becoming a member of the Hudson River Clearwater Sloop Singers in 1986 and singing with them and Pete Seeger for the next ten years supporting the work of Clearwater Inc. to clean up the Hudson River. From those years Geoff developed a repertoire of environmental and social justice songs that have become central to his concerts as well as for young people’s programs and Sunday services for Unitarian Universalist churches.

Listen to his music at: http://geoffkaufman.com/

ABOUT ROOTS MUSIC STOMP & CRAIG EDWARDS

Roots Music Stomp is a monthly series of performances hosted by Craig Edwards, who has been called “A walking encyclopedia of American Roots Music.” Craig sings and plays Appalachian Old Time, Blues, Bluegrass, Cajun, Celtic, Chanteys, Folk, Roots Rock, Swing, Zydeco, and more on fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and button accordion. Each month guest musicians who are experts in one or more of these musical traditions will collaborate with Craig as we explore the rich tapestry of traditional social music that underpins America’s vibrant musical culture.