Debra Cottrell
Folklorist: Farm Crafts & Occupational Traditions

Cottrell has a Masters Degree in Folklore from Indiana University, a Secondary Education Degree from the University of South Florida, and a Bachelors Degree in Theatre from Florida State University. She served as a field researcher and presenter for the New Hampshire program at the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C and for the expanded recreation of that program at the Celebrate New Hampshire Festival in Hopkinton in 2000. Cottrell has experience working in traditional historical museums and in a “living history” museums. She conducts programs on such topics as: folklife fieldwork techniques, historic cooking, soap making, candle making, and butter churning.

Preferred activities and age groups: Presentations, workshops, and lectures for groups of all ages in a variety of community settings including festivals, schools, libraries and museums. Consultation with non-profit organizations on how to plan and implement cultural programming focused on traditional arts, and on how to carry out fieldwork research and documentation.
Fees: Negotiable.

PO Box 1942
Conway, NH 03818
603/986-6343
debacottrell@gmail.com

John Hutton
Traditional Logging, Farming & Draft Horse Training

John Hutton is a farmer, logger, and community scholar specializing in training and working with oxen and draft horses, traditions that were vital to the success of early New England life. A New Hampshire native and lifetime farmer, John has first hand knowledge of working with draft animals and the challenges of maintaining these skills in a modern society. John has become a popular announcer for draft animal demonstrations and pulling events at local agricultural fairs and community gatherings. His announcing weaves together information on the history of working breeds, the skills needed to train large animals, and is sprinkled throughout with Yankee humor. John is active in a variety of community organizations including the Draft Horse and Pony Association. In 1999, John represented New Hampshire at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, announcing for the working animal demonstrations. In 2000, he helped organize the animal demonstrations at the expanded recreation of the Smithsonian program at the Celebrate New Hampshire festival held in Hopkinton, N.H. John and his wife Carol run Coppal House Farm in Lee, N.H. Their farm takes traditional farming into the new century by embracing "agritourism” as a way to attract people to the farm and help educate them on the challenges and rewards of farming. Every year Coppal House Farm puts in an extensive sunflower field and corn maze that provide fun for families and educational information on farming, wildlife, and environmental sciences late summer through fall. It is the first Sunflower Festival and only one of a handful of corn mazes in the State of New Hampshire.  They also give old-fashioned horse-drawn rides with their draft horses through the winter.
 
Preferred activities and age groups: Lectures on the history of farming and logging with draft animals (horses and oxen). Announcing for animal demonstrations including working oxen and draft horses; oxen and horse pulling; saddle horses; and sheep herding for community events at historic societies, fairs, festivals, and museums.
Fees: Negotiable.
 
Coppal House Farm
118 North River Rd
Lee, NH 03824-6404
603/659-3572
coppalhouse@comcast.net
www.nhcornmaze.com
www.nhsunflower.com

Jo Radner
Folklorist, Storyteller, Oral historian, Writer

Jo Radner has been performing and teaching in community settings for over 40 years. As a storyteller Jo creates personal and family tales as well as stories about the people and history of Northern New England. She delights in eccentrics, believes that humor and gravity are good bedfellows, and favors characters whose lives defy simple explanations. She leads workshops for adults on creative storytelling, finding and telling personal and family stories, and creating stories from history. Committed to strengthening communities by helping them find, shape, and present their stories, Jo conducts fieldwork and oral history projects and workshops for organizations, community groups, schools, families, and individuals. She also creates oral history presentations, including her award-winning performance “Burnt into Memory,” about the 1947 wildfire that destroyed the town of Brownfield, Maine. Jo has published on diverse American and Irish cultural traditions, women’s folklore, Deaf culture, and New England social history. Her book Wit and Wisdom: The Forgotten Literary Life of New England Villages (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023) explores a vivid 19th-century tradition of wintertime rural gatherings for debate and witty writing. Each of her two CDs, Yankee Ingenuity: Stories of Headstrong and Resourceful People and Burnt into Memory: How Brownfield Faced the Fire, received the Storytelling World Award.
After a Harvard Ph.D. and 31 years’ teaching at American University, Jo moved back to her home region of western Maine for a freelance career. She is past president of the American Folklore Society and the National Storytelling Network. She has received the Brother Blue and Ruth Hill Award from the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling “in recognition of extraordinary commitment, dedication and loving encouragement to the New England storytelling community.”

Preferred activities and age groups: Performances, workshops, and lectures for middle school to senior citizens.
Fees: Negotiable.

PO Box 145
Lovell, ME 04051
207/925-6244
jradner@american.edu
https://joradner.com/

Andrew Stewart
New England Contra Dance Music & Cajun Music: Fiddle

Andy Stewart is a versatile fiddler whose repertoire includes traditional New England contra dance tunes as well as the music of French Canada, the Acadian diaspora and other roots music. His fiddle playing encompasses the multi-cultural influences of over 300 years of immigration to New Hampshire. Much of his fiddle repertoire and style comes from studying with older fiddle players in New England, Canada, Louisiana, and Mexico. For some 3o years he played monthly dances with the Upper Valley based contra dance band Northern Spy. He also plays fiddle with his Cajun band, The Offshore Aces, and with his wife Mary Jo (vocals, guitar, ti’fer) in their duo Slattery & Stewart (shown in this photo at a concert in Mexico). Their repertoire includes Cajun waltzes and lively two-steps; the fiddle tunes of French Canada and New England; as well as early songs and traditional ballads. He currently is exploring the jug band tradition of the early 1900s with the recently formed trio, the Occasional Jug Band. 

Stewart’s long history with traditional fiddle and dance started as a youngster when he was part of regular square dance program in a 3-room schoolhouse in Vermont, travelling through the region as part of a square dance demonstration team. In 1998 Stewart was one of two dozen folklorists and community scholars who conducted fieldwork and research for the development of the New Hampshire program featured at the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. He focused his research on traditional music, as well as on hunting, recreational crafts, and the Spanish-speaking communities of the state. Stewart served as a presenter for both the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the expanded re-creation of that event, Celebrate New Hampshire Culture, held in 2000 in Hopkinton, NH. At both events he provided cultural context and background information for audiences on the musical traditions and crafts.

Preferred activities and age groups: Performances for all ages at schools, community locations such as libraries, historic societies, fairs, festivals, museums, and assisted living facilities.  Able to assist in the research, planning and implementation of culturally based arts programming and presentations.
Fees: Negotiable

Lucie Therrien
Franco-American Music: Guitar, Piano & Vocals

Lucie Therrien is a nationally and internationally acclaimed performer that has built her career around the music of her French Canadian heritage. She is also a composer, recording artist, author, poet, linguist, certified teacher, watercolor artist, and historian. Her concert repertoire includes songs in French, English, Spanish, and five other languages. She has presented programs of cultural diversity on five continents. Lucie performs as a solo artist, accompanying her versatile voice with piano, guitar, and a variety of ethnic instruments. Her repertoire includes a range of musical genres including traditional, contemporary, and original compositions. Into her well crafted performances she weaves entertaining and educational information-in story form for children and anecdotes for adults. Lucie has received four Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant awards from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts to preserve the traditional songs of her heritage by teaching apprentices, as well as film and composer awards. In 1999, Lucie was one of the cultural specialists invited to represent New Hampshire at the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. For more than 18 years Lucie has also taken her talents to health care venues including nursing homes, assisted living sites, and other health care institutions. Lucie has published 15 recordings, 2 DVD's, 4 videos, a songbook, 2 research papers, and a book & CD Set titled, “Dual Citizen- Deux Citoyemetés”.

Preferred activities and age groups: Performances; lecture-demonstrations; workshops; residencies; day programs; multi-day programs. Grades K-college, adults, elderly, general public.
Fees: Performances: $690/solo; Workshops: $450; Master Class: $550; Lecture-demonstrations: $500; fees negotiable depending on program content, length of program and travel distance, with reduced fees for block booking and combinations.

5 Junkins Ave #106
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603/430-9524
lucilletherrien75@gmail.com

Jeff Warner
American Folk Music

Jeff Warner performs the music of America's rural past: songs of Revolutionary War heroes and life and work aboard wooden ships, African-American banjo tunes, songs from 19th century lumber camps and ballads of old New Hampshire. His songs and stories bring us the latest news from the distant past. Programs for young people include hands-on fun with accessible rhythm instruments like bones and spoons. Jeff has toured in thirty-six states for the Smithsonian Institution and has been an artist for the Ohio Arts Council's Arts-in-Education Program and Young Audiences, Inc. of Massachusetts. Jeff’s parents, Anne and Frank Warner, were early collectors of American folk songs. An avid music scholar himself, Jeff has released recordings of the music collected by his parents, as well as CDs of his own work. In 2007, Jeff received a prestigious Artist Fellowship award from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Jeff is the 2016 recipient of the Country Song and Dance Society Lifetime Achievement Award.

Preferred activities and age groups: Performances; lecture-demonstrations; workshops; master classes; and school residencies. All audiences.
Fees: $350 - $500/day

5 Junkins Ave. Apt. 306
Portsmouth, NH  03801
Cell:  603/570-8366
www.jeffwarner.com