Flying Shoes Radio Hour

This episode we get to explore the interconnected musical journeys of three incredible musicians: Guillaume’s band Nova and Rose’s Polaris inspired Helen’s teenage dancing in Washington State, while both Rose and Guillaume were profoundly shaped by mentors Becky Tracy and Jeremiah McLane of Nightingale. The trio’s shared love for balfolk music thrives in Massachusetts and...

Episode 8 of the FSRH was part of an epic late February weekend in Maine with Carol Bittenson, Cecile Leroy, and Daniel Raine. Lots of common threads to weave in this interview as the versatile combo reunited for their second gig as a trio (the first being just before the Covid19 pandemic.)  The conversation was...

This episode features Nobody’s Business (Hayden Stern on fiddle, Casey Murray on cello, and Helen Kuhar on guitar). The conversation kicked off with some reflections on their individual paths to playing for contra dances, from classical music lessons, to dances when they were younger, and other fiddle traditions, They also discuss how they found a...

This week we talk to Benjamin Foss and Bennett Konesni in Belfast, both hailing from Waldo County, Maine. Throughout the episode they reflect on their deep commitment to nourishing our local culture of participatory music and dance, their love of contra music new and old, and the value of social connections of playing and dancing,...

In the Flying Shoes Radio Hour podcast, we explore the roots and branches of contradance music. And, so, building on that metaphor, for me, talking with Carol Compton and Thal Aylward of Trip to Norwich was like digging my roots into a fertile bit of soil. There was so much uptake of nutrients, like the...

This fourth episode of the Flying Shoes Radio Hour podcast involves chatting (and laughing) with the Quebecois band, Genticorum. Original members, Pascal Gemme and Yann Falquet, along with their “Genticorum 2.0” bandmate Nicholas Williams were in midcoast Maine for several days, and we recorded the show as soon as they arrived in town. The podcast...

This third episode of the Flying Shoes Radio Hour Podcast features River Road, a trio from the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts. It was terrific to spend some quality time with Sarah-Hadley Yakir (who plays fiddle), Kristen Planeaux (who plays piano, flute & accordion) and Jesse Ball (who plays mandolin & guitar and also does...

This second episode of the Flying Shoes Radio Hour features Wild Asparagus, an influential dance band based in Western Massachusetts, and named for a feral crop in the Connecticut River Valley. Band members – David Cantieni on oboe, saxophone, flutes, whistles, and bombard; George Marshall on concertina and bodhran, Ann Percival on guitar, piano, and...

Welcome to the first episode of the Flying Shoes Radio Hour Podcast! Launching this project with the Pine Tree Flyers was a natural decision. We made this recording on Mother’s Day 2024, just after the band released their first album, which is chock full of tunes from the contra dance repertoire and which pays homage...