From: "Philip Barnes" <pip_at_pipbarnes_dot_co_dot_uk>Date: 26 October 2006 15:08:46 BDTSubject: America Over The Water with Shirley Collins and Pip Barnes - Purcell Room Tuesday 31st OctoberTo all our friends in the southIf you can, do try and get along to the Purcell Room this coming Tuesday evening at 7.45 for the only London performance of "America Over The Water" during our Arts Council-sponsored tour - here's a brief description from the RFH website:Shirley Collins, a leading figure on the British folk scene, presents a show based on her book America Over the Water. This tells how, in 1959, Shirley, a young folk singer from Hastings, set out across the American South with the legendary folklorist Alan Lomax, collecting and recording songs from both black and white communities across six states.
America over the Water tells the evolving social history of a racially segregated America on the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement, which goes to the roots of Anglo-American traditional music. The American story is interleaved with Shirley's other journey: that of growing up in Hastings during and just after the Second World War, becoming a folk singer, and meeting Alan Lomax in London.
The show features readings from Shirley and actor Pip Barnes, many musical excerpts from the field recordings themselves, and a visual display incorporating photographs taken on the trip, or derived from contemporaneous sources.
You can read reviews of the show at www.shirleycollins.co.uk/aotw.htmWe hope to see you there.LoveShirley and Pip