Joel Mabus to Lead Songwriter’s Workshop and Perform

Press release
Joel Mabus, songwriter, serious picker, old time fiddler and humorist will host a songwriters’ workshop and then perform a concert on Saturday June 14. This event is hosted jointly by the Glen Arbor Art Association and Northern Michigan Songwriters in the Round. The evening concert will kick-off the 2008 Manitou Music Festival.

A maverick in the folk world, Joel Mabus was born in 1953 into a family of traditional musicians and has been performing since 1953.
His great-grandfather and following generations were farmhouse fiddlers. Mabus parents took their old time music on the road as professional entertainers during the Great Depression. Despite the poverty his family was thrown into after his father’s untimely death, Joel attended the University of Michigan on a National Merit Scholarship. There he studied anthropology by day and learned the business of being a professional musician by night. His interests grew beyond bluegrass and old time string band music, and Joel studied older blues, western swing and even Celtic dance music long before it was a fad. He also began to write music.
Mabus’ music intertwines the traditional with the original, whether he is singing an old ballad with a new interpretive twist or writing a new song with twenty-first century perspective that sounds like it has been handed down from generations past. He has 18 albums to his credit, the latest being the “Banjo Monlogues,” a unique blend of old-time banjo and storytelling which ranked number six in 2007 in the Folk Radio charts. In 2008, Mabus was nominated for the Traditional Music Act of the year at the international Folk Alliance Awards.
The workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Leelanau School Student Center. The Songwriters workshop topics will include: use of imagery, tell a story, learn your instrument, song structures and variations, and first, second and third-person narratives. The workshop costs $50 and includes one concert ticket for the evening performance. For information about optional food and lodging arrangements at the Leelanau School, call 231-334-5804 or e-mail jgreenwood(at)leelanau.org.
The evening concert is open to the public and will be held at the Leelanau School green beginning at 8 p.m. Seating will be provided. However, concertgoers are invited to bring blankets, lawn chairs and refreshments. Concert tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door. GAAA members (with card) receive a $2 discount. To register for the workshop or order concert tickets call Glen Arbor Art Association at 231-334-6112 or order online at www.glenarborart.org.