Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music
(AAFFM)
Fiddler’s Green December 21, 2024
REDWINE JAM and BALALAIKA FANTASIE
REDWINE JAM
Redwine Jam is an Atlanta-based folk music trio comprised of Chris and Carol Moser and Brenda Lloyd.
Redwine Jam performs a wide range of North American and Celtic folk songs and tunes, from traditional material to newly written compositions by contemporary folk legends.
For many of their fans, a highlight of the winter holidays is their enchanting Yuletide program. Moving seamlessly from reverential to rambunctious, the performance features traditional and contemporary seasonal folk music from the British Isles, Ireland, the U.S. and Canada.
This diverse, delightful program makes your holidays complete.
BALALAIKA FANTASIE
The five musicians of Balalaika Fantasie draw their inspiration from their life-long passion for Slavic folk music and their diverse cultural backgrounds. Performing on authentic folk instruments, the group’s repertoire includes Slavic, Ukrainian, Gypsy and Jewish folk music.
Angelina Galashenkova-Reed (domra) has toured the world as a soloist with the Andreyev Russian Folk Orchestra of St. Petersburg, and is the concertmaster of the Atlanta Balalaika Society Orchestra.
David C. Cooper (balalaika, domra, vocals) is an authority on Slavic folk instruments (he plays them all), and is the artistic director and conductor of the Atlanta Balalaika Society Orchestra.
Gregory Carageorge has been a professional contrabass balalaika and string bass player for over thirty years, and was the leader of the house band at New York’s Russian Tea Room.
Natalia Rezvan (tenor domra) was a member of the Folk Instruments Orchestra in Kharkiv, Ukraine for 29 years, all over the Soviet Union and Poland.
Kiril Chernoff (alto balalaika, prima balalaika, and vocals) has played prima balalaika with the Atlanta Balalaika Society Orchestra since age 13. He studied balalaika in Atlanta, Georgia as well as in Kirov, and in his birthplace of St Petersburg.
All five performers are members of the Atlanta Balalaika Society Orchestra.
Welcome! This site lists information about folk music and related activities in the greater Atlanta area and the Southeastern U.S. It contains:
- General and recurring information in an expanded directory format
- Links to other folk resources
- See the EVENTS Tab for Fiddler's Green and other AAFFM- sponsored concerts, workshops, and pickin' parties, as well as other events of interest in and around Atlanta.
In email blasts, you'll find details about current events and information on member-only activities like our famous "get-togethers". If you'd like to host a pick-'n-grin, let us know! See the EVENTS tab for upcoming concerts and pickin' parties.
Contact us at membership@aaffm.org to host a pickin' party, join our organization, find out about an upcoming concert, party or workshop, or to submit listings to the website.
See the 'History' tab for the history of the organization.
AAFFM sponsors a local monthly coffeehouse, Fiddler's Green, that features concerts that included traditional music, singer-songwriters, poetry and storytelling. As of August, 2016, it is held at First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta. AAFFM Membership benefits include the email blasts (our mailing list will always remain private) and discounts on AAFFM sponsored concerts. Annual membership dues are $15 for individuals and $20 for families, $35 sustaining members. E-mail membership@aaffm.org for membership information or click HERE for our Membership Application.
AAFFM Needs YOU
Chris Moser, President
AAFFM
John McCutcheon
Smoke Rise, GA
April 7, 2019
Dear Friends,
I got a call, early on in my years of performing, from Betty Smith, a friend I’d met at the Folk Festival of the Smokies, inviting me to come do a show in Atlanta. A follow up call from Don and Laeta Smith sealed the deal and, sometime in the 1970’s I appeared in Atlanta for the first of many times. My host was a freshly-formed group, The Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music. What I found was a devoted clutch of folk music lovers who not only presented concerts, but sponsored all sorts of events that encouraged people to play music themselves, to share the love of this music that is the root of all the world’s music. To get involved with the music, with one another, with the world.
Having this lovely relationship with Atlanta played a part in my decision to move here in 2006. And I thank you for that.
Over forty years later, AAFFM is still sponsoring events that are meeting places for Atlantans of all stripes and a watering hole for that wandering herd of performers still plying the boards out there. I get to see some of my far-flung fellow performing pals as a result of these. And I thank you for that.
But groups such as AAFFM do not magically sustain themselves. Communities must commit to survive. And in this age of hyper-tribalism it’s more important than ever to reach out, to stand up, to say, “This is the kind of community, the kind of world, I want to be a part of.” You’ll never see the musicians AAFFM brings into our intimate gatherings at the Fox or on Netflix. No, you have to go out, sit shoulder-to-shoulder with others and have that experience live and in person. You can learn how to play, how to sing, how to harmonize in jam sessions not sponsored by YouTube. And, in the process, help build a community that improves the lives of individuals and the collective community life of Atlanta.
Pete Seeger would have been 100 years old this year. He taught us what we could feel like, what we could do if we risked adding our voice to the others in his audience, if we dared to harmonize with a roomful of strangers. But we had to make the move.
So, my fellow Atlantans, make the move, risk, dare, and join me in continuing to support the Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music. And for that I thank you, as well.
Take it easy, but take it!
Become an AAFFM Member!
What's Happening?
Fiddler’s Green September 21, 2024
FRANK HAMILTON SCHOOL PLAYERS and VERONIKA JACKSONFRANK HAMILTON SCHOOL PLAYERSFrank Hamilton is one of the founding figures in the American Folk Music tradition. In addition to gathering and performing folk songs, recording with The Weavers, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and...