Friday Night Live Concert Series

Take a trip to the past as the Tim Twiss & San Slomovits Ensemble performs early American music this Friday, May 27 from 7-9 p.m. to open the free Friday Night Live concert series in Milford’s downtown gazebo.

In addition to the concert, artists will be doing demonstrations of their work in various locations along Main Street.

Twiss explained his concert program presents the audience with “an uplifting evening of early American songs played in a setting as was popular in the days preceding the Civil War. This includes fretless banjo, vocals, percussion, and fiddle playing the timeless music of Stephen Foster, Joel Sweeney and Dan Emmett.

"The music with its simple and beautiful European melodies will combine with the complicated syncopated rhythms of Africa, resulting in what was our first ‘true American’ music. The lineup for the evening will include San Slomovits of Gemini on bones, percussion and vocals.”

Twiss, who’s been active in early banjo history and performance for quite some time, said, “This small niche of the music world is reviving the music of the 19^th Century that evolved into the popular music of our modern time,” he stated. “By exploring the playbills of early minstrel shows and instructional books harbored in the Library of Congress, I am bringing to light the true ‘roots’ music of early America.”

From a personal perspective, Twiss’ performance on early banjos “means that I have gained proficiency on a period correct instrument and researched the music, putting them together for true musical ‘time travel’ as it existed in 1850.”

Through this process, he’s become quite an expert on the subject. Twiss shares his knowledge at workshops as well as talks at both Civil War roundtables and historic societies. “I have prepared many manuscripts and transcriptions from early sources, as well as composing several in the 19^th century style. I was a participant in the Friends of the Porkies Artist-in-Residence award two years in a row in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I am also on the roster of the Michigan Council for the Humanities Touring Artists,” he said.

“Currently, I have recorded the world’s largest collection of early banjo performance on my YouTube site, with over 700 videos of period pieces,” Twiss added. “My performances include living history at several Michigan festivals. In the cradle of the Civil War out east, I presented a workshop at Harpers Ferry, and was the winner of a banjo contest at Sharpsburg in 2007.”

In the event of serious weather problems for this or any subsequent Friday Night Live concert, performances would move to the nearby Milford United Methodist Church.

The remaining Friday Night Live concerts are scheduled from 7-9 p.m. in Milford’s downtown gazebo on the following Fridays:

• Nick Palise’s Sovereign Blues Band,  featuring boogie and blues tunes, June 24
• Eclectic rock, pop and folk music presented by Rick & John July 22
• Alan Smith – New Tatoo, including folk and blues, both instrumental and vocal, August 26

For more information, contact Huron Valley Council for the Arts at 248-889-8660.