Shantyman's Life'
Wisconsin folk and lumber camp songs
Jim Leary, UW-Madison Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, presents his work at Science on Tap Minocqua.
Ryan Matthews photograph
Ryan Matthews
Outdoors Reporter
Science on Tap Minocqua hosted Jim Leary for a night of early 20th century folksongs and Scandinavian settler history at the Minocqua Brewing Company.
Leary is the Birgit Baldwin Professor of Scandinavian Studies, a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and Folklore Studies, and cofounder of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at UW-Madison.
Leary is also the author and producer of an upcoming project featuring print, audio and visual titled, Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946.
Songs played at the event included a lumber camp song recorded in Rhinelander in 1941, a song about “hard times in Fond du Lac jail” recorded in Wautoma in 1941 and a song about the Red Light Saloon recorded in Coloma in 1940.
Leary is a Rice Lake native with a lifelong love of Upper Midwestern folklore, especially the songs of lumber camps and scandinavian immigrants.
Leary said his interested was piqued in old lumber camp instruments through visits to the Friendly Buckhorn Bar in Rice Lake that was famous for a strange collection of taxidermy adorning the walls hung by proprietor Otto Rindlisbacher.
Leary became fasciated by the unique music produced by the intersection of Scandinavian settlers, immigrants, native americans and Upper Midwestern lumber camp culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“There was trove of cultural richness out there in America that could be found in songs,” Leary said. “These pieces of poetry that come out of people and are shared by them.”
Leary’s recordings and films include Accordions in the Cutover; Ach Ya! Traditional German-American Music from Wisconsin; Midwest Ramblin’: The Goose Island Ramblers; Down Home Dairyland; and the Art of Ironworking.
Leary’s books include Wisconsin Folklore, So Ole Says to Lena and Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music.
Leary is coeditor of the Journal of American Folklore.
The next Science on Tap Minocqua event will be Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m. at the Minocqua Brewing Company, 238 Lakeshore Drive, Minocqua. Guest presenter will be Steve Deller, UW-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics, discussing tourism and the Northwoods economy.
Ryan Matthews may be reached at [email protected].
Wisconsin folk and lumber camp songs
Jim Leary, UW-Madison Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, presents his work at Science on Tap Minocqua.
Ryan Matthews photograph
Ryan Matthews
Outdoors Reporter
Science on Tap Minocqua hosted Jim Leary for a night of early 20th century folksongs and Scandinavian settler history at the Minocqua Brewing Company.
Leary is the Birgit Baldwin Professor of Scandinavian Studies, a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and Folklore Studies, and cofounder of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at UW-Madison.
Leary is also the author and producer of an upcoming project featuring print, audio and visual titled, Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946.
Songs played at the event included a lumber camp song recorded in Rhinelander in 1941, a song about “hard times in Fond du Lac jail” recorded in Wautoma in 1941 and a song about the Red Light Saloon recorded in Coloma in 1940.
Leary is a Rice Lake native with a lifelong love of Upper Midwestern folklore, especially the songs of lumber camps and scandinavian immigrants.
Leary said his interested was piqued in old lumber camp instruments through visits to the Friendly Buckhorn Bar in Rice Lake that was famous for a strange collection of taxidermy adorning the walls hung by proprietor Otto Rindlisbacher.
Leary became fasciated by the unique music produced by the intersection of Scandinavian settlers, immigrants, native americans and Upper Midwestern lumber camp culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“There was trove of cultural richness out there in America that could be found in songs,” Leary said. “These pieces of poetry that come out of people and are shared by them.”
Leary’s recordings and films include Accordions in the Cutover; Ach Ya! Traditional German-American Music from Wisconsin; Midwest Ramblin’: The Goose Island Ramblers; Down Home Dairyland; and the Art of Ironworking.
Leary’s books include Wisconsin Folklore, So Ole Says to Lena and Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music.
Leary is coeditor of the Journal of American Folklore.
The next Science on Tap Minocqua event will be Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m. at the Minocqua Brewing Company, 238 Lakeshore Drive, Minocqua. Guest presenter will be Steve Deller, UW-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics, discussing tourism and the Northwoods economy.
Ryan Matthews may be reached at [email protected].
