PICTURE THIS: AMERICA'S ROOTS MUSIC, featuring the work of acclaimed photojournalist-author Stephanie P. Ledgin, will kick off the 2018 Farmstead Arts Center art show calendar with an opening reception, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. In addition, musicians are invited to bring instruments and jam! Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. The Center is on the grounds of the historic Kennedy Martin Stelle Farmstead, 450 King George Road, Basking Ridge, a half-mile off Interstate 78 exit 36.
From Carnegie Hall to the Grand Ole Opry, the images document onstage performances and unguarded backstage moments. Viewers will "hear" through the lens the sounds of folk, blues, Cajun, bluegrass, Celtic, country music, and more, captured in facial expressions, postures, and body language of musicians and dancers. This exhibit, derived from Ledgin's second book, From Every Stage: Images of America's Roots Music, originated in 2005 at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum and continued at Lincoln Center, among other prestigious spaces.
The majority of the photographs are both historical and rare views of important roots music practitioners, legends including Pete Seeger, Odetta, Richie Havens, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, Minnie Pearl, and many others. Candid offstage shots take outsiders inside the music. Performances are captured in fully engaged musical moments.
Pittstown/Alexandria Township resident Stephanie P. Ledgin is an award-winning journalist and author of three acclaimed books, her most recent -- Discovering Folk Music. The International Country Music Conference, in conjunction with Belmont University-Nashville, acknowledged her expansive professional accomplishments in 2007 with its Career Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. Her first book, Homegrown Music: Discovering Bluegrass, took home the 2005 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Print Media Award. A former member of the IBMA Board of Directors and a founding member of Folk Alliance International, Ledgin is a bona fide Kentucky Colonel, commissioned in 2008 in recognition of her service in the field of bluegrass music.
A former New York City radio show host (WFUV-FM), Ledgin was director of the New Jersey Folk Festival at Rutgers University for ten years. For a decade, she managed and brought to the fore Italian guitar virtuoso Beppe Gambetta. Ledgin anticipates release in 2018 of her next two books, Exceptional Music: A Retrospective/Futurespective and Beyond Your Cat's Meow. More about Stephanie P. Ledgin can be found at http://ledgin.com.
Picture This: America's Roots Music will run from Jan. 7 to Jan. 28. Gallery hours are Sundays 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (except January 14), Monday through Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., or by appointment. Admission is free. For more information or to purchase a photo, call the Farmstead, 908-636-7576, email admin@farmsteadarts.org, or visit http://farmsteadartscenter.org.
Submitted by Stephanie Ledgin