On Saturday, May 21st, Congregation Beth Shalom will present a concert of Jake Shulman-Ment and Laurel Premo at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse (6726 Center Rd, Traverse City). Music begins at 7:00pm, the event is open to all ages, tickets are $20 and are available online or at the door, and children under ten years of age are free of charge accompanied by an adult.
These two artists voices are tied together through a living relationship with fiddle traditions. Both Laurel Premo & Jake Shulman-Ment share a certain ruminant, compositional style in their work, each drawing from deep roots in the folk music and stories of their ancestors. For this rare evening, their two separate sets as soloists will culminate in a collaborative performance that explores new sounds and connections in a shared American story of migration, search for identity and community, and innovation.
Laurel Premo is a Traverse City-based roots musician known for her work over the past decade with the internationally touring duo Red Tail Ring. This year she presents solo performances on fingerstyle electric guitar, lap steel, old-time fiddle and voice, drawing on American and Nordic roots music alongside new compositions borne out of that traditional vocabulary. The glowing heartiness and rich grit of her sound reveal a love of and complete submersion in these heavy archaic roots—from the crossover of old-time and blues American traditions to darker Scandinavian sounds. MTV News described Premo’s new solo record 'Golden Loam' as “subtle but dazzling and rich in texture. Watching a live performance is pure hypnosis.” (10/08/21). With quiet power, a masterful use of space, and the glint of the untethered wild, Laurel Premo bears renewed electric dirt – the golden loam layered by centuries of folk.
Jake Shulman-Ment is at the helm of a new generation of Klezmer performers. He tours, records, and teaches internationally and has spent two decades traveling and living in Eastern Europe, learning violin traditions and researching old Jewish music from master fiddlers. Drawing from his upbringing in a community of people dedicated to practicing secular Yiddish culture in New York City as well as from his extensive travel, research and study, he has synthesized an expressive and individual style that is deeply rooted in the diasporic history of Yiddish culture. Jake speaks to audiences intimately through his singular voice on the violin, sings Yiddish folk songs of philosophy, love, and resistance, and shares stories and musings about life, music, wandering, and being human.
More information about the artists can be found at: https://www.laurelpremo.com/ and https://www.jakeshulmanment.com/