Logo: Susquehanna Folk Music Society
Presenting fine traditional arts in Central Pennsylvania since 1985

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Fri, December 13 - April Verch & Joe Newberry

April Verch & Joe Newberry Harrisburg
These two grew up around people who made their own fun with music and dance, and it shows. With original songs and timeless classics, heartwarming stories and lively tunes & dance, their shows radiate joy and good fellowship. Concert on Friday, December 13 at the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg. MORE

Sun, January 5 - Charm City Junction

Charm City Junction York
“Baltimore-based roots group Charm City Junction puts a new spin on old-timey music, carrying the torch of fast-picking bluegrass and toe-tapping Celtic music. Featuring fiddle, clawhammer banjo, the button accordion and upright bass, this quartet isn’t afraid to take roots music to new places — but always with an eye on tradition.” (The Washington Post) Concert on Sunday, January 5 at UUCY. MORE

Sat, January 25 - Winter Coffee House

Winter Coffee House Harrisburg
Susquehanna Folk Coffeehouses are intimate evenings showcasing Central Pennsylvania's fine amateur acoustic musicians, who play a wide variety of material for an attentive, music-loving audience. Interested in performing? Apply now! FREE Coffeehouse concert on Saturday, January 25 at Fort Hunter Barn. MORE

Fri, February 7 - San Miguel Fraser

San Miguel Fraser Harrisburg
Castilian, Celtic and original music featuring violins, vocals, cittern and pandareta: “exquisite, exhilarating, effervescent... expressing the joy, warmth, and beauty of our shared humanity.”—Culburnie Records   Concert on Friday, February 7 at Fort Hunter Barn. MORE

Fri, February 21 - The Murphy Beds

The Murphy Beds Harrisburg
Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer present traditional and original folk songs with close harmonies and deft instrumental arrangements on bouzouki, guitar, and mandolin. Huffington Post describes their music as “taking what’s best of the classic Irish folk revival without falling into any of its clichés... beautiful, crystalline songs.” Concert on Friday, February 21 at Fort Hunter. MORE

Wed, March 5 - Solas

Solas New Cumberland
This brilliant Irish‑American band is celebrating thirty years of holding traditions and pushing boundaries! Grab tickets now to see the incomparable Seamus Egan, Winifred Horan, Nuala Kennedy and friends in concert on Wednesday, March 5 at West Shore Theatre. MORE
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Roots Music this Spring

New Year's Day is not even close, but you'll want to get these new Susquehanna Folk shows on your 2025 calendar!

NEW!   JigJam
Monday, March 10
in Lancaster
JigJam

When virtuoso Irish playing jumps the pond and runs naked through the wide open fields of bluegrass/Americana... JigJam is born! Three Irish lads plus a Missouri-born Irish-American make up this iGrass (Irish Bluegrass) quartet.

NEW!   Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light
Sunday, April 13
in Harrisburg
Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light

Rachel Sumner (formerly of Twisted Pine) and her new bandmates take folk far beyond the conventional, with lyric-forward songwriting, snaking chord progressions, acrobatic fiddle and bass, and songs both sweet and biting.

plus these other newly announced concerts:

Charm City Junction: Sun, Jan 5 in York
Charm City Junction

Hailing from Baltimore, this foursome creates a fresh soundscape from old-timey, Bluegrass and Irish roots.

Murphy Beds: Fri, Feb 21 in Harrisburg
The Murphy Beds

Traditional and original folksongs with close harmonies and deft instrumentals: the best of the Irish folk revival without the clichés.

Tracy Grammer: Sat, April 19 in Harrisburg
Tracy Grammer

One of contemporary folk music’s most beloved artists, renowned for her pure voice, deft guitar and violin work, and incantatory storytelling.

Visiting the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

In this Folk Artist spotlight, folklorist Amy Skillman shares her visit to the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in June. The theme for this year was “Indigenous Voices of the Americas,” celebrating the historic and contemporary folkways of native cultures across the Western hemisphere.

Read the full article

Amy especially enjoyed the Skateboarding and Skate Art area of the festival. Skateboarding is very popular among Indigenous youth, both as a sport and as a form of cultural expression: a new folk tradition in the making.

She was particularly impressed by ImillaSkate: a group of young women from Bolivia, lifelong skaters who felt excluded from the male-dominated sport. ImillaSkate distinguishes itself by adopting the traditional dress of their ancestors, including long braids and the colorful, bulky (but now shorter!) skirts associated with the women of the Andes. These young women have reclaimed the dress as a symbol of cultural pride and empowerment.

A montage of images from the festival. Top half: a handmade lacrosse stick, two young Bolivian women performing a hip-hop piece, artist Kandi McClinton, attendees watching a weaving demonstration, two baskets, and colorful knitted figures from Peru. Bottom half: a closeup of hands carving a wooden mask; an Ojibway woman holding a dress with heavy gold embroidery and rows of conical red bells; a group of Hawai’ian women dancing; a closeup of hands working a loom; a woman seated at a loom; and a dancer’s stylized eagle mask from the Pacific Northwest.
See more Folk Artist Spotlights
The board and staff of the Susquehanna Folk Music Society are committed to celebrating and affirming diverse cultures through programming which explores the music, dance, craft and stories of many people. We stand in complete solidarity with the Black community and all marginalized communities to speak out against injustice, bigotry and racial violence.
Narda LeCadre’s hands on a quilt. She is black, and her hands suggest she is an older woman. She is wearing a brown coat with its cuffs turned back, and a rust-colored top. The quilt has blue calico pinwheels.
Sheila Arnold, an older Black woman with very short hair, holds her fingers up in L shapes, like a frame that she is looking through. She smiles as she speaks to her audience.
King Jester is a young Black man, leaning against a wall as he plays a metallic resonator guitar. He wears a gray T-shirt and is looking down at the guitar.
A plate of Vietnamese grilled pork. It is beautifully presented in a whitebowl with pretty chopsticks laid across the rim pf the bowl. The bowl contains a layer of salad greens at the bottom, then a pile of thin white rice noodles, then the pork in red-brown sauce, then a garnish of decoratively-sliced carrot pieces, chopped peanuts, and cauliflower florets.
A Black man stands in the corner of a brick-walled room, playing a banjo and gazing down toward his hands.
IMBA Award winner Tray Wellington takes a forward-looking approach to the banjo, an instrument inextricably linked with the Black experience in America. Tray's innovative music puts the cultural touchpoints of the banjo — so often clichéd, stereotyped and whitewashed — solidly in his rearview mirror. [2024-2025 Concert Series]