Welcome to Episode No. 26 of Local Spins on WYCE: A chat with Carolyn Koebel and Jim Spalink about various musical projects, the Michigan Global Roots Music Festival and more. Check out the podcast, video.
Global Roots Collaborations: Carolyn Koebel, left, and Jim Spalink of An Dro in the WYCE studio.
World-class percussionist Carolyn Koebel of An Dro said the idea for the Michigan Global Roots Music Festival was inspired by “a classic An Dro road trip.”
“We thought we need to work together and collaborate with some other people around the state that are presenting some of the folk styles that are not necessarily based on solely the Appalachian roots, but the global roots nature so you have folk music and indigenous music appearing throughout the world and represented in every cultural tradition,” Koebel said during a Friday interview as part of Local Spins on WYCE, accompanied by bandmate Jim Spalink. “We’ve got a lot of people connected to those roots even here in Michigan.”
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For the second year, folks will get a chance to celebrate some of those world music sounds with Koebel organizing a rotating three-day global roots festival with stops at the end of the month in Lansing, Kalamazoo and, hopefully, the Grand Rapids. (Read more about that next week at Local Spins.)
An Dro, meanwhile, is at work on two new recordings the band expects to release later this year, even as it braces for another busy March and St. Patrick’s Day performances.
The first new An Dro project will be a collection of Spalink’s songs boasting orchestral arrangements that feature “a whole lineup of string players and oboe players and horn players,” Spalink said. “The whole things is grandiose, a pretty ambitious project.” You can hear a track from that upcoming album during the Local Spins on WYCE podcast.
The second An Dro album for 2015 will feature “live, energetic dance tunes versus the contemplative cinematic” tunes that mark the first project, according to Koebel, who recently released her own compilation of various recordings and collaborations in a new retrospective: Collected Works Vol. 3: Collaborations.”
Get more information about both musicians’ endeavors, along with an in-studio performance by the pair (on hurdy gurdy and frame drum) by listening to Episode No. 26 of Local Spins on WYCE here, which also features the airing of tracks by Who Hit John?, Hey Marco!, The Invaders, Another One, Plain Jane Glory, Cameron Blake, Hi-Ker, The Crane Wives, Borns and more.
The Cranes Wives, by the way, are one of several Michigan bands at the Folk Alliance International conference/showcase this weekend in Kansas City: Billy Strings & Don Julin, Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys, The Ragbirds, Red Tail Ring and Laith Al-Saadi are representing the Great Lakes State, even hosting a Michigan room to tout what’s happening here.
CAROLYN KOEBEL & JIM SPALINK ON WYCE
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