I’m happy to be making a return trip to Newark NY on the old Erie Canal for lecture/concert celebrating the bicentennial of the first “dig,” presented by the Newark-Arcadia Historical Society and funded through Humanities NY and their wonderful Public Scholars program.
Here’s a description of the concert…
Dave Ruch has spent the last fifteen years searching for Erie Canal music beyond the grade-school favorite “Low Bridge, Everybody Down,” and among other things, discovered that America’s favorite Erie Canal song was never sung on the canal!
In this lecture/concert, Ruch presents music from canal diggers, barge workers, immigrants, lake sailors, mule drivers, canal boat captains, and yes, professional songwriters who all contributed to the musical and cultural life surrounding the canal. With banjo, bones, spoons, washboard, jaw harp, mandolin and more, Ruch presents a highly engaging program of stories, music, history and anecdotes about life on “Clinton’s Ditch,” and the importance of the Erie Canal to the growth of New York City and the nation.