The Friends of the Seaside Library welcome folksinger, storyteller, and autoharp virtuoso, Adam Miller, on Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
In this program, folksinger Adam Miller performs authentic 18th and 19th century songs of the Great American Railroad.
He will chronicle the exploits of the hardworking folks who changed our nation through song and the spoken word. The audience is encouraged to sing-along to these American classics.
In July of 1869, weeks after the first American transcontinental railroad was completed, you could travel from New York to San Francisco in seven days (including stops) for as little as $65. By 1870, 250,000 miles of parallel steel rails crisscrossed the USA. By 1920, one out of every 28 Americans worked for the railroad.
As 19th-century America expanded, so too did the "ribbons of iron" that criss-crossed the vast landscape and sparked the imagination of music-makers. Work songs, ballads recounting riveting exploits, and instrumental echoes of the once familiar sounds of the steam locomotive have enshrined the railroad in our musical memory.
It's hard to imagine folk music, trains, and railroads existing in this country without one another. Countless folksingers—both famous and completely unknown—made their way around the country by train. This includes big names like Woody Guthrie, Utah Phillips, and Bob Dylan.
Some of the greatest American folk songs of all time can be traced back to the building of the railroads, the advent of train travel, and, of course, riding the rails during the Depression. It was at that time when working class men and immigrants (and folksingers) traveled on trains in search of work and a better way of life.
One of the premier autoharpists in the world, Adam Miller is a renowned American folksinger and natural-born storyteller. An accomplished folklorist, historian, musicologist, and song collector, he has amassed a remarkable repertoire of over 5,000 songs.
Miller accompanies his rich, resonant baritone voice with lively finger-picking acoustic guitar and stunningly beautiful autoharp melodies.
A masterful entertainer who never fails to get his audience singing along, he has distinguished himself as one of the great interpreters of American folktales and folksongs for all ages.
Traveling 70,000 miles each year, this 21st-century troubadour has performed in concert halls from the Everglades to the Arctic Circle. Over 1,000,000 students have attended his “Singing Through History” school assembly programs. Pete Daigle, editor of Seattle’s Autoharp Quarterly magazine, calls him “the busiest autoharp player on the planet.”
Miller has recorded six CDs that receive airplay across North America and Europe.
When he is not on the road, Adam calls Drain, Oregon home.