ShawneeDispatch.com

Photo by John Beal

Marianne Payette Carter plays to the audience at Shawnee Town during her program, "Americana: Stories Behind Popular Folk Songs." She spoke and performed June 10 as part of the Shawnee Town Speaker Series.

When she was a young girl, Marianne Payette Carter's family listened to swing and old-time music. Today, her fascination with traditional music continues.

The Lawrence resident presented her program, "Americana: Stories Behind Popular Folk Songs" on June 10 as part of the Shawnee Town Speaker Series. About 50 area residents attended the program at Town Hall.

"I was just one of those kids who focused on music," she recalls.

Her continuing fascination with folk music is both professional and academic. A few years ago she received a grant from Kansas University to travel to France to study the music of Brittany, one of the Celtic regions along with Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

"I like traditional music because it has a palpable connection to our heritage - the fact that we are connected to it and vice versa."

A principal theme of her program Tuesday was that American folk music reflects important themes in American history.

For her program, she alternated between the violin and guitar on both instrumental and vocal tunes, starting with Irish tunes "Dennis Murphy's Polka" and "John Ryan's Polka." Then she continued with "The Crawdad Song," "Buffalo Gals," "The Water is Wide," a traditional Irish tune, "The Rattlin' Bog"; "South Wind Waltz" and the Irish "Little Beggar Man," sometimes known in America as "The Red-Headed Boy." She also sang "Oh! Susanna" by Steven Foster and "The Midnight Special" and "Goodnight Irene" by Huddie Ledbetter.

Asked by one of the audience at the end of the program if she had written anything, she performed "Blessing," a song that relates the story of families leaving Ireland in 1845, with its refrain the traditional Irish blessing, "May the road rise up the meet you and the wind be always at your back. May the sun always shine soft and warm on your face until we meet again."

Carter appears as "Matty Stryker" each year at the Renaissance Festival, plus at Shawnee Town's Historical Hauntings and Christmas Around Town. She is a past winner of the Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championship's vocal division, has released two CD's of Celtic music and teaches guitar, voice and violin at her studio in Lawrence. She also is a member of two bands - Voyager, a traditional-rockabilly ensemble, and Rowan, a Celtic group.