Ballads and Crankies

ONE NIGHT ONLY! "Ballads and Crankies: A Night of Traditional Music, Collected Stories, and New Illustrations" combines the talents of old time fiddler Anna Roberts-Gevalt, ballad singer Elizabeth LaPrelle and shadow puppeteer Katherine Fahey. Experience mountain stories and music through the magic of illustrated scrolls called "crankies." Reminiscent of shadow puppetry, these artists bring their stories to life with quilted cloth, ink and linoleum prints, and candlelit paper cuts.

Baltimore artist Katherine Fahey is a shadow puppeteer, singer, and printmaker, whose recent collaborations have brought shadow puppetry to the independent music scene, most notably her music video for music duo Wye Oak.

Anna & Elizabeth, from Virginia, present sparsely arranged ballads, hymns, lullabies and rousing fiddle and banjo tunes that are deeply rooted in the stories and kitchen music of the mountains they call home. They have spent the past year collecting songs and stories of music and the mountains, which they have been sharing across Virginia and the US, recently focusing on the stories and music of ballad singers Addie Graham of East Kentucky and Texas Gladden of Virginia.