Local 1000 AFM

The Traveling Musicians Union

Hospital/Hospice

Annie Patterson

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One of America’s premiere song leaders and co-creator of the songbooks Rise Up Singing and Rise Again, Annie is also an accomplished performer and jazz vocalist. She carries with her a suitcase of incredible song knowledge and a repertoire that includes over 2400 songs from many genres, including Americana, contemporary folk, ballads, gospel, country and jazz.  Annie is a master song interpreter, accompanying herself on guitar and banjo. She loves to collaborate with other artists. Her folk recording, Mountain Side, features Annie’s stunning vocals along with haunting harmonies by the talented voices of Tracy Grammer, Katryna and Nerissa Nields and Mary Witt of the O-Tones.

Annie sings in the swing band Girls From Mars, the acoustic trio Dear Ella, and the Joni Mitchell tribute band Big Yellow Taxi.  She has also toured with well loved folk musicians and union buddies Charlie King, Emma’s Revolution, and Magpie, to name a few.  She is an accomplished side musician as well as solo performer, knows her way around sound (including running hybrid concerts) and has been involved in many studio projects for other musicians, as well as having several records of her own.

“It isn’t enough that Annie Patterson co-edited two of the most popular songbooks in history (Rise Up Singing and Rise Again).  She is also a compelling performer with  a passion for singing songs of hope, love and justice.  She can sing jazz standards or songs from the folk repertoire, with enthusiasm that can make the meekest singer join in on the chorus. Her musicianship, dynamic presence and commitment to making the world better through song ring out with every note she sings.” – Sally Rogers

 “Her stage presence is infectious; she could get a roomful of store mannequins to break out in song.”  – Peter Berryman

Sharon Abreu

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Sharon Abreu (“Ah-BRAY’oo”)

Sharon Abreu is a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, teacher, and student of life. She was singing harmony with her family around the dinner table by the age of 3. Sharon grew up with many musical influences, from classical and opera to Broadway to folk, pop and rock, and she enjoys mixing those up in her concerts. She performs as a solo artist and also as half of the acoustic Irthlingz Duo with her partner Michael Hurwicz. She has performed at venues as diverse as the Northwest Folklife Festival, the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the United Nations.

Sharon was studying classical singing in New York City when she attended a pumpkin festival in the West Village and ended up joining the sponsoring organization, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Through her work with Clearwater, she started using her voice and songs for environmental education and ended up singing in concert with legendary folksinger Pete Seeger.

Sharon has sung lead roles in operas including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute.  She’s been a soloist in performances of major choral works including Bach’s Magnificat and B Minor Mass and Mozart’s Requiem and Vespers. Sharon starred in a sold-out run of the musical The Taffetas at the Orcas Center and in summer stock at the Ferry Terminal in Bellingham, Washington. Sharon has provided music for major international Earth summits at the United Nations in New York and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa. And she was honored to sing for Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai in Berkeley, California in 2006.

In 2007, she prepared New York City high school students to perform her climate change musical revue Penguins on Thin Ice for the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, receiving a standing ovation from a full auditorium of international delegates.

In 2016, Sharon performed her one-woman musical show The Climate Monologues in the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York, and for The MarshStream Theatre Festival online in 2021. She received the “Spirit of Nature, Ecology & Society” Environmental Justice Award for her performance of The Climate Monologues, at the Culture of Climate Change Colloquium at the City University of New York in 2011. Sharon composed and recorded the songs for Zero Waste Washington’s public school education program.

Sharon teaches voice, violin and piano, and she has been the vocal coach for musicals including Billy Elliot and Mamma Mia. For 2-1/2 years, she was a Musician-in-Residence with the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, bringing music and singing to local preschools. She is featured in Professor Mark Pedelty’s books, Ecomusicology (2012) and A Song to Save the Salish Sea: Environmentalist Musicians in the Pacific Northwest (2016).

Sharon has been a member of the Local 1000 North American Traveling Musicians Union, American Federation of Musicians, AFL-CIO since 1997.

Andrew Irwin

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I am a nationally touring storyteller/singer/songwriter.

And a whistler. I rank in the top dozen in The Global Whistling Championships. (Now, can you guess my placement?)

AILEEN VANCE

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Singer. Songwriter. Music Educator. Choir director.  I am especially passionate about music that gets ordinary people singing along.

Faith Nolan

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Faith Nolan singer/songwriter, plays guitar, harp, banjo, ukelele- songs focus on social justice , kids music, LGBTQI- Enviornment-anti racism, anti-capitalism-ani-sexism, anti-homophobia- pro peace , love and joy Heritage – Black-Mi’kmaq-Irish , born in Nova Scotia -have recorded 16 CD’s, original many world languages used in lyrics and lots of blues folk jazz, reggae

FAITH NOLAN

Arthur McGregor

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Arthur performs with The Celtic Rathskallions, a children’s musical theatre, Moore & McGregor, ( recording ‘Dream With Me’ ) a duo with my wife, Wendy, and McGregor and Lindsay with Graham Lindsay along with solo shows with a mix of my songs and others. I ran the Ottawa Folklore Centre for 34 years, and I’m currently the Canadian Vice-president of Local 1000. I’ve played and worked in folk music all my life…so far!

Heather Dale

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Heather Dale’s original Celtic music explores world legends and history. She finds contemporary themes within old material, and fuses folk traditions with blues, jazz, and world music influences. Often compared to Loreena McKennitt and Sarah McLachlan, Dale’s rich vocals are paired with more than a dozen folk instruments in live performances with multi-instrumentalist Ben Deschamps. In her 25+ year career, she’s released 18 studio albums, 5 live albums, 3 songbooks and a full-length musical theatre work based on the King Arthur legend titled “Queens of Avalon.” She and Ben have played 1500+ shows across 3 continents, and together they run the musician-friendly OnlineConcertThing.com music platform. Heather & Ben have been proud Local 1000 members since 2011. 

Beth Cahill

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Beth Cahill is a musical raconteuse with quirky tales to tell. She has found her own, true voice – it can be intimate, explosive, soothing or even forlorn. Her style rises from the broad roots of a cultural tree that spreads its leafy branches high above her Illinois Celtic-ness. It leans casually up against an Americana-esque array of blues, jazz and other traditional influences to come to gracefully rest alongside the river that flows past her Québec home. While she calls Wakefield, Quebec home she tours extensively across North America, both solo and with The Malvinas. She is currently the Secretary Treasurer of Local 1000.

Aaron Fowler

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Aaron has been performing since he was 16. Working alongside several musicians throughout his career he has built a breadth of musical experiences from house concerts to festivals and concert halls. His passion for the music and the power it can have with groups of people is part of why he keeps bringing the music to audiences across the country. Aaron brings a polished fingerstyle and rhythm guitar playing to a warm tenor voice. His songwriting tells the stories of common folks bringing uncommon stories to life. Whether one of the more than 100 songs from rural communities across this country or songs of passion and purpose, Aaron delivers a performance that will move you. As an educator, Aaron began his teaching career in 1984 after he graduated from Friends University in Wichita, KS. Aaron intended to teach a couple of years at the elementary level then move to middle school and then high school and then land a career at the college. Well, part of that became a reality. Aaron taught 2 years at the elementary level and 2 years at the middle school level. The problem is that he stayed another 7 years, teaching middle school for 11 years! Some love middle school kids and Aaron is one of them. It was in 1995 when Aaron decided to pursue songwriting and touring more intentional. Now 32 years later he still loves working in the classroom drawing music and stories out of students. Aaron’s work includes work with the itty-bitty one, birth through 6-year-olds through Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts. As a National Trainer, he loves getting these very young ones finding the music and rhythm inside themselves. Aaron is a Certified National Teaching Artist with Young Audiences in New York and a Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artist with Wolf Trap Early Learning through the Arts in Vienna Virginia. His current home in Wichita, Kansas keeps him connected with Arts Partners Wichita working with students K-12. The work of integrating the arts into science, math and language arts is a wonderful way to inspire kids to use the creative space in their heads to think about the world they live in. In early 2020 Aaron began thinking about how to leave some of the stories he was telling students about Bella and Choco, the two classroom therapy dogs that work with Aaron in the classroom. He came up with the concept of a children’s book about the two adventurous dogs that visited the classroom with him as Therapy dogs. The first book, Being YOU-Neek, was written during the 2020 Pandemic. It became the first book in the series The Adventures of Bella and Choco. This book helps children learn about character traits and a variety of academic lessons. The second book is entitled, The Boat, and is about how all us belong on this great plant we call Mother Earth. The 3rd book will come out in the spring of 2022 and is an Alphabet book highlighting local businesses in Wichita Kansas where Aaron and illustrator Peter Mader live.

Tret Fure

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Tret Fure began her career at the age of 16, singing in coffeehouses and campuses in the Midwest. At 19, she moved to LA in hopes of obtaining a record deal. Within a year she was performing as guitarist and vocalist for Spencer Davis, touring with him and penning the single for his album “Mousetrap”. She went on to record her own album “Tret Fure” in 1973, on MCA/UNI Records, with the late Lowell George of Little Feat as her producer. With the success of that release, she opened for such bands as Yes, Poco, and the J Geils Band.

 

A prolific artist in the contemporary singer-songwriter arena, Tret Fure has released 17 albums and CDs over the course of her 51 year career. In addition to being a gifted songwriter, Fure has engineered and produced countless recordings by a variety of artists, including her own work.

 

In the early 80s, Tret moved to the independent side of the industry discovering the blossoming genre known as Women’s Music. She recorded with and produced some of the best of women’s music including mixing the legendary “Meg & Cris at Carnegie Hall” (1983). She worked as a duo with Cris Williamson throughout the 90s, producing, engineering and releasing 3 CDs together. Now after 9 acoustic releases on her own label, “Tomboy girl Records”, she has re-established herself in the folk world

 

Some highlights from her career include:

 

1990 – Voted both Best Guitarist and Best Engineer in a Reader’s Choice poll in “Hot Wire: The Journal of Women’sMusic & Culture”.

 

2004 – Winner of the South Florida Folk Festival Singer/Songwriter Competition in 2 out of 3 categories, Best Overall and Best Up-Tempo Song.

 

2004 – Winner of the Women in the Arts “Jane Schliessman Award” for Outstanding Contributions to Women’s Music.

 

2009 -Voted “Pride In The Arts” Favorite Female/Lesbian Musician.

 

2009 – Winner of the Women in the Arts “Janine C Rae Award” for the Advancement of Women’s Culture.

 

2011 – Winner of the Women in the Arts “Phyllis Roark Memorial Award” for Philanthropy.

 

2015 – “Rembrandt Afternoons” (2015) was chosen by the acclaimed folk music show ‘Midnight Special’ as their album of the week.

 

2017 – 2nd place winner in the “Musicians United to Protect Bristol Bay” songwriting contest for her song “The Fishermen of Bristol Bay” (2015).

 

2018 – #1 song ”Lessons From Home Plate” from the CD “Roses in November” (2018) for the month of June in the FAI FOLK CHART. 

2020 – 1st place winner in “A Still Small Voice 4U” songwriting competition with her song “Monuments”.

 

2021 – 2nd place winner in “A Still Small Voice 4U” songwriting competition with the song “Louder Than the Guns”.

 

2021 – #1 song “Monuments” from the CD “Stone by Stone” (2020) for the month of February in the FAI FOLK CHART.

 

2021 – #1 song “Roses in November” from the CD “Roses in November” (2018) for the month of November in the FAI FOLK CHART.

 

2021 – #14 Album for the year with “Stone by Stone”.  #9 song for the year with “Monuments” and #25 artist of the year.

 

Wanda A. Fischer from WMAC Northeast Public Radio has this to say, “Roses in November is yet another masterpiece from Tret. Exceptionally crafted songs delivered with passion, conviction and, yes, soul. Tret weaves magic both in the lyrics and between the lines. This will certainly be on my “Best of 2018” list.”

 

In addition to touring and recording, Tret teaches guitar and songwriting individually and in workshop settings. She paints pet portraits on commission and, an accomplished cook, Fure has also published a cookbook, “Tret’s Kitchen”, featuring her own recipes. Along with bridging the marketing, production, music and art worlds, Tret served for 6 years as President of Local 1000, The Traveling Musicians Association–a union geared toward helping traveling musicians find security and longevity. 

Tret is truly a Renaissance Woman!