Barb Barton with Rachel Alexander and Terri Stangl
8 p.m. June 23
Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing
855 Grove St. East Lansing
Admission: Suggested donation $8-$20
http://www.barbbarton.com
Barb Barton, a Lansing folk music fave since 1988, recently returned to her adopted hometown and will perform on June 23 at the Unitarian Universalist Church in East Lansing with Rachel Alexander and Terri Stangl.
"I am thrilled to be back in the Lansing area, and in particular this beautiful state," Barton said. "Lansing has strong women's, folk and peace communities, something I found missing in the places I have lived since leaving. While many things have changed structurally about (the) town, most of my old friends and acquaintances are still here."
The out lesbian artist received two of Michigan's most prestigious music awards, the Metro Times Detroit Music Awards Best Vocalist (Folk), and The Metro Area Artists and Songwriters Association Reel to Reel Award for Songwriter of the Year. She also spent three weeks as an Artist in Residency on Isle Royale National Park.
During the 1990s, Barton toured the East Coast and was featured on several radio and television programs, and her music was included in the soundtrack of the documentary "The Journey of the Chandler-Pohrt Collection."
She has three recordings on her own label, one of which includes such musical talent as Michigan favorites Kitty Donohoe and Joel Mabus. Barton returned to Lansing last year after moving to Pennsylvania in 1992 to work for The Nature Conservancy.
"In the Harrisburg/York area, which is where I lived, there were very few places to play and no active community," Barton said. "I can count on one hand the number of musicians I met there."
Barton has been performing in the mid-Michigan area with two other musicians – multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Rachel Alexander and percussionist Terri Stangl. Alexander has been a part of Lansing's music scene since 1986, when she founded Sistrum, the Lansing Women's Chorus, which she directed until 2001. During the past 10 years she has played in three bands – women at play, the Treble Makers, and The Bench – on cello, fiddle, recorders, Melodica, ukulele and vocals.
Alexander holds degrees in cello performance and in choral conducting, and she is Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Church, and Festival Choir director for the Mid-Winter Singing Festival.
Terri Stangl can be heard keeping the beat in the Bay City/Saginaw area band Duality on congas, cajon, and hand percussion. Stangl is also a longtime performer with the Southeast Michigan-based world percussion ensemble, Repercussions.
