Atwater-Donnelly is a Rhode Island folk music group consisting of Aubrey Atwater, Elwood Donnelly, and occasionally other musicians and dancers. They have toured throughout the United States and internationally, playing guitar, banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, tin whistle, limberjack, and other instruments. In recent years, they have also performed as The Atwater-Donnelly Trio, with Cathy Clasper-Torch.
Aubrey and Elwood met as volunteers at the [http://www.soup.org Stone Soup] coffeehouse in Rhode Island in early 1987, and started playing together a few months later. They specialize in traditional American music and Celtic folk music, but write and play their own songs as well. Their performances have been featured on All Songs Considered and Fiona Ritchie's "The Thistle & Shamrock" on public radio. Aubrey regularly runs workshops at places like the John C. Campbell Folk School, as well as performing and teaching her own unique blend of clogging and flat-footing dance, derived mainly from dance steps learned in Appalachia and the southeast U.S.
They were one of the earlier groups to be on the web, after one of their fans worked with Aubrey to put a site up in 1995.[cite newsgroup ]
title = PERSONAL: Vulcan Space Central/Atwater-Donnelly/Brown Alums
author = Garrett Fitzgerald
date = April 12, 1995
newsgroup = comp.infosystems.www.announce
id = D6y1Bp.8nu@midway.uchicago.edu
url = http://groups.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.www.announce/msg/aaba9dd3a8ccf705
accessdate = 2007-06-22 ] They have released 10 albums, several books of poetry, and two songbooks.
Albums
Atwater-Donnelly
* "Labor and Love" (1988)
* "Culled from the Garden" (1991)
* "Like the Willow Tree" (1994)
* "Where the Wild Birds Do Whistle" (1997)
* "And Then I'm Going Home: Atwater-Donnelly Live" (2001)
* "The Blackest Crow" (2004)
* "When Winter Calls" (2005)
* "The Halfway Ground" (2007) (with Cathy Clasper-Torch, Heidi Cerrigione, John Cerrigione, Uriah Donnelly, and Kevin Doyle)
Atwater solo
* "Simple Sentences" (1992)
* "Daily Growing: Aubrey Atwater Live in the Classroom" (1999)
DVD
* "Going Up Home: The Passion of Atwater-Donnelly" (2007)
** This documentary was written and directed by Aubrey and Elwood's youngest son, Uriah. It explores their biographies and shows their effect on others.
External links
* [http://atwater-donnelly.com/ Atwater-Donnelly home page]
* [http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc61/index.html All Songs Considered archive page]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hy61mpvd9f8o~T00 AllMusic.com page]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=lyDKN5md8mA Jerimoth Hill - Going Up Home] - photo and video montage from the recording of "The Halfway Ground" and its release concert
References
