DAVID HB DRAKE

Public Presentations:

Schooner Songbag
David HB Drake's performance brings nineteenth-century Great Lakes sailors to life. Based on the 1850s diary of William Hulme, Drake portrays a salt water seaman working on the Lakes. Through songs, stories, and firsthand insights drawn from his years of working aboard tall ships, Drake regularly performs this piece as shantyman and educator/historian aboard Wisconsin's flagship, the schooner "Denis Sullivan." His performance includes historic Great Lakes songs on concertina, banjo, guitar, dulcimer, and Native American flute.

Wiscon-sing
In this multimedia program, David HB Drake presents Wisconsin's vibrant history with music and theatrics enhanced with over 100 historic and scenic slides. Through song, the audience will learn about Native Americans, European immigration, lumberjacks, Great Lakes sailors, and farmers. To give the music an authentic flavor, Drake plays handmade and historic instruments, including the Indian courting flute, mountain banjo, dulcimer, and concertina. He presented this program over 300 times during the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial.

Gather by the Waters
"Gather by the Waters" is a multimedia program created for the Wisconsin Lake Schooner Project and Wisconsin flagship Denis Sullivan as an outreach program introducing the history of the Great Lakes and immigration to these shores. From the days of glaciers to our modern ports, these songs flow like our rivers through time. Songs in seven different languages about the people who came to populate the western shores of Lake Michigan present a multicultural view of our forefathers. Slides and songs teach us that we are "all in the same boat".
 
(Wiscon-Sing and Gather by the Waters available on VHS video and CD)

Other Public Program Ideas: David HB Drake is also available for informal programs at elder centers, libraries, schools and community festivals, and events presenting "Potluck" family sing-along programs in the tradition of his mentor Pete Seeger, workshops on Wisconsin history and the Great Lakes, songwriting, and is open to ideas and suggestions for presentations specially tailored to the sponsor. For a complete list of Drake's programs, calendar, recordings, or to listen to audio samples, visit www.davidhbdrake.com.