The 2011 recording of Fare Y' Well Sweet Mary, performed live by Dearest Home.  LIsten to an updated version on the EP Songs from Laurel Hill, 2015, and the full album, Back to Laurel Hill. The song was collected from Hannah Gatts Rogers, Indiana County, Pennsylvania by Samuel Bayard .  Mrs. Rogers learned her songs from her mother in West Virginia.  Bayard first collected her music in the thirties, but returned to record her on reel-to-reel tape in the late forties.

15 Fare Y' Well Sweet Mary

Traditional Appalachian ballads from Pennsylvania and West Virginia, in sparkling new arrangements with expressive vocals and richly textured harmonies, from the unpublished Samuel Bayard Folk Song Collection: Dearest Home, authenticity and originality in perfect harmony, tells six fascinating stories in the Appalachian song and ballad tradition. From expressive a cappella to the tasteful backing of concertina, whistle, guitar and bass, Songs from Laurel Hill makes the characters in these traditional tunes live and breathe! Acclaimed folk artist Si Kahn describes Dearest Home's music, "Singing with passion, skill and the resonant matching of voices that seems born in the blood of next-of-kin, Dearest Home presents us with close harmony in many senses of the phrase, on stage and on CD. In their voices, you can hear the peaks and valleys of the landscape, feel the past and future marching together, and sense the shadows of the mountains." 

Chris Barnabei - acoustic bass
Beth Folkemer - guitar, mountain dulcimer, vocals
Margaret Folkemer - penny whistle, vocals
Stephen Folkemer - concertina, vocals

Recorded and Mixed at AMP Studios, McSherrystown, PA by Paul Chiacchierini assisted by Greg Rocca. Mastered at AMP Studios by Dave Bowden


Farewell, Sweet Mary

The Nightingale

Jimmie Judd

Kate And Her Horns

from Songs from Laurel Hill EP. Traditional, arranged Beth B. and Stephen P. Folkemer. Collected by Samuel P. Bayard and Phil R. Jack from Charles S. Brink, near Smicksburg, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.

Edmund In The Lowlands Low

from Songs from Laurel Hill EP, released March, 2015. Traditional, arranged Beth, Margaret and Stephen Folkemer. Collected by Samuel P. Bayard and Phil R. Jack from Charles S. Brink, near Smicksburg, Indiana County, Pennsylvania

Father, Dear Father

Dearest Home's authentic, spirited performance of George F. Root's 1864 version of the "The Battle Cry of Freedom." 

01 The Battle Cry Of Freedom

Gorgeous vocals distinguish this performance of Henry Clay Work's Civil War parlor ballad, which is strikingly relevant to today's soldiers and their families.

10 The Picture On The Wall

Under the Green Willow Tree is an upbeat track featuring a West Virgina version of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows." It was collected from Gusty Gump in the 1930s by Samuel Bayard. Margaret Folkemer: lead vocals, Chuck Krepley: banjo, Stephen Folkemer: backing vocals, concertina; Beth Folkemer: backing vocals, acoustic guitar; Chris Barnabei: acoustic bass

Under The Green Willow Tree

The Spanish Waltz, U.S. Civil War Era waltz, rough mix that was made as we prepared our first album, Dearest War.  Social dancing was exceedingly popular during the 19th century, and continued throughout the US Civil War.

01 The Spanish Waltz, rough mix

Stephen sings "Riding a Raid," an authentic Civil War Era song celebrating Stonewall Jackson and Jeb Stuart. This is a rough mix of a clip from a track on Dearest Home's upcoming CD of authentic Civil War period music. 

Riding a Raid

Expressive vocals with rich, next-of-kin harmonies interweave with sprightly dance tunes, as Dearest Home recreates traditional American music, especially from the US Civil War era (in period costume), and Appalachian music, especially from the Samuel Bayard Folk Song Collection (PA and WV), and including songs from Jean Ritchie, the Carter Family and others. They present a wide variety of workshops, and they delight in playing for dances too! Additionally, they perform related traditional music from Scotland, Ireland and England. Their passion for these traditions shines in every note!
Like the band’s membership, Dearest Home’s music unites the generations! It features rich vocals, fiddle, concertina, guitar, banjo, bass, piano, mountain dulcimer, pennywhistle, flugelhorn, and percussion. 
Dearest Home’s music is featured in an installation of the internationally acclaimed Seminary Ridge Museum (Civil War, “Faith and Freedom”).  They look forward to performing at the Warwick Folk Festival, England, July 2015! Since forming in 2011, Dearest Home has played for venues including the Grand Opening of the Seminary Ridge Museum, Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Greenwood Furnace Folk Gathering, Common Ground on Seminary Ridge, Heart of the Arts Festival, Music Gettysburg!, Waterford Fair, St. Michael’s Soiree, Seminary Ridge Civil War Symposium, the Midtown Scholar, Hauser Estate Winery, Songs and Stories of a Civil War Hospital, Gettysburg College Library, other history-related events, and many other concert series in MD, NY, PA and VA. 
Dearest Home released Songs from Laurel Hill, six tracks from the Samuel Bayard Folksong Collection, in March 2015.  Back to Laurel Hill, their first full volume of treasures from this collection, will be released in October 2015.The band’s CD, Dearest Home, featuring authentic Civil War era music and three tracks of Pennsylvania traditional folk songs, was released on June 30, 2013.  Folk Alliance Triple Crown Winner Si Kahn describes the album:
If ‘home is where the heart is,’ then the singers and musicians who together make up Dearest Home have clearly poured their hearts into their new self-titled album. Deeply steeped in the traditional music of Pennsylvania, my own home state, they have chosen wisely from their wide repertoire of Civil War songs, Appalachian ballads and fiddle tunes.  Singing with passion, skill and the resonant matching of voices that seems born in the blood of next-of-kin, Dearest Home presents us with close harmony in many senses of the phrase, on stage and on CD. In their voices, you can hear the peaks and valleys of the landscape, feel the past and future marching together, and sense the shadows of the mountains.
An EP of other Appalachian music is scheduled for a 2015 release.
Dearest Home is Chris Barnabei, Beth, Margaret and Stephen Folkemer, and Chuck Krepley, with frequent guest appearances by Andrew Rosenfeld and Charles Thompson. They perform together in other groups: Folk and Friends formed in 2000 around the ongoing Stories of a Civil War Hospital series, www.candlelight@christ.org, Celtic band Cormorant’s Fancy, www.cormorantsfancy.com, playing since 2003, and the Schola Cantorum of Gettysburg, www. musicgettysburg.org, a choir focusing on works through the time of Bach.
www.dearesthome.com  	mail@dearesthome.com	717.334.4334 or 717.253.4889

Dearest Home

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