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Folk Artist Fritz Schuler has
been delighting Midwestern audiences with traditional American folk Music
for over thirty years. His performances range from educational to humorous
and are tailor made to fit perfectly into a variety of venues including fine
art series, school programs, historical societies, coffeehouses, banquets,
folk festivals and just about anywhere else a knowledgeable concert of
American music would be appreciated.
Fritz Schuler's performances have
been called "A celebration of American Traditional Music" and rightly so.
Schuler is a music historian, teacher, and performer of American rural folk
music.
The songs that live in Fritz
Schuler's head were written a long, long time ago. They are the soul of the
country, born in the hearts of railroaders, hobos, outlaws, poor dirt farmers
and lonesome cowboys - songs about men and women who lived in tougher times than
these. As a keeper of the flame, Schuler has found the old 78's and listened to
the scratchy sounds of old time jug bands, hillbilly bands, blues singers and
the wandering minstrel poets of the Great Depression. He has spent a great part
of the last thirty years searching out, and learning from, some of the finest
folk performers around and has learned to play country ballads, dulcimer tunes
and banjo breakdowns in the styles of their originators, composers like the
legendary Woody Guthrie, the great blues innovator Blind Willie McTell, and
hillbilly songwriter Charlie Poole who ran moonshine in the mountains of North
Carolina during the 1920's..
In performance, this time capsule
is opened before you, and you'll hear Appalachian ballads, banjo reels, dusty
hobo songs, lonesome black country blues, and much more -- all entertainingly
woven together with background and stories to make history come alive.
WHAT
THEY SAY:
Tom Martin-Erickson founder of Wisconsin Public Radio's Simply Folk
has called him the state's "major link to the folk revival." Bill Rintz,
host of "Folk Festival" on Springfield, Illinois NPR radio Station WUIS says
Schuler is "One of the most versatile performers of American Folk Music in
the Midwest. He puts the lie to the old cliché: he's something of a jack-
of- all trades of American traditional styles, and a master of them as well"
Sing Out! Magazine columnist Dan Keding states: "When Fritz Schuler plays an
old time banjo tune or sings a long forgotten folksong or wraps his fingers
around his guitar to coax out the blues it comes not only from a man who
knows the music, but from one who loves it. Listening to him is always a
pleasure."
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SELECTED
APPEARANCES: Schuler has performed all over the Midwest, at countless
libraries, historical societies, colleges, museums, schools, banquets and
coffeehouses. Taking American Folk Music across the ocean, he was a headline
performer at the 1994 Seafest in Japan. Other notable performances include a
Woody Guthrie tribute with Guthrie's sister, Mary Jo Edgmon. He has also been
featured with the popular touring NPR radio show "Whad 'Ya Know" with
Michael Feldman.
A brief, and very incomplete performance listing include: The
North Country Folk Festival (Ironwood, Mi.); The Clayville Folk Festival
(Springfield, Ill.); The Neville Museum (Green Bay, WI), The
Great River
Traditional Folk Festival (LaCrosse, WI.); The Wisconsin Maritime Museum
(Manitowoc, WI.), The Alder House (Libertyville, Ill.); The 19th Street
Coffeehouse (Milwaukee, WI.); Silver Lake College (Manitowoc, WI), Prairie
Grapevine Folklore Society Concert Series (Springfield, Ill.) The John Michael
Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI.); The Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson, WI.); The
Clipper City Folk Festival (Manitowoc, WI) The Blue Whale Coffeehouse (Green
Bay, WI.); The Illinois Railway Museum (Union, Ill.) The National Railroad
Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin. and many more schools, libraries and colleges
throughout the Midwest.
WORKSHOPS
AND TEACHING:
Schuler has taught folk guitar, banjo and mountain dulcimer
through the University of Wisconsin's Continuing Education program for over 30 years at UW - Fox Valley in Appleton. He has also taught these courses at the UW
Centers in Fond Du Lac, Sheboygan, Green Bay, West
Bend and Manitowoc as well as The Golden Ring in Manitowoc, passing along his
joy of playing to close to 2000 students. He has also taught a Folk Instruments
In the Classroom workshop at Silver Lake College
He has taught mini-courses in the history of American Folk music
at several high schools, in-service programs for teachers, and a master's class
in the History of American Folk Music at the John Michael Kohler Art's Center in
Sheboygan.
He has written several articles on folk music that have been
published in periodicals such as "North Country Folk" and Wisconsin
Maritime Museum's "Anchor News"
RECORDINGS:
His
recordings include a 1981 children's album of folk songs with nine other Midwest
performers called In Came That Rooster and a solo recording called Favorites
He also appears on a live recording from the Clayville Folk Festival called 1987 Clayville Music
Festival and plays accompanying guitar and banjo on recordings by Gerri
Gribi and Jym Mooney. He is currently working on a solo project for CD release.
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