PORT HADLOCK — Musician and historian Hank Cramer will tell how such folk songs as “The Foggy Dew” evolved during a Humanities Washington lecture at the Jefferson County Library on Oct. 18.
The free presentation, “The Seven Tongues of Flame: Ireland’s Easter Rebellion of 1916,” will be at 6:30 p.m. at the library at 620 Cedar Ave.
Cramer will explain why this one, out of the many rebellions during the five centuries that Ireland was controlled by the British Empire, succeeded.
Weaving music and history into his presentation, Cramer will explain how poets, singers and writers — on a Christian holiday symbolic of rebirth — led this particular rebellion to liberate Dublin.
After 500 years of English rule, their efforts inflamed the passions of the Irish people, successfully leading to independence in 1921. The victory was later commemorated in the popular ballad “The Foggy Dew.”
Cramer will provide insight into the “folk process” by which such traditional songs evolved.
As a vocalist and guitarist, Cramer has built a repertoire of more than 1,000 modern and traditional folk songs.
He holds a history degree from the University of Arizona. He has released several albums of music and earned accolades from public radio affiliates spanning the Pacific Northwest, Texas and the Midwest. Cramer lives in Winthrop.
The lecture is co-sponsored by Humanities Washington, a state nonprofit for promoting and providing programs based in the humanities.
For more information, see www.jclibrary.info or call 360-385-6544.
