Since 1953, Joe Hickerson has performed over 1000 times at concerts, festivals coffeehouses, folk clubs and societies, colleges and universities, community groups, and radio programs (including “A Prairie Home Companion” in 1976) throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Finland and the Ukraine. He has been referred to as the “folksinger’s folksinger.” Pete Seeger has called him “a great songleader.” His wide ranging repertoire of English-language songs and ballads includes occupational and labor songs, children's songs, humorous songs and parodies, Irish-American songs, sea songs, religious songs and chorus songs which he sings with guitar and unaccompanied. Although he is not known as a songwriter, Joe is the author of the 4th and 5th verses of “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”(in 1960).

In 1963, Joe was appointed Reference Librarian and in 1974, head of the Archive of Folk Song (later called the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress) while there he directed an intern program and compiled and edited numerous reference and finding aids. He retired from that position in 1998 after 35 years of service. One of the founding members of Folklore Society of Greater Washington(1964), Hickerson has been it’s President, Program Chair, and Book Review Editor. He has also served as Bibliographer (for 22 years) and secretary for (8 years) of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Chair of the Committee on Archiving of the American Folklore Society, and on the advisory boards of Sing-Out!, John Edwards Memorial Foundation and Foxfire. Joe received the Southeastern Massachusetts University Eisteddfod Award in 1973, was Special Honoree at the 1986 Summer Solstice Dulcimer and Traditional Music and Dance Festival, and was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1999 New Jersey Folk Festival.

Presently, besides presenting concerts, Joe frequently lectures on such topics as “Treasures from the National Folk Archive” and “The History of Folksong Collecting and Archiving in the U.S.,” The Folksong Revival,” and “Folksongs of Washington DC.

And Guest:   Reed Martin

The old time banjo world is a divided one with devotees of the Round Peak style in one corner, Galaxers in another (nearby) corner, Hammonds family followers (WV) holding their ground, melodic players and many others hunkered down defending their turf and defining everyone by their own parochial picking pecking order. Reed Martin is one of the few players who seems capable of crossing these borders unmolested and leaving a trail of dropped jaws and incredulous stares in his wake. Though his style is distinct and does not follow the tenets of any single area or group, his experience and firsthand knowledge of the old players that are the godheads of the old time faithful, and the undeniable truth that lies at the heart of his music seem to make him welcome in most camps and an honored and perhaps revered character in many.