Sunday, April 7 – Union County
The Union Township Historical Society will host Michael Gabriele on Sunday, April 7, at 2 pm for a program on his book New Jersey Folk Revival Music – History and Tradition. The event will be held at Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church, 888 Stuyvesant Avenue, Union. The presentation will include a short live-music segment and a book-signing. Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted. Refreshments will be served.
The book, published by Arcadia Publishing/The History Press, is a narrative on the evolution, traditions, and history of folk revival music in our state. Beginning with tavern revelers and fiddle players in the 1700s, the story moves to the “Guitar Mania” of the mid-1800s; to monumental recordings made at Victor studios in Camden in the early 1900s; to legendary artists, such as Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan; to the achievements of world-class New Jersey musicians.
The book provides extensive information on the acoustic sounds of the Pine Barrens. Sammy Giberson, the legendary fiddler of the mid-1800s; the Pinehawkers at the 1941 National Folk Festival; the Albert brother’s “beloved Homeplace” cabin in the Waretown woods, which served as the inspiration for today’s Albert Hall; and the exploits of Merce Ridgway, Jr., are included in the Pine Barrens tales.
Folk revival music is a “living history” that builds on traditions, dating back over 300 years. The book documents New Jersey's vast contributions to the musical genre and examines the effect of folk revival music on local history and culture, as well as how it has changed lives—of the performers and the audience.
This is Gabriele’s third book on Garden State history. He recently was installed as a trustee for the NJ Folk Festival. A lifelong New Jersey resident, Gabriele graduated from Montclair State University in 1975 and has worked as a journalist and freelance writer for four decades. He’s a trustee of the NJ Folk Festival, Rutgers University; the executive board of the Nutley Historical Society; and serves on the advisory board of the Clifton Arts Center.
For more information on the presentation, please visit the UTHS website,www.unionnjhistory.com, or call 908-591-4377. 
