North American Guest of Honour:
Sam Baardman

Sam Baardman is a veteran of the Canadian prairie music scene. At home in a variety of folk settings, he is a versatile and gifted instrumentalist, songwriter and lyricist. His original music ranges from the socially-conscious to the deeply personal with songs that are lyrically rich, penetrating and perceptive. 1812Tone will be doubly blessed to have Sam's partner Susan Israel (a fine Celtic fiddler) accompanying him.

Sam has been playing music in Winnipeg since the early '80s. His first encounter with folk and roots rock goes back to days playing with the six-piece acoustic powerhouse Soft Parade. It was with Soft Parade that he began writing songs and got his first taste of the recording studio. He has spent his time as a front man for the Celtic rock group The Dust Rhinos which is a forceful blend of Celtic music and folk rock to appreciative audiences across Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan. Sam's cds, Kicking The Stone and The Rookery, are filled with great music and are considered worthy additions to anyone's listening library.

For most of the '90s, Sam taught language and literacy at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. In the summer of 1999, he was in the final stage of a Ph.D. Program in Rhetoric and Education when, in a fit of good sense, he withdrew. A month later, he called home from his hotel room in the middle of Ontario's Summerfolk Festival to resign his teaching posts. He toured across the country, having traded a promising career as an academic for a promising career as a folk artist. He has spent the last many years working in the upper echelons of the prestigious Winnipeg Folk Festival.

We Yanks have Dave Clement to thank for our introduction to this fine fellow and talented Canadian singer/songwriter. We're thrilled to introduce him to a whole new audience.

UK Guest of Honour:
Mich Sampson

Mich Sampson is one of the most talented and versatile singer/songwriters to ever find the filk music scene. As well as performing solo, Mich plays piano for and sings with a number of musical groups including the n'Early Music Consort and concerts organized by the Jewish Music Institute. There is a whole n'uther side to Mich that pops out when she plays with Rachel Shurmer, Talis Kimberley, and Marilisa Valtazanou as Divine Strumpet. Mich's songs have been nominated for a Pegasus Award and SAMs. She won a SAM for her wonderful song The Hunter.  Mich Sampson is a witty and delightful performer, who has been GoH at GAFilk where she represented the United Kingdom with verve and glee. Everyone has a better time when Mich is around!

12-Tone Technique bases the melodies and harmonies of a piece
on an ordering of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale.
The 12 tones of an octave are not centered around any single tone,
but are united by the composer's selected order of tones for a given composition.
This technique represented a clear break with the harmonic formulas of music
that had been developed during the 18th and 19th centuries.