Please note that the kick-off for the Folk Dance Season will be on Saturday, October 9 to coincide with Fortune Lake Fall Fiesta. Activities begin on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. with a quilt auction, chili cook-off, country market, pontoon rides, children’s activities, musician’s jam session (1-3 PM, bring your instruments), cook-out supper, and then the Folk Dance that starts with a concert at 4 PM with White Water and Joel Mabus. Joel Mabus is a maverick in the folk music world. He defies any easy pigeonhole. By turns, he picks a mountain banjo to accompany an ancient ballad, sings a witty song about modern life, plays a sweet Irish melody on guitar, swings a hot jazz number, and then reaches deep for a soulful expression of values in a troubled world. He tops it all with a fiddle tune or old Carter family song—all skillfully blended into a seamless flow. One fan said, “Its music from the heart that hits you right between the eyes.” A mainstay on the folk circuit these past 30 years, Joel has 20 albums to his credit; the latest is “No Worries Now.” Joel’s website is www.joelmabus.com.

Born in Ennis, County Clare, along Ireland’s music-rich west coast, Gerry O’Beirne is a renowned singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (6 and 12 string guitar, tiple, and ukulele, slide guitar among others). Gerry’s own compositions blend the passion found in traditional music with the freshness of contemporary song. Gerry has toured the globe as a solo artist and with the Sharon Shannon Band, Patrick Street, Midnight Well, Andy M. Stewart, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, and the Waterboys. He has performed at the White House, opened for the Grateful Dead, and played electric guitar with Marianne Faithfull. He composed and recorded the score to River of Dreams, an artistic response to the River Shannon commissioned by the Irish Department of Arts and Heritage, and he has written music for film and theater. Gerry has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. His performance of Western Highway was chosen as an audio highlight on A Prairie Home Companion’s website. Visit Gerry’s website at: www.gerryobeirne.com.

Hailing from the directional extremes of Michigan’s two peninsulas (lower and upper), Michael Beauchamp and Laurel Premo come together to form Red Tail Ring, a duo with roots firmly planted in Appalachian old time and folk music, and branches reaching out to forge new arrangements complete with haunting harmonies and an expansive dynamic range (www.redtailring.com). Laurel is familiar to the Second Sunday stage as part of the family band White Water and has two solo albums “Innertwine” and “Stung by the Nettle” Laurel’s websites are www.laurelpremo.com and www.myspace.com/laurelpremo. Michael Beauchamp is a native of Kalamazoo. With his powerful voice and mournful guitar licks, he spins beautifully melodic yarns about lost love, discovery, and the playful allure of live music. He is part of the vibrant and growing Michigan music scene as a member of the Earthwork Music Collective, whose members helped him produce his debut solo album, “My Northern Voices,” released in 2008. Find Michael at www.myspace.com/michaelbeauchampmusic.

Bryan Bowers is a master autoharp player and traditional songster and has been a major presence on the North American folk music scene since the mid - 1960s. He is a powerful singer and a gifted performer and is a returning favorite to the Second Sunday Folk Dance stage. For nearly three decades, Bryan Bowers has been to the autoharp what Earl Scruggs was to the five-string banjo. He presents instrumental virtuosity combined with warmth, eloquence, expression and professionalism. Bowers has been described by the Houston Post as one of the finest all-around entertainers on the folk and bluegrass circuit and a person who is a national treasure. Bryan’s website is www.bryanbowers.com.

Now living in Wisconsin, guitarist LJ Booth has been a traveler —playing clubs (from Boston to Austin) and festivals (including Falcon Ridge, Edmonton, Kerrville, Telluride and the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest) — building a stage presence that has become his trademark. He entered three songwriting “competitions”…Kerrville’s New Folk, Telluride’s Troubadour, and Falcon Ridge’s Showcase…and won all three. ACOUSTIC GUITAR stated, “this gifted singer-songwriter skillfully connects the dots between his own past, present and future with succinct, often powerful lyrics, appealing melodies and agile fingerpicking….his keen fascination with life’s journey draws listeners closer to the memories and revelations that make it worth traveling.” Musician John McCutcheon says, “Few songwriters I know are as musical, literate and elegant.” His website is www.ljbooth.com.

Stas Venglevski and Misha Litvin are virtuosos of classical, contemporary, ethnic and original music. A native of the Republic of Moldova, Stas plays the Bayan, a Russian accordion; he studied under the Russian bayanist Friedrich Lips at the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. He's toured throughout the former Soviet Union, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s performed with Doc Severinsen, Steve Allen and with Garrison Keillor. Misha Litvin is a mandolinist and master of the Domro (a Russian mandolin). Originally from Minsk, Belarus, Misha now teaches at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and is a featured soloist with the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra. He has performed with chamber orchestras in Russia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, France and the United States. Hear their music at www.stasv.com and www.cdbaby.com/cd/venglevski6.

A stunning soprano tone has made Anne Hills one of contemporary music’s premier vocalists. But her affinity for choosing unforgettable material and her knack for writing heartfelt original songs have brought her to the upper echelon of her craft. Hills grew up in Michigan and studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and co-founded and recorded on the Hogeye record label (before being bought out by Flying Fish Records in the mid-1980s). Along the way Anne has worked with Tom Paxton and Bob Gibson, Cindy Mangsen and Priscilla Herdman, and she contributed renditions to tribute albums for Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs. The 2000s saw her collaborating with Tom Paxton and singing with Steve Gillette, Mangsen, and Michael Peter Smith. Anne lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and is married to Mark Moss, editor of Sing Out! Her website is www.annehills.com.