Teilhard Frost
SAturday January 25th 2020
A multi-instrumentalist and instrument maker, Teilhard Frost specializes in traditional Appalachian old time music. He was raised on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, spending time with the elder fiddlers in the area. At the age of three he was given a jaw harp and harmonica by his father, and his mother gave him a fiddle and a record of Kentucky fiddle tunes. He has continued to play them all ever since.
Date: Saturday, January 25th 2020, at 8:00pm. (doors open 7:30 pm)
Location: Rosemount Hall, 41 Rosemount Ave. in Ottawa’s Hintonburg neighborhood
Tickets: $22 in advance, $25 at the door. HST included.
Teilhard is best known as 'Sheesham Crow' of the old-time trio Sheesham, Lotus and Son. Along with Sam Allison (Lotus), his longtime bandmate from Flapjack, the two friends, over the past several years have explored playing and recording the old time music of Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley. He and Allison subsequently incorporated Brian Sanderson on Sousaphone into the trio and together, they have released seven albums as Sheesham, Lotus and Son.
Teilhard’s latest solo recording, "As the Crow Flies", is a collection of traditional music found in the Appalachian highlands. The songs have strong ties to the British Isles while the fiddle tunes draw on ancient Scandinavian and northern Scottish modal settings and tunings, conjuring a feeling of mystery and drama. Frost says many of the songs were once heard in Atlantic Canada and the eastern seaboard of the United States, though most are songs directly related to older music found in the British Isles and brought to North America by European and British settlers. Once here, the songs started a new evolution, tucked away in the valleys and highlands, and out at sea and away on the islands, developing a “strong, distinct style of their own.”
“The music I make is some of North America’s traditional folk music,” says Frost. “The fiddle and banjo can be joyous and uplifting, as well as melancholic and blue (and) very dark.”
Currently, he gives lessons on fiddle, harmonica and banjo, and group workshops in hambone, body percussion, and jaw harp. He continues to work in schools introducing the wonderful world of acoustic, non-electric music. He also designs and handcrafts gourd and early era banjos.
With music as his ambassador, Teilhard has toured throughout North America and Europe for over twenty years. His music has taken him as far away as Africa, India and Mongolia, studying and teaching. He lives on Wolfe Island in the St Lawrence River with his partner and their two daughters.
Listen here: