Work Samples from PFEC YEAR Five
Dear Neighbor Podcast | The College of Saint Rose
Stream all episodes at www.strose.edu/dear-neighbor
Episode 5: Creating the College You Want
Episode 6: Advising Students Every Step of the Way
Episode 7: Creating Community through Storytelling
Episode 8: Direct from the Students, In Conversation with the Black Student Union
Faculty Spotlight | The College of Saint Rose Marketing Department
The Early Mays on NPR’s Mountain Stage, August and October 2022 | Photo by Amos Perrine
The Early Mays | NPR National Broadcast of Mountain Stage, August and October 2022
Sync Placement for The Early Mays | Eventbrite Mountain Stage Documentary, October 2022
431K Views
International Acoustic Music Awards 2023 | Best Group/Duo, The Early Mays
National Folk-DJ Charts, #9 Song
https://www.folkradio.org/chart/july-2022/
The Early Mays | Selection of Album Reviews for “Prettiest Blue” (released July 2022)
Folk Radio UK, Alex Gallacher
The Early Mays are exceptional storytellers, singers and musicians who craft their songs with the utmost care and attention; they’re a joy to listen to.
For Folk’s Sake, Jonathan Frahm
The Early Mays offer an inward-looking, heartfelt approach to Appalachia. Resoratively vintage, their no-frills roots music brings a warmth that is often missed in raucous contemporary releases.
Americana Highways, Gary Schwind
A lot of bluegrass is a showcase for just how fast the players can play. The new EP Prettiest Blue is not like that. It is a collection of songs that showcase songwriting ability over flashy playing. You can’t help but be moved by the melodic arrangements and the harmony vocals.
Melodic Magazine, Christine Sloman
A prime demonstration of revival at its best.
Mother Church Pew
It’s impossible to overlook the care and respect that went in to recording these songs, which are, simply put, timeless.
Adobe and Teardrops, Rachel Cholst
The duo’s newest release, “On a Dying Day,” is haunting and achingly beautiful. The shimmering banjo mimics the waves of Lake Michigan, while an inexorably swelling cello buttresses the narrators’ resolve.
Americana UK
A winning combination of banjo and cello which gives an added depth to a song that feels like it’s a reworked English folksong that’s been in the American tradition for centuries.
The Lift Series, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall | March 2023
Set of original piano songs begins at 29:15
Work Samples from PFEC YEAR Four
Dear Neighbor Podcast | The College of Saint Rose
Stream all episodes at www.strose.edu/dear-neighbor
Episode 1: Creating Community in the Classroom
Episode 2: Finding Our Place on Campus: Before, During and After Quarantine
Episode 3: Conversations About Race, Part 1 | In the Classroom and Beyond
Episode 4: Conversations About Race, Part 2 | Antiracist Teaching Tools
National Release of “Prettiest Blue” | July 1, 2022
Full Audio under PFEC YEAR THREE (below)
Reviews as of May 20, 2022:
The Early Mays are exceptional storytellers, singers and musicians who craft their songs with the utmost care and attention; they’re a joy to listen to. —Alex Gallacher | Folk Radio UK (link to full review)
Crystal-clear voices, stunning harmony lines, spellbinding arrangements, deft instrumental work, and always a tasteful, artful, respectful marriage of aesthetics traditional and innovative—always. The Early Mays are among the ablest and most exciting interpreters of music old and less-old on the folk scene today. Each of the Mays’ recorded efforts has been spectacular, not to be outdone—and then they go and do it again and again, somehow managing to refine their already-perfect sound. More straight-up beautiful music would be tough to find. — Adam Hurt | Award-Winning Old-Time Banjoist, www.adamhurt.com
Album Trailer | May 10, 2022
Holiday Livestream | December 24, 2022
Work Samples from PFEC YEAR THREE
Mastered Tracks from “Prettiest Blue,” upcoming EP from The Early Mays, album release delayed due to COVID
Emily Pinkerton (voice, fiddle, banjo, guitar), Ellen Gozion (voice, banjo, harmonium), Nicole Myers (cello)
Mixed and Mastered at Pyramid Sound Studios in Ithaca, NY
Recorded at Audible Images in Pittsburgh, PA
Samples of Student Work from Canto Rebelde: Songs of Social Movements in Latin America and Black Roots of Country Ensembles | Fall 2020
“Odio” by Puerto Rican Songwriter iLe (Ileana Cabrera)
Xavier Ortiz-Reyes (voice and acoustic effects), Ariana Montero-Acosta (voice), Kyla Silk (voice), Alma González (voice), Ahmeik Robinson (banjo), Aaron Borenstein (bass, saw and sound effects), Emily Pinkerton (voice, guitar, production, editing, rough mix)
Excerpts from “It Ain’t Easier” by Yola, “Roustabout” (trad. from Dink Roberts), and “All I Have to Offer You is Me” by Charlie Pride
Mia Longo (voice), Evan Randall (guitar), Grace Briggs-Neal (bass), David Cuttino (voice), Corinne Pelkie (voice and fiddle), Patrick Hughes (cello), Nick Dwarika (bass), Allison Jones (voice and banjo), Ana Carolina Seixas-Perônico (banjo), Emily Pinkerton (guitar), Eyobed Tadesse (production and rough mix)
Work Samples from PFEC YEAR TWO
SELECTIONS FROM LOOKING FOR VIOLETA
A theatrical work about the life of Chilean musician Violeta Parra
produced by Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA
Emily Pinkerton, composer | María José Galleguillos, playwright
I. Arbol florido | Flowering Tree (She Will Rise)
III. Un pajarito | One Little Bird
XII. La última canción | Violeta’s Last Song (including text from M.J. Galleguillos)
103-year old Nicanor Parra—poet, mathematician, and lifelong atheist—arrives in the afterlife, to his great bewilderment. He finds himself in a large space, criss-crossed with strands of thick, wool yarn, like the material his sister Violeta used to use to create large embroidered tapestries. Hanging on to a single thread, he walks slowly, calling for her in sorrow, asking all the questions that have haunted him since her tragic death fifty years before his.
After Nicanor calls for his lost sister to appear, several figures emerge from giant tapestries that depict musicians and dancers. They are friends and relatives of the Parra family (perhaps memories, perhaps spirits), and join with Nicanor to entice Violeta to reunite with her older brother, and begin a journey back to their childhood years in rural, southern Chile.
This song, from the last part of the play, takes us to the final years of Violeta’s life—the height of her compositional creativity and a period of professional and personal disappointment. Her long relationship with Swiss musician Gilbert Favre begins to unravel, as he travels to Bolivia in search of new artistic frontiers. Violeta’s words show her effort to harness inner strength, but they are tinged with irony. Gilbert’s sung responses reflect the deep, but conflicted, affection he holds for her.
SACAR LA VOZ by Ana Tijoux, Andrés Celis, Jorge Drexler
Recorded remotely by College of Saint Rose “Songwriters of South America” Ensemble during COVID-19 pandemic.
Juliana Castrillón (voice), Emy Díaz (voice), Ce’Nedra Morales (voice), Corinne Pelkie (violin), Ana Carolina Seixas-Peronico (electric bass), Emily Pinkerton (voice and editing), with support from María Carvajal and Kyla Silk.
Mixed and mastered by Sean Wendell