Pumpkintown: Songs, Stories and Magic Lantern Projections From a New England Village

Historic Deerfield musician in residence Tim Eriksen presents “Pumpkintown”, with paintings and projections by Susan Brearey, percussion and sound design by Peter Irvine and live gravestone carving by Allison Steel, unlocking the mysteries of the trunk and the curious multicultural history of the village, a place near to and not unlike Historic Deerfield. “Pumpkintown” offers a fresh take on history and American music, from a region rarely associated with a regional sound: New England (Northern Appalachia?). Beyond the truck stops and broken hearts of “Americana,” “Pumpkintown” reveals a reality that has never been just a faded, black-and-white photograph but evidences a deeply multicultural dynamism where history, imagination, dreams, and genealogies collide. Here, shapenote harmony by the first published Native American composer, fiery fiddle tunes, apocalyptic Afro-Celtic gospel, traditional songs of war, the sea, traveling, tragedy and love, meet original songs that tie it all together as the sound of a place that is at once imagined and deeply true. It’s Americana through the looking glass, where the village may be imaginary but the music is real. For its Historic Deerfield incarnation, “Pumpkintown” takes up the theme of “hauntings and harvest.”