I’ve taught individuals and groups, kids and adults. I teach mandolin through Blackbird Music in Minneapolis as well as with remote learning tools. Drop a note and I can tailor this show specifically to your topic, class, or audience. I can teach to Minnesota State Educational Standards and I can even develop lesson plans with enough lead time. It’s not a show it’s a group activity and your audience will be there to participate and learn something. I’ve taught history to 3rd-6th grade classes up in the Roseau area, I’ve organized square dances, and I’ve taught summer camp kids how to sing rounds and play kazoo. Music will always feature in this program but it might not be the main feature. Whether it’s a night of storytelling, a group class teaching music or dance, or participating in summer camps throughout the region, I believe that the old stories and the old songs can bring people together. There’s no better way to meet your neighbor. And if there’s enough room, we’ll have ourselves a little bit of dancing like people did long ago. You will all be smiling, tapping your feet, or clapping, I guarantee it. You might learn to speak a few words of Ojibwe. You might all wind up becoming voyageurs together singing a paddling song in French. Come to a Skally Line show and we’ll time-travel together to strange corners of Minnesota and meet long lost ancestors.

This is the main combination of everything that I do. The Skally Line is Fred Keller and Bill Cagley and guests if need be. Traveling the Deep North via music and stories: Check out this short clip to see what it looks like! Here Are The Programs!Įach of these programs can be tailored to meet specific needs so don’t feel constrained. You get a teacher and an organizer and an instigator! You get a performer who guides you through the Deep North: The old pineries, the trading posts, the portages, the camps and the settlements. You get a performer who soaks up local stories-interviews, museums, books-and connects you to a Minnesota long past but not entirely lost. I’ve played all over the Upper Midwest and Saskatchewan you can check out my bio here.Ĭombine these two passions and you get a performer who loves writing songs about history. I’m also a professional musician with close to thirty years of experience, steeped in the traditions of Irish, Early American, blues, Tin Pan Alley and ragtime music. I’m a historian with a passion for Minnesota history and local stories. Well, I play mandolin, sing, and tell stories about the Deep North, past and present. They were receptive to a wide variety of songs and music priding themselves on their range, versatility, and capacity to pick up a tune.” ( Songsters and Saints, Paul Oliver, p221) Here’s What I Do “Songsters were entertainers, providing music for every kind of social occasion in the decades before phonographs and radio.

Songsters and Saints by Paul Oliver