Several gigs have been added to the Black Brothers 2012 schedule, both as the Black Brothers, some solo gigs and with the Black Family.

The new Freight and Salvage singing class "Expand your Folk Song Repertoire" starts next Monday January 9, 2012 at their downtown venue in Berkeley, CA, and goes for six weeks. There is a week break when Shay goes on the Folk 'N Irish cruise with The Black Family.

Shay will teach four to six songs per class, with a later focus on singing alone, performing in front of people, singing in a session, and other subjects that students feel are important. If you like you may bring a recording device to help memorize melody. However, both lyrics and music will be posted weekly on The Freight website, so you can access the music throughout the course. Shay will provide the lyrics......lots of them!

The songs are mainly from Ireland and the Irish diaspora. Other songs come from the Scottish, English and sea music traditions. Everyone will be learning songs on a line-by-line basis, and then the class members sing the song together. There is no pressure in this class, just the joy of singing with others, and learning lots of songs.

Shay will call on his extensive knowledge of the Irish, English, Scottish, and other folk traditions to pull new songs up and his teaching style is through learning by repetition, so no background knowledge of music theory is necessary. "If you can hum it, you can sing it."

Website: www.freightandsalvage.org/folk-song-repertoire-shay-black

Please pass this information on to friends/family. And if they can't make it on Monday, drop Shay a line at Shay_Black@Hotmail.com and he will let people know when the next class starts.