Programs

Great Lakes Ghosts
Lighthouse Legends
The Christmas Ship Concert
Sea Shanty Workshops
A Concert of Irish Music
Folk Songs of the Great Lakes Region

Great Lakes Ghosts

A narrated concert featuring songs of supernatural legends and spooky tales from Great Lakes lore. The perfect fall concert for libraries and museums.

Lighthouse Legends

Like the great castles of Europe, there is an aura of mystery and romance surrounding the lighthouses on the inland seas. Lee's songs and stories share the tragedy and the heroics, the isolation and the beauty of lighthouse lore and the life saving service.

The Christmas Ship Concert

A holiday concert commemorating the turn of the century tradition of carrying Christmas trees to Great Lakes port cities during the days of sail on the Great Lakes. At the end of the lumber season every year, Great Lakes Captains would carry one final cargo, heralding the holiday season with a deck piled high with fresh-cut evergreen trees and garlands.

Lee Murdock has written a very popular song about one of the more famous of these ships, The Rouse Simmons.

An annual tradition, this holiday concert is offered as a major concert in the Chicago area every year, on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. The Christmas Ship Concert is also available for touring in November and December, celebrating the maritime aspects of Great Lakes heritage.

Sea Shanty Workshops

Experience the work songs as they were adapted by sailors who worked on Great Lakes vessels. An opportunity for everyone to join in song, and to feel the work that was facilitated by these call-and-response songs. (These workshops have been especially popular for students studying local history – usually at the third grade or fourth grade level, depending upon your states' curriculum).

A Concert of Irish Music

Best-known for his interpretations of Great Lakes maritime songs, Murdock has also spent many years researching and performing songs from Ireland. In fact, Murdock's musical influences span over five centuries, from ancient Celtic harp melodies to piano rags written by the likes of Scott Joplin, to more contemporary American music.

Songs of the Irish immigrants who settled in Chicago and the midwest will be included in the concert, including an anthem honoring the Irish laborers who built the Illinois and Michigan Canal (and Erie Canal), and those who settled on Michigan's Beaver Island. Murdock will round out the program with some boisterous pub songs for all to join in, alongside some sweet ballads from the Emerald Isle.

Folk Songs of the Great Lakes Region

For community audiences, no two shows are alike. Lee continually adapts his show to reflect the unique circumstances of his audience, venue and occasion. In concert, Lee's stories provide a context for the songs, explaining a bit of jargon here, and providing little-known background information there, to deepen the understanding and appreciation of that which he sings--for audiences of all ages.

“Lee Murdock deserves a place with other great singers of folk songs for children such as Pete Seeger, Tom Glazer and Ella Jenkins."

School Library Journal

As a school assembly performance, Folk Songs of the Great Lakes Region brings history to life in a very entertaining style, as he tells the stories, in song, of the brave pioneering spirit of the people who settled the Great Lakes and the Midwest.

This 50 minute educational presentation can be adapted for school assembly programs at the elementary or middle school levels. The Program traces the history of the settlement of the Great Lakes region, including both maritime history and songs and stories about the people who settle on the Great Lakes shores. Includes songs from farming, lumber trades, shipping, building of the canals, women's roles, family life, legends and heroes.

Some of the songs are well over 100 years old, but Lee's fresh new arrangements reach across the years to provide a living link with the heritage of the Inland Seas.

"As a singer, instrumentalist and historian Lee offers a presentation that is one of the best examples of interdisciplinary education I’ve seen."

Mr. Bernie Looney, Asst Superintendent for Human Resources,
Kaneland Community Unit School District 302 Illinois

Not all of the songs are old songs, of course. Folk music is a living, ongoing process which takes place wherever people sing and write about their most essential human feelings and beliefs. In Lee's performances, traditional songs are complemented by the works of contemporary folk writers and by Murdock's own finely-crafted historical ballads.

Research on these songs and stories comes from many sources: books and recordings, stories collected from family members and older adults, historical society records and museum archives. Murdock's outstanding musicianship, combined with his knowledge of and enthusiasm for his subject, will make this a memorable educational experience for children at all grade levels.

Now! every in-school assembly performance by Lee Murdock includes one
free copy of the songbook Lake Rhymes, the study guide for this educational performance! School Fees start at $350 for one 50 minute presentation, or $550 for two performances in a half day, travel included. See the booking page for more information.

“Thank you for coming to Lincoln Junior High School. You have brought a whole new different image of folk music to me. I think that it is pretty catchy music … The day after you came to my school I got that Erie Canal song stuck in my head and all I could think about was traveling sixteen miles on the Erie Canal."

Matt L, 7th grade