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Masha Goodman Crawford
Originally from Chicago, Masha learned to play banjo,
tinwhistle, and buckdance primarily through her involvement with the
Chicago Barn Dance Company. The barndance
regulars included a pool of incredibly talented folks including Mark Gunther,
Mark Ritchie, Fred Feild, Brad Leftwich, John Lilly, Lynn "Chirps" Smith, Steve Rosen, Tony Scarambolo, Kathy Hirsch, and others. They provided the
music while
Masha was the main caller for the
CBDC, from around 1979-1982. She led traditional square and contra dances, and taught
buckdancing and clogging at Hogeye Music in Evanston, IL.
She toured the eastern US calling dances and visiting traditional dance communities, learning
dance styles and steps and calls, many from the older dancers in their 70's and 80's.
Masha has called barn dances for many,
many groups, including the Chicago Folk Festival, Fox Valley Folklore Society,
Wheatlands Folk Festival, Rockwell International, Duneland Folk Festival, WBBM television, ....(and loads more that I can't remember right now).
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| In 1982, Masha moved to Bloomington, IN
to enter the Masters program in folklore at Indiana U....but first
she went on tour to England and Ireland. She called dances with the London Barn Dance Company,
at the Eastbourne Folk Festival, Cheddar Folk Festival, and the Dun Laoghaire Fraochan Festival with Dublin band
Fire Hose Reel.
The two month tour turned into 14 years, and she spent much of it playing banjo
and whistle, performing throughout
Portugal, Ireland, and England, all while living
and travelling in a traditional horse-drawn Gypsy bowtop wagon.
In 1996 or thereabouts she moved to California, where she now lives with her two children,
in a tiny rural community in the foothills of the
Sierra Nevada. There, in a county with a total population of about 38,000, (fewer than 60 people
per square mile), she met an old-time fiddler living just up the road. Beautiful music ensued,
and Geff and Masha are now very, very happily married!
Masha is a web developer by day, and plays music, sings, and dances
with several California groups, including Old Soles, Orange Possum Special and
occassionally as a special guest with Faux Renwah.
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She is a regular performer in the "Winter Night's Yeow!" tour,
and at the Strawberry Music Festival on the
edge of Yosemite, where she calls the bi-annual Barn Dance without a Barn.
Masha and Geff are available for concerts, parties, dances, school programs, and pretty much
any excuse they can find to play tunes!
Click here for Geff Crawford's bio
Click here for John Hoffman's bio
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