Roots Music Stomp Brings America’s Musical Traditions Together With Erica Weiss

Roots Music Stomp Brings America’s Musical Traditions Together With Erica Weiss Sunday, Sept. 27, for an evening that can move from an Appalachian fiddle tune to Louisiana Cajun music, Balkan singing, and an original song without ever leaving the UNITED’s Gallery Events Space.

The September edition of the monthly series pairs host Craig Edwards with Erica Weiss, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, teacher and dance caller whose musical world crosses traditions that are often separated into different genres.

Weiss plays fiddle, guitar and bass, sings and performs Appalachian old-time string band music, Cajun and Zydeco, Balkan vocal music and her own songs.

That range makes her particularly well suited to Roots Music Stomp.

The series isn’t designed as a conventional concert where a touring artist arrives, plays a prepared set and leaves. Instead, Edwards invites musicians steeped in traditional styles to play together while exploring where the music came from, how it traveled and why seemingly different American musical traditions frequently turn out to be related.

Part Concert, Part Musical Conversation

Roots Music Stomp has been described as something approaching a live musical podcast.

There is performance, but conversation and musical history are part of the experience.

Edwards and his guest can play a tune, talk about the tradition behind it and then follow the music somewhere else.

That makes improvisation part of the appeal.

A fiddle can lead into Appalachian old-time music. An accordion can shift the evening toward Louisiana. A song can open a discussion about the communities that carried it from one generation to another.

The point isn’t simply to reproduce old music.

It’s to show that roots music has always been alive, changing as musicians and communities encountered one another.

Erica Weiss Crosses Musical Borders

Weiss has spent years inside the traditional-music community as both a performer and teacher.

She has performed and taught at festivals and music camps and worked alongside musicians in the old-time and Cajun traditions, while her interests extend well beyond either one.

Appalachian old-time music itself developed through a complicated meeting of cultures. European fiddle traditions mixed with African American musical traditions, including the banjo, an instrument with West African ancestry that became fundamental to American string-band music.

Cajun music developed from another migration story.

French-speaking Acadians expelled from Canada during the 18th century eventually established communities in Louisiana, where their music interacted with Creole, African, Caribbean and other traditions. Fiddles were eventually joined by accordions, and neighboring Cajun and Creole musical cultures helped produce the sounds now associated with Cajun and Zydeco music.

Balkan singing brings another musical world into Weiss’ repertoire, with vocal traditions known for powerful harmonies, distinctive intervals and rhythms that can sound strikingly different to ears accustomed to American popular music.

Roots Music Stomp provides a place where those differences can be heard side by side.

Craig Edwards Has Spent a Lifetime Following the Connections

If the concept sounds unusually broad, that’s because Edwards’ own musical career is unusually broad.

He sings and plays fiddle, guitar, five-string banjo, mandolin and button accordion, with a repertoire encompassing Appalachian old-time, blues, bluegrass, Cajun, Celtic music, chanteys, folk, roots rock, swing and Zydeco.

His interest goes beyond learning songs.

Edwards studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, focusing on American string-band traditions and conducting fieldwork in places including West Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Ireland and Nova Scotia.

He has also studied with West African master musicians and dancers, another route into understanding how African musical traditions became part of the foundation of American music.

Edwards later spent years as a staff musician at Mystic Seaport Museum and served as director of its Sea Music Festival, where his work expanded into maritime traditions from around the world.

Today, he teaches traditional fiddle styles at Wesleyan and teaches at the UNITED while continuing to perform across multiple roots traditions.

Calling him a multi-instrumentalist almost undersells what he’s doing with Roots Music Stomp.

He’s using the instruments as tools for musical history.

A Series Built Around a Different Tradition Every Month

The September program is one chapter in an ongoing monthly experiment at the UNITED.

Previous Roots Music Stomp programs have explored bluegrass with fiddler Austin Scelzo, maritime and folk traditions with longtime Mystic Seaport chanteyman Geoff Kaufman, traditional Irish music and the enormous influence of Bob Dylan on American folk and popular songwriting.

Other editions have ventured into Franco-American fiddling, seasonal traditional music and additional regional folk traditions.

The format changes because the guest changes.

Rather than impose the same concert structure every month, Edwards uses each musician’s specialty as the starting point. The collaboration then allows different traditions to collide, overlap or reveal connections that might not be apparent from simply listening to recordings.

With Weiss, there are a lot of directions the conversation can go.

Appalachia. Louisiana. The Balkans. Traditional dance music. Original songwriting.

And with two musicians capable of changing instruments as the evening develops, there’s no requirement that they stay in one place for very long.

An Intimate Room for Music That Was Meant to Be Shared

Roots Music Stomp takes place in the Gallery Events Space at the UNITED, rather than the theater’s large Black Box auditorium.

That smaller setting fits the material.

Much of the music being explored in the series developed long before amplifiers, arenas or even modern concert culture. These were social traditions played at dances, gatherings, homes, community celebrations, work sites and informal sessions.

The music was passed from musician to musician largely by listening, watching and playing together.

Roots Music Stomp recreates a little of that process in front of an audience.

Instead of presenting traditional music as something preserved behind glass, Edwards and Weiss can pull it apart, talk about it and then put it back together by playing it.

For anyone who has wondered how a fiddle tune from Appalachia, a Louisiana dance tune and music carried across an ocean can all wind up under the enormous umbrella called American roots music, Sunday night offers a pretty good place to start.

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.

Details

Event: Roots Music Stomp featuring Erica Weiss
Date: Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026
Time: 7–9 p.m.
Location: UNITED Gallery Events Space
Address: 5 Canal St., Westerly, RI 02891
Featured Musician: Erica Weiss
Host: Craig Edwards
Music: Appalachian old-time, Cajun, Zydeco, Balkan singing, folk, original music and other traditional styles
Format: Live performance, collaboration and discussion of traditional music and its history
Venue: Gallery Events Space at the UNITED
Accessibility: The UNITED is wheelchair accessible; guests needing accommodations for a live performance can contact the box office
Contact: 401-388-8208

 

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.