The Dance Shelf

All Join Hands
Thomas S. Curren
Peter E. Randall Publisher
www.perpublisher.com
9781942155553, $25.00, PB, 202pp

https://www.amazon.com/All-Join-Hands-Thomas-Curren/dp/1942155557

Synopsis: "All Join Hands: Dudley Laufman & the New England Country Dance T= radition" by Thomas S. Curren is the story of what happened when a ten-thou= sand-year-old musical tradition was put into the hands of a seventeen-year-= old Boston boy in 1947.

While in high school, Dudley Laufman apprenticed with fiddlers and callers = throughout New England. Eventually, he squired the old country dance tradit= ions through to their revival in the 1960s at the Newport Folk Festival, th=
e Club 47, and Robert J. Lurtsema's Morning Pro Musica broadcasts. Decades =
of performances in famous venues and small villages led to his receiving th=
e National Heritage Fellowship Award in 2009.

Critique: Of special interest to readers with respect to the history of Ame= rican folk music and country dance, "All Join Hands: Dudley Laufman & the N=
ew England Country Dance Tradition" is as inherently fascinating a read as =
it is informed and informative. Enhanced for the reader with the inclusion =
of a section of black/white historical photos, "All Join Hands" is a unique=
and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community=
, and academic library New England Biography, Folk & Music, and Country Dan=
ce History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Tom Curren (https://perpublisher.com/portfolio-item/all-joi= n-hands) is a writer, farmer, conservationist, and an historian who lives i=
n New Hampshire with his wife, folklorist Kathy Neustadt. Since the 1970s, = Tom has had an extensive career writing and speaking about New England cult= ure, life and landscape. He has written four local town histories as well a=
s the statewide account of Old Home Day. He gives presentations at local hi= storical societies and similar gatherings throughout the region.

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