Pianist will
accompany duo
By Dave Whitaker
Staff Reporter
Melanie Monsur, who will be
appearing with the Washington Sis
ters during the Flatwater Festival,
also appeared with them in Lincoln
earlier this year for Women’s Week
’89.
Monsur generally accompanies
the Washington Sisters on the piano,
but also has the opportunity to per
form a few of her own numbers.
Monsur, the more serious member
of the combined act, reflects this in
her album, “DragonFly.” Her
strength is on the piano; she plays in
a wonderfully open improvisational
style. She effortlessly swings from
ethereal to somber, to a playful scam
pering of notes, which she does in
many of her instrumentals on side
two of her album
Monsur sings on side one of her
album. Her voice, like her piano play
ing, has an inviting quality - wistful
at one moment and quite strong the
next. In a few songs, her voice re
sembles that of Carol King’s, but she
is always distinctly Melanie Monsur.
The album opens with a playful
boogie-woogie number with a Bour
bon Street trumpet romping around
the background. The rest of the al
bum is more introspective, with a
minimum of accompaniment, with
the focus always on Monsur and her
piano.
It’s hard to define her style, al
though an obvious influence exists
from blues, jazz, folk and just a little
bit of light rock. Monsur pulls all of
these together into an album that
becomes more enjoyable and sounds
richer with repeated play.
Monsur will appear with the
Washington Sisters at 7:45 p.m. Sat
urday on the Main Stage at 13th and Q
streets.
Married couple fiddles, blows and strums
By Mark Lage
Staff Reporter
The critically acclaimed
Omaha-area musical duo of Debo
rah Greenblattand David Seay will
bring a mixture of traditional and
original folk music, employing a
wide variety of instruments, to the
Flatwater Festival’s main stage.
The pair performs folk, tradi
tional, Irish, Cajun, Renaissance
and bluegrass music on a list of
instruments that includes fiddle,
harmonica, hammered dulcimer,
recorder (soprano and alto), penny
whistle and banjo. They also per
form some of their own original
compositions, which Seay calls
“definitely folk-influenced.”
Besides creating original music
together, Greenblatt and Seay are
also married and have two sons.
The family aspect of their lives
influences both their creative work
and their performances, Seay said.
“When we play to a family
crowd, we do more originals, be
cause our two sons have influ
enced what we’ve written,” Seay
said. They also have special shows
for senior citizens, adults, students
of all ages and children. In fact, the
duo’s Flatwater Festival perform
ance last year took place on the
children’s stage, Seay said.
He said they have nothing spe
cial planned for this year’s per
formance, besides their usual vari
ety of musical styles and instru
ments.
The two met in March 1978,
when Seay’s band, Whole Wheat,
placed an ad for a fiddle player,
which Greenblatt, a prize-winning
fiddler, answered, Seay said.
Greenblatt and Seay were married
four months after that and played
in a couple of other bands together
until, seven years ago, they de
cided to perform and write as a
duo, he said.
In addition to her championship
fiddling, Greenblatt plays the
hammered dulcimer, limberjack,
banjo and other instruments. She
also has written three fiddle tune
books, composed the score for the
Emmy Gifford Children’s Theatre
production of “The Return of
Johnny Appleseed,” which she
and Seay performed, and recorded
the fiddle for the Wells Blue
Bunny commercials.
When Seay met her, she was
playing in the Omaha Symphony,
for which she received her formal
training at Boston University, he
said. In 1982 she received the Carl
Carson Award, a yearly national
award given by The National Tra
ditional Country Music Associa
tion for “perpetuating the art of
old-time fiddling.”
Seay said he specializes in har
monica, but like Greenblatt, he
also plays a variety of other instru
ments, including penny whistle,
tabor pipe, Sioux Flute, military
Fife, and guitar. He is a private
teacher of harmonica and penny
whistle, and he also teaches song
writing classes.
Both Greenblatt and Seay are
very active in the Omaha and
Nebraska arts communities, in
cluding involvement in The Met- 4
ropolitan Arts Council’s City Arts
Program and The Nebraska Arts
Council touring program.
Seay said the duo has released a
couple of homemade “basement
tapes,’’ the most recent being
“Gonna Gctcha Train,” released
in 1987, which entirely consists of
original music. Their tapes haven’t
made it too far outside of Omaha,
he said.
Greenblatt and Seay are sched
uled to perform Saturday, June 17
at 5:30p.m.,on the festival’s Main
Stage.
/
At Cliffs we have a large selection of fine
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or stop in at our location at 140 N. 12th. After
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476-0119
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