Todd Crowley

Workshop Title: We Come With the Dust: Songs of Migrant Workers

Woody Guthrie wrote of migrant workers "At the edge of your cities, you see us and then/ We come with the dust and we're gone with the wind." Whether Dust Bowl Okies or Rio Grande Crossing Mexicanos, migrant workers have always occupied a place in the shadowy edges of the American economy. Woody Guthrie songs helped to give a human face to migrant workers. This workshop will explore the stories of migrant workers from within and beyond America's borders through the songs of Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, David Massengill, Tom Russell and others. Bring your big-hearted voices and autoharps, and we will sing the songs of Tom Joad and Jesus y Maria.

Leader: Todd Crowley Keys of G and D

Todd Crowley's Display and Play Station:

Dia'Todd'Nics Autoharp Play Station features Todd Crowley's growing collection of autoharps. Most are vintage Oscar Schmidt Centurion, Festival, and Wildwood Flower models with custom chord bars. In addition, Todd is working on a complete set of the major luthier autoharps of the past thirty years. His booth will let you try out 'harps built by (so far) Mike Autorino, Gordon Baker, Don Brinker, Paul Cram, Pete D'Aigle, Chuck Daniels, Jeff Dantzler, Evoharp, Mark Fackeldey, Goose Acres, Buck Lumbert, George Orthey, Mitch Pingel, Ron Wall, and Keith Young. Todd has also added a vintage Airline A-model chromatic set-up like a Kilby Snow autoharp. Todd's booth isn't a museum display. All the autoharps are to be enjoyed by any and all who care to try them.

About the Workshop Leader:

Todd Crowley began singing folk music as a boy. In 1981 he met and lived with the legendary autoharp player Bryan Bowers. Todd was then the assistant coach for Bryan's son Sean's varsity basketball team. At the end of their year together, Bryan gave Todd his first autoharp lesson and presented him with his first single key G 'harp. In the 25 years since, Todd has collected over 50 autoharps. He also collects mountain dulcimers, bouzoukis, and guitars and assorted other folk instruments. Todd is frequently asked to host "instrument petting zoos" at local folk festivals.

A high school English teacher of 30 years, Todd received his MA in the Teaching of Writing and Literature from George Mason University. While studying for his degree, he researched the life and songs of Woody Guthrie to compare him to Walt Whitman, the great American poet-bard of the 19th Century. Todd will be teaching beginning autoharp and his class "We Come with the Dust: The Songs of Migrant Workers" at Walt Michael's Common Ground on the Hill in July 2006. 

Todd performs regularly at The Folk Club of Reston-Herndon in Herndon, Virginia and has appeared at the Washington Folk Festival and the Herndon Folk Festival. He is also a long time member of the Washington D. C. area Capital 'Harpers originally founded by well-known autoharpist Alan Mager.

Mainly a singer, Todd uses his autoharps and other instruments to accompany the folk music he loves. 

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