RESOURCES:
Manchester Area Historical Society
2025 Blacksmith Shop Concert Series
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline McGregor. And today, I am talking with Grant Flick. He's a musician who plays at the Blacksmith Shop Concert Series in Manchester. He plays the violin and nyckelharpa, a Swedish keyed violin. Welcome, first of all, to the program!
Grant Flick: Thanks for having me on!
Caroline MacGregor: Did I say that right? Nyckelharpa?
Grant Flick: Exactly right! I walk people through it usually in the concerts because it's not every day. Like, if you were to see this instrument in person, you'd be kind of like, "Whoa! It looks like a Viking boat or something like that."
Caroline MacGregor: It is fascinating-looking. All right. So, first of all, tell me quickly, if you would. How did you come to be involved in this Blacksmith Shop Concert Series in the first place? Give me a bit of background, if you would.
Grant Flick: For sure! So, concerts at the Blacksmith's space have been happening for a number of years, well before COVID. There is an agency called the River Folk Arts Organization out of Manchester, Michigan that was designed to bring music, arts, culture events to that area of the state, and they'd been running shows in there for a long time before I moved up here in 2017 when I came up here for school at Umich and then kind of stayed involved with them. As COVID hit, that organization sort of disbanded, but a number of the people from it wanted to keep concerts going at the space, such as Jim Horton, Ray Berg, Kara Palms, and they reached out to me saying like, "Hey, we'd love to have concerts here! Would you be willing to help book them?" And for me, it was like just a no-brainer. Like, I get to play in a lot of spaces in Michigan as a touring musician. And for me, this is one of the coolest places to go see and or play a concert. It's not common that you get to go and see an active blacksmith shop. They still do courses there.
Caroline MacGregor: Right.
Grant Flick: And people use the space regularly. And the room is just like the perfect size for acoustic music. You get to see the music kind of unfiltered and pure. Like, the room sounds amazing! I think it's such a gem, especially in southeast Michigan, that this place exists for this.
Caroline MacGregor: And do these concerts take place mostly on Saturdays?
Grant Flick: It's always a Friday or Saturday, usually the third weekend of every month. We try to vary it a little bit because, for some people, Friday is a better day. Some people, Saturday is a day. We've got concerts still going January through May this year.
Caroline MacGregor: A bit of background for our listeners: the Manchester Blacksmith Shop was built in 1877 and served as a wagon factory where carriages and sleighs were built. It was eventually used as a blacksmith's shop. What an incredible venue for concerts! I can just imagine the ambience.
Grant Flick: Yeah. It's really special to kind of get to be in there. The equipment is still there. They have sewing and quilting in the back room as well, so you kind of get this just blast into the past. And then, oftentimes, the music that's in there is pretty congruent, I guess, to the culture of the stuff in there and the time period. It's really fascinating to kind of get to live in that space. And then, especially since the shows are unamplified, it's always acoustic and just kind of you and the music. You get to be very close with the musicians. I think, in a lot of ways, it's like a really great setting for people to interact with music, maybe in a way that you wouldn't typically get to do at a normal concert venue, which is really fun.
Caroline MacGregor: Yeah, far more personal. How do you help bring different people to this series?
Grant Flick: So, I guess, technically, I'm the main booker, which is a funny thought for me to be in. But I enjoy this a lot because bringing the right people into this space is a really unique opportunity and responsibility. I get to work with a lot of different people in the music scene, both in Michigan and outside of Michigan. I guess that sort of helps me to know like, "I think this would work really well there." And I think it's been really fun getting to see people interact with music that maybe they wouldn't typically encounter in a space they wouldn't typically expect to see music in as well. Maybe one of the more noteworthy ones would be Hildaland music, which is Ethan Satiyawan on mandolin and octave mandolin.
Caroline MacGregor: Oh, I love mandolin!
Grant Flick: Yeah! And his wife, Louise Beckin, who is from Scotland. And they were doing a big mix of original music and traditional Scottish and American fiddling styles. For me, it's just kind of like the dream to see that in a space like that. Also, Brian Oberlin from Grand Rapids playing solo classical mandolin, as well as original music. Coming up, we've got The Moonrisers, which is a great duo out of the Ferndale area, with Libby DeCamp on different guitars and banjo, and, I'm guessing, likely singing with Adam Schreiber on percussion. He plays on these amazing, old kits that are historically accurate to the time periods they're from. He's like the quietest drummer ever.
Caroline MacGregor: Really? That sounds like an oxymoron.
Grant Flick: Totally! But he's incredible! I've played a couple gigs with him where it's been like, "You need to play louder!" And that's like a really cool experience getting to see something like that in the space of the Blacksmith Shop, because you get to hear all this warm depth of tone from maybe like a very odd pairing instrumentally. I don't know. There's something about that where you get to really connect with the music in, like you said, like a very personal way that I think the space really encourages for people to have this sort of interaction positively with music.
Caroline MacGregor: Wonderful! All right. So, I know I really want to hear you play some music, and you've got your Swedish keyed violin. And I'm sure our listeners would love to hear. So, please. Would you play a few notes for us?
Grant Flick: Sure, yeah. So, this is...let's see. What am I going to play? I'll play an original tune on here. And, yeah, this is on the nyckelharpa, which is you have four bowed strings, bowed with a bow. And then, it has 12 sympathetic strings which sit underneath those that aren't played. There's a bunch of keys that move these wooden posts that are kind of like Google Translate for your left hand. And they move over kind of like removable frets. Go check it out online: nyckelharpa--n-y-c-k-e-l-h-a-r-p-a--to get maybe a better visual.
Caroline MacGregor: Oh my gosh! That was absolutely beautiful! Thank you so much for playing that!
Grant Flick: Yeah!
Caroline MacGregor: Now the nyckelharpa, I believe, has sort of medieval roots throughout Europe.
Grant Flick: Yeah. So, the instrument has a lot of different iterations in its past. Typically, it's associated with Sweden and sort of Scandinavian fiddling at large, but it's also used in Baroque music. You've probably actually heard one without realizing. It's really popular in movie and video game scores these days. It makes a lot really fun sounds, even just clicking of the keys and stuff. It can kind of generate some really fun effects. But the version of the instrument that I'm playing on here is actually built by a guy in Wisconsin. He's like really the only American luthier of these instruments, and the one I'm playing on right now is a bit more, I guess, modern, compared to what you might typically see in a traditional, Swedish fiddling circle. But the idea is that it just kind of has more keys. I can play more notes and sort of blend with more modern musicians maybe a little bit easier.
Caroline MacGregor: It's so intricate looking.
Grant Flick: Yeah, there's a lot of moving pieces. It's like every single one of these keys here and posts and pieces of wood. Like, all of this is like hand carved one by one. It's kind of amazing that people like did this hundreds of years ago, and they were like, "Let's keep doing it!"
Caroline MacGregor: Yes! I can just imagine the time that it would take to make one of these.
Grant Flick: Very labor-intensive, for sure.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. As far as the blacksmith concerts, what's coming up in January, for example?
Grant Flick: Yeah. So, we're kind of at the halfway point through our season right now. So, there'll be shows--January through May still coming up. Again, I would check out the Eventbrite Manchester Historical Society is what this is under, or if you just search "Manchester Blacksmith Shop" online, or you can reach out to me. My website is grantflick.com. There's a contact page on there that goes straight to me. So, spread the word! I'll actually be there in January with my duo partner, Jacob Warren. We're going to be playing some traditional fiddle tunes from various traditions. We'll have tons of instruments with us, including the nyckelharpa. In February, we've got the Moonrisers from Detroit area and they'll be playing... I don't even know how to describe it. It's original, it's ambient, it's calm, it's simple but complex. I don't know. It' s really beautiful. In March, we've got the Allard Brothers from Oberlin and they'll be playing, I would imagine, a mix of originals on five-string banjo, as well as mandolin and guitar. And they're super, super talented and have really good roots, I would say, in bluegrass and sort of American improvisational music. I'll be back there in April with an amazing guitar player from Flint named Eric McIntyre. And then, in May, we're going to have a really fun group of young musicians coming in. Keep your eyes peeled for this show. These kids, I saw them when I played a wedding this fall, and they were incredible! And it's an amazing family band so would recommend checking that out once it's up. Yeah, keep your eyes peeled there.
Caroline MacGregor: Excellent! I've been speaking today with Grant Flick. He's a performer and teacher of violin and other string instruments. We've been talking about the Blacksmith Shop Concert Series in Manchester. Thank you so much for joining me today, Grant!
Grant Flick: Thanks so much for having me! Yeah!
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
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