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Funny Songs: Then & Now
Program Categories
Educational Programs, Music
Audience Age
teens through adults
A concert and educational presentation of original humorous songs, funny folk songs and old nonsense fiddle tunes. Peter Lehndorff and Sue Hill will sing and play songs that made us laugh growing up; nonsense fiddle tunes that amused our ancestors; and Peter's humorous songs about everyday life.
The Program:
Songs might include nonsense tunes as old as “Old Joe Clark”, “Angeline the Baker” and “Buffalo Gals”. Or songs by Woody Guthrie, The Weavers, Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton. Peter and Sue grew up listening to Allen Sherman sing about Camp Grenada and The Smother’s Brothers songs about life; Tom Lehrer sang about the end of the world and Arlo Guthrie joked about war. Peter started writing funny songs when he was in high school. (He was sent to the principal's office for joking too often.)
We will encourage people to sing along if they aren’t laughing too hard. We can also show video clips of some historic performers like Louis Jordan, Fats Waller and Spike Jones; Performers we grew up with on the Ed Sullivan Show and some of the ones like John Prine, Loudon Wainwright and Randy Newman, still making us laugh.
"I had lots of comments on how wonderful you both were. One patron, in particular, liked the mix of songs you chose to share. We will certainly keep you in mind for future programs. Also, it tends to be difficult to get people out of the house in January for programs, so it’s a testament to you both that patrons wanted to come out in the dark and cold to see you perform."
About us:
Peter Lehndorff is an award-winning songwriter and a guitarist whose songs have been heard on NPR, CarTalk, and college radio stations. Susan Hill is a prize-winning old-time fiddler for community dances, historic reenactments, and a ukulele instructor at senior centers. They accompany themselves on guitars, banjo, mandolin, fiddles, and ukuleles (but not all at the same time).
$300.
$300 — 400 for two performers and a sound system.
Group Size
30 - 100
Program Length
60 minutes or longer with videos
LIVE: Electricity! We can bring a sound system. A projector is necessary if we are presenting any videos.
VIRTUAL: We have a fairly complete home video stage area. We can use OBS to broadcast through FaceBook or YouTube with multiple cameras. Zoom allows more interaction with questions and answers. With very selective unmuting laughter, too.
Last Modified
05/27/2020
Performer’s Contact Information
Peter Lehndorff's Music
Peter Lehndorff405 Main Street
Hampden, MA 01036
We are happy to structure the concert to whatever the client prefers. We could also prerecord a show for your limited use.