Canton Folk Song Society

Meetings

Schedule of Regular Meetings for 2026 in the Bravo (Banquet) Room (or sometimes the Mohawk Room) on the Second Floor (there is an elevator) of the MAPS Air Museum

Thursday, January 8, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Thursday, February 5, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Winter Folk Song Fest (Winterfest XXVII)

With Support from Folknet

Sunday, February 22, 2026 from 12:30-3:30 PM

Twenty-Seventh Annual Festival to Be Put on by Canton Folk Song Society

Also in the Bravo (Banquet) Room of the MAPS Air Museum

Performances by Several Local Groups, Clubs, and Individuals

Followed by Jam Session for Everyone with Instruments and Voices

Bring Your Acoustic Folk Instruments

Wednesday, March 4, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, July 1, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, August 5, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, September 2, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, November 4, 2026 from 1-3 PM

Wednesday, December 2, 2026 from 1-3 PM

View Canton Folk Song Society Photo Pages 

It will become clear in this section that it's often a good idea to check here, to contact Bill by e-mail or phone (234-564-3852) or to check with another member before coming out for a meeting -- especially if you are coming from a distance.

Meetings are held on the dates and times listed on the Google Calendar and Meetings schedule shown above. They are currently generally from 1-3 PM at the MAPS Air Museum, 2260 International Parkway, North Canton, OH 44720. Meetings are generally held in the Bravo (Banquet) Room or the Mohawk Room of the museum according to the schedule shown above. They can always tell you at the gift shop desk at the main entrance exactly where we are scheduled for a given day. Admission is free for the Canton Folk Song Society meetings, but those wanting to view the exhibits at the Museum will need to pay the regular admission fee.

The meetings of the club are generally run as informal song circles with individual members each taking a turn to choose a song. Choices are usually taken from a source available to several other members which allows others to join in the performance. However, members sometimes choose to perform songs for the rest of the group – whether old favorites or songs that they are just in the process of learning. Singers and acoustic folk-style instruments of all sorts are welcome. Instruments which have been played at Canton Folk Song Society include (but are not limited to): guitars (6 & 12 strings, steel, banjo-guitar, tenor), dulcimers (hammered and mountain), autoharps, harps, flutes, whistles, recorders, fife, harmonicas, concertina, bowed psalteries, banjos, mandolins, octave mandolins, ukuleles, fiddles, cello, upright bass, jug, washtub bass, marimbula, percussion (bodhran, spoons, tambourines, bells, chimes, and more), and more.

Membership

Membership in the Canton Folk Song Society is open to anyone who enjoys folk-style music and agrees to work with the other members for the mutual enjoyment of all. There is no membership fee or charge. Come to a meeting and join along in the music if you would like to be a member. There are members who just choose to sing along on a few choruses; members who are trying to learn to play an instrument who play so quietly that almost nobody else can ever hear them; members who usually play and sing only for their own enjoyment; members who gave up performing publicly years ago, but have decided that this is something they can enjoy doing; and members who currently perform professionally. Members have enjoyed doing songs by contemporary singer/songwriters, folk favorites from the fifties and sixties (and earlier and later), traditional ballads, celtic music, world music, children's songs, humorous songs, the blues, popular songs, country songs, seasonal music, music fitted to various themes, and more.

Purpose & Methods

The Canton Folk Song Society is a club open to anyone who enjoys folk-style music and agrees to work with other members for the mutual enjoyment of all. The primary purposes of the club are to share in the enjoyment of folk-style music, to share friendships with others who have similar interests, to help others to become familiar with this type of music and the instruments involved with it, and to help our members follow their own goals in relationship to the music. These purposes may be accomplished by having regular meetings or activities to play and sing; by finding ways to communicate to let members and others know about the activities of the society, its members, and other organizations or individuals with similar purposes; by sponsoring concerts, programs, shows, festivals, conferences, seminars, workshops, lectures, classes, meetings, displays, or publications; and by working with or supporting other organizations in similar or related activities.

Activities

In addition to the regular monthly meetings, members of the Canton Folk Song Society have also done public performances as the Canton Folk Song Society. Several performances have been for the McKinley Museum as a way of showing our appreciation for the meeting place. We have regularly performed for such events as McKinley's Birthday Celebration, the Museum Christmas Party, and other special events at the Museum. We also have performed for the Clubs Open Stage many times since 1995 at Dulci-More Festivals in Lisbon and Franklin Square, Ohio. Some other public performances have been at coffee houses and parks for special events in the Canton and North Canton area including some things for other arts organizations or non-profit organizations and some businesses..

History

The Canton Folk Song Society first got together in January, 1994 at the Public Library in North Canton in a downstairs meeting room, organized by Len Crossman. The club met at the library and in the local park for several months.

Members wanted a more public place to meet after a while with a better atmosphere and better acoustics. The move was made to Trivium Coffee Cafe in Belden Village for some time. During this period, Len moved from the area, and the leadership of the club was taken over by Christina Kambrick.

When Trivium needed the space we were taking up, Christina was able to find meeting places including another Belden Village restaurant and the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in Canton where we started meeting in November 1994 with our last event there being Winterfest XX on Saturday, March 17, 2018. When the Director of the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum let us know in January of 2018 that the facility was moving in some different directions and that the meeting space was needed for other things, the search quickly began for a new meeting place. Alma Houston contacted the Administrative Coordinator of the Canton Museum of Art. Christina Toney and Bill Schilling met with her, and all agreed that this should be a great location for the Canton Folk Song Society and that partnerships for other things may be possible as we proceed. The first meeting at the Canton Museum of Art was in April, 2018. The final session there was the Winter Folk Song Fest XXII on February 8, 2020 before people stopped meeting in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bill Schilling kept some members of the Canton Folk Song Society meeting monthly on Zoom (or Jitsi early on) and continued those online meetings about twice a month (including Winter Folk Song Fest XXIII on March 20, 2021) until Sue Wheeler offered open air and then in house sessions at her home (combined with Zoom sessions offered by Bill Schilling from Sue's home) for one session most months from May 2021 through March 2022.

Christina Toney made contact with Kent Kleinknecht, event coordinator at the MAPS Air Museum in North Canton. The Canton Folk Song Society held its first session in the Bravo (Banquet) Room of the MAPS Air Museum on May 25, 2022 and has been getting together there (or in the Mohawk Room) monthly since then.

Christina remains as the leader of the Canton Folk Song Society. There are no other official positions, but Bill Schilling keeps this information available for folks, having been involved since the first meeting of the club. Some members of the club did take one meeting of the group to the Grand Opening of the new offices of Autoharp Quarterly magazine in Chester, West Virginia, where the club was mentioned and heard in the background performing on WELO radio. Many members of the Canton Folk Song Society throughout the years have also been members of Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional Musicians. Thus, much of the music done at the meetings comes from the Dulci-More Songbook and is done with the whole group playing or singing along. Many other choices come from Rise Up Singing, the Group Singing Songbook by Sing Out! Corporation. Sometimes members choose to perform a song rather than having everyone join along on the song. New members of all ages are always welcome whether they choose to play and/or sing along on just the easiest songs, or whether they choose to perform for the rest of the members. 

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