Claudia Schmidt (born 1953) is an American musician, originally from

New Baltimore, Michigan New Baltimore is a city in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 12,117 at the 2020 census. New Baltimore is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is located along the northern shores of Lake St. Clair. History Ne ...

, United States, who has recorded

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

, and

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

albums. She plays

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

Appalachian dulcimer The Appalachian dulcimer (many variant names; see below) is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings, originally played in the Appalachian region of the United States. The body extends the length of ...

and sings. She has appeared numerous times on the radio program, ''

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...

''. She has recorded with

Paul Cebar Paul Cebar (born 1956) is an American songwriter, singer, guitarist and bandleader from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who plays Music of Africa, African, Latin American music, Latin American and Caribbean music. He has released four albums and an EP with hi ...

and

Peter Ostroushko Peter Ostroushko (August 12, 1953 – February 24, 2021) was an American violinist and mandolinist. He performed regularly on the radio program ''A Prairie Home Companion'' and with a variety of bands and orchestras in Minneapolis–Saint Paul an ...

as well as

Steve Tibbetts Steve Tibbetts (born 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. He views the recording studio as a tool for creating sounds. Most of his albums include percussionist Marc Anderson. Style Tibbetts plays acoustic and electric guitar and exoti ...

. She also appeared in a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

, '' Gap-Toothed Women'', by

Les Blank Les Blank (November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013) was an American documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians. Life and career Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935 in Tampa, Florida. He atten ...

. Schmidt was interviewed about her approach to the 12-string guitar in the September 1988 ''Frets'' magazine, "Special Issue: Beyond 6 Strings"; the article, entitled 'Sweeter By The Dozen: The Magic Of The 12-String Guitar (by Mark Hansen & Richard Bamman)' features her photo on page 27 and comments on page 35. Schmidt has been a well-known fixture in the folk/acoustic music scene since her earliest days performing in the late 1970s. She began performing at Amazingrace Coffeehouse in Evanston, Illinois. Her first self-titled recording on

Flying Fish Records Flying Fish Records was a record label founded in Chicago in 1974 that specialized in folk, blues, and country music. In the 1990s the label was sold to Rounder Records. Bruce Kaplan, the label's founder, was a native of Chicago and the son of ...

— since bought out by

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...

— was a success. She recorded four solo entrees with this label, and one duo recording with Sally Rogers. In 1987, she started a relationship with the budding record label

Red House Records Red House Records is an independent folk and Americana record label in St. Paul, Minnesota. The label was founded in 1983 by Bob Feldman after seeing a performance by Iowa folk singer Greg Brown. Origin The label is named for a farmhouse in ...

where she recorded another five albums, including one more duo with Sally Rogers. All ten of the above recordings were clearly in the folk/acoustic domain. In 2001, she ventured off into independent status with her first full-fledged jazz recording, ''Live at the Old Rectory Pub''. She has since recorded other independent efforts including two jazz CDs, and folk/acoustic CD, and a spoken word CD. Schmidt has also made a name for herself in musical theater around the midwest. She has scored the music for several plays including a Joseph Jefferson Award winning effort for A Good Person of Szechuan mounted by the

Goodman Theatre Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of the Chicago theatre scene, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization. Part of its present theater complex occupies the lan ...

in Chicago in 1992. In 2006, Schmidt recorded the soundtrack for a new documentary ''Motherhood Manifesto'', by John deGraff author of ''Take Back Your Time''. She also starred in a musical telling of the

Edmund Fitzgerald SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America ...

tragedy titled ''The Gales of November''. This theater piece tells the tragic story of the sinking of this mighty ore ship from the point of view of the wives of several fated crew members. Schmidt continues to write and record. She maintains an active touring schedule from coast to coast. She lives in Northeast Connecticut.

References

External links

Official website
Appalachian dulcimer players Living people 1953 births People from New Baltimore, Michigan People from Traverse City, Michigan 20th-century American guitarists Red House Records artists Rounder Records artists Flying Fish Records artists 20th-century American women guitarists 21st-century American women {{US-guitarist-stub