Maggie Sansone

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #123 (April/May 2006)).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Maggie Sansone

Renaissance Woman

by Steve Winick

It was a balmy Saturday in late summer at the entrance to the Maryland Renaissance Festival: Madrigal singers were strolling here and there; a jester was entertaining (or annoying) a customer by aping his every move; and in the distance you could just hear a cast member making a proclamation relating to the Festival's storyline. Most people were there to hear music, shop, eat, and mingle with a crowd of interesting, and interestingly dressed, people. One of those people, Maggie Sansone, was about to take the stage.

Sansone, a leading hammered-dulcimer player in Maryland Celtic music, has been a regular at this festival for over 20 years. Her engaging stage show near the festival's entrance, in which she was joined by a fiddler, a bodhrán player, and a dancer, attracted a lot of people as they entered the fairground. The inviting, easygoing performance was a perfect enticement to a day at the faire. Sansone then disappeared for a while and re-emerged as a busker ("playing in the path," they call it at the festival) with a cute puppet show she calls "RoverDance." In this performance, her dulcimer rested next to a puppet stage; while she played, she operated a hidden foot pedal. The pedal caused the puppet stage to move up and down while a string of eight limberjack puppets jumped around to the beat of the music.

A final aspect of Sansone's presence at the festival was the brightly painted yellow cart out of which she was selling her merchandise. The CDs and information they had available about the Maggie's Music label proved that she's a Renaissance woman, both literally and figuratively. On the literal level, the CDs demonstrated Sansone's interest in Renaissance music as well as folk music: The label's holiday releases, albums by the early music groups Ensemble Galilei and Hesperus, and her own records all feature Medieval and Renaissance music. On the figurative level, the cart showed that she's an artist, musician, and businesswoman; she has a made a successful career out of her own music, and at the same time founded and run a well-managed independent record label with a clear identity and focus.

[cover #123]