By Daniel Buckwalter

There were moments when I felt a little disoriented in regards to my roots, and that’s not a bad thing. We can all refresh our memories from time to time through the interpretation of others.

Take, for instance, the Oregon Festival of American Music’s program titled My Roots are Showing (American Byways), which had its run on the stage for a matinee performance on Aug. 15 at The Shedd Institute and repeats on Aug. 21.

This is a 21-song salute to traditional folk music, Americana, that — while some it was composed by non-U.S. citizens many years ago — has been deeply ingrained for generations in this country’s musical DNA, and by the common folk, too. It’s what makes the music distinctive.

Midnight Special, In the Pines, Danny Boy, Down to the River to Pray, I Wonder as I Wander, If I Had A Hammer, and Amazing Grace are just a few of the songs featured in this concert, and it would be startling if anyone didn’t randomly hum a few bars of one or another over time, always remembering a favored artist who covered the piece.

This includes House of the Rising Sun, a song with an unknown composer that was first collected in Appalachia in the 1930s and is believed to have been written in the late 19th century. I — and others — probably know it best from a 1960s recording from the English rock band, The Animals. And it still gets play on rock-oriented radio stations.

It is the opening song of the Roots concert, sung by artistic director Lynnea Barry, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear her interpretation of this classic.

Barry has been a regular at The Shedd for a few years, but for reasons many and varied (such as the fact that I can’t be everywhere), this is the first time I’ve heard her sing.

She is deeply composed, never straining to reach her objective. For the Saturday matinee, she was wearing a formal red gown on stage, but I have the feeling she would be comfortable in jeans and a sweatshirt in a smoky bar. She is Americana music at The Shedd and worth the price of admission alone.

Other singers in the show are Hannah Rudkin, Gene Newbold, and Bill Hulings. All give solid performances, as does Vicki Brabham, the bandleader and pianist who has a singing selection of her own.

The second performance of OFAM’s My Roots are Showing (American Byways) will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, at The Shedd Institute, 868 High Street. Ticket information is available online at TheShedd.org.