Sunday, July 10, 2022

A new, live "Prairie Home Companion" online, and a musical memorial for "cowboy with a camera" Jack Hummel. July 10 special edition, 2022

Sunday special edition, July 10 2022

Your editor has COVID, and is in quarantine.  But online, the show must go on (reduced to the bare necessities of information,  owing to being devoid of his usual energies).

___

CONTENTS...

●  A NEW "Prairie Home Companion," LIVE Sunday & on-demand for 48 hours; plus more news.

●  Note from quarantine, part one.

●  Remembering "Our Cowboy with a Camera," Jack Hummel

●  Note from quarantine, part two.

___



A NEW, LIVE, PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION

Whaaat? It's really back? A NEW edition, ORIGINAL cast, LIVE, "PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION," livestream is TONIGHT (and on-demand for 48 hrs) as "AMERICAN REVIVAL," from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.

The LIVESTREAM happens tonight, Sunday, July 10, 2022, at 5:30 pm Pacific / 8:30 pm Eastern.

AND: the show remains available for ON-DEMAND viewing for 48 hours.



You can join GARRISON KEILLOR & the APHC cast at the Ryman, via LIVESTREAM.

with Garrison Keillor & special guests
☆ Aoife O’Donovan (Grammy award-winning songwriter and singer)
☆ Joe Newberry (old-time banjoist, singer, more)
☆ Heather Masse (The Wailin’ Jennys)
☆ Rich Dworsky, leading an all-star band, including instrumental luminaries:
☆ Sam Bush
☆ Jerry Douglas
☆ Pat Donohue
☆ Gary Raynor
plus,
☆ Fred Newman (Sound effects ace)
☆ Tim Russell (the man of a thousand voices)


This is a RARE livestream of an APHC show. Indeed, it may be the one and only! Garrison Keillor and his all-star gangbusters music-making group will bring their best to the stage, along with ace actors Tim Russell and Fred Newman.

From the original home of "THE GRAND OLE OPRY" and the very place where the idea for "A Prairie Home Companion" was born so many years ago, radio's legendary Folk-Roots-Americana radio show returns for a ONE-NIGHT RUN.

The event takes place just four weeks shy of Garrison’s 80th birthday, so join in a celebratory show from the historic Ryman (where, by the way, the idea of APHC began).

A literal return to roots. It all started at the Ryman back in 1974, when Garrison Keillor traveled to Nashville to see the final "Grand Ole Opry" broadcast from that venerable auditorium and write about it for The New Yorker. The magazine got its article and Keillor returned home with an idea for a radio program of his own.

Twenty years later, in 1994, "A Prairie Home Companion" was the very first show onstage at the newly renovated Ryman — and APHC returned numerous times since.

Now, "A Prairie Home Companion American Revival" takes the Ryman stage with humor, music, no end of fun, and, of course, all the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Garrison Keillor did the weekly coast-to-coast broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion for forty years, wrote fiction and comedy, and invented a little town called Lake Wobegon (where all the children are above average). Since the show ended a few years ago, Keillor has written a memo

Here's how it works:

You can watch the livestream via the web on your desktop computer, laptop, or mobile device with a free-to-get Mandolin account at:

watch.mandolin.com

Here’s what you need to know:

Step 1:
To create your Mandolin Account after you purchase a ticket, use the sign-up link in the email you receive.

Note that you will need to create your Mandolin account using the same email address you used to purchase your ticket.

Once you’ve created your account, you'll see your "Live at the Ryman" show(s) in the “My Shows” section of your account.

Step 2:
Access your Livestream on the day of your show via watch.mandolin.com ON THE DEVICE you’ll be watching the livestream. Sign-in to your Mandolin account.

Once you’ve signed in, click the “WATCH SHOW” button on your Live at the Ryman show at the scheduled concert time to open the livestream, then click “START THE SHOW.”

You can view the show on your TV by casting to your TV with devices such as Apple TV, Apple Airplay, and/or Google Chromecast.

For instructions to cast to your bigger screen, follow this link:
https://mandolin.drift.help/article/watching-on-your-tv/.

If you have questions or need customer support, they sent this link for you:
https://help.mandolin.com/hc/en-us

■  FOR LIVESTREAM ACCESS TICKETS: CLICK HERE


■  TO ATTEND IN PERSON at the Ryman: CLICK HERE

The Ryman is celebrating its 130th year as a music venue!

Since the APHC radio show ended a few years ago -- and with it, the live performances -- Keillor has continued as a prolific writer. In addition to his free daily online "Writers Almanac," he has published a memoir, a collection of limericks, and several novels. His most recent books are Serenity at 70, Gaiety At 80: Why You Should Keep on Getting Older, and Boom Town: A Lake Wobegon Novel.

More from and about Garrison Keillor, and how to listen to a different old recording of APHC each week, HERE.


Garrison Keillor at work.

___

YOUR EDITOR HAS COVID

Yes, despite being vaxxed and boostered, one of the very virulent variants got me. Currently quarantined, I am finding this stuff is still formidable. It is challenging to sustain focus and energy for even simple tasks. The vaccine seems to be keeping it from impacting my lungs, and that's where it kills people. Mostly, I am frustrated that I cannot attend what is described below. Jack was a good guy.
___

CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR JACK HUMMEL is TODAY

The California Chapter of the International Western Music Association will preside over a Celebration of Life for Jack Hummel, one of the organization's most devoted and valuable members.

It happens today, Sunday, July 10, 4 to 7 pm. The venue is:

El Tracadero Steak House,  24274 Main St, Newhall, CA 91321

Coproprietor Raul will have extra people on staff to accommodate the gathering. No host bar and full menu.

Western music and cowboy poet performers and non-performers who knew Jack, bring your instruments and best voice for a song / poetry circle and your stories about Jack. 

Had your editor been there as planned, he would have recited this original piece of cowboy poetry:


“Our cowboy with a camera, Texas Jack”


By Larry Wines


With footlong lenses clattering, he brought the artist’s eye,

matched-up with tunes and croons of his musicians. Some subjects, pros with big time cred — others starting out, testing songs as a hope of new transition.


All in kind knew we’d arrived. His images made our stage-time seem immortal. A short three-minute song, like a seven-second ride — more confidence for next time we left the portal.


Like a roundup drawing volunteers, none gave or got a bill. His pictures were his gift to our profession. Or, to our avocation. Or maybe we should say — to our obsession.


As the lights came up, Jack’s camera tasted sagebrushed notes, drinking light and lyrics and guitar. He could see pioneers, cattle drives and steam trains of old, and in his pictures they returned from near and far.


I never forked a horse along a trail with Jack. But backstage, he was always such a pleasure. And never far away, Voleta sat and smiled, the lovely one whom he would always treasure.


There’s quite a pantheon of people of the West, mostly legend if I had to stop and reckon. But Jack left images fresh as spring, so memories live, and call, and beckon. 


Adios old pard, we bid you now adieu, you’ve laid down the bag of gear, your saddle pack. You’re metering light with Charlie Russell, and he’s sharing tips with you — with our cowboy with a camera, Texas Jack.

___

RSVP / QUESTIONS about today’s event should be directed to Greg Khougaz, GregKhougaz@earthlink.net or to Scott T, scott.tonelson@gmail.com
___

MUCH MORE was intended for this edition.

Alas, all must wait for the editor to recover. Everyone else is off galavanting around somewhere.

Our parting thought for this edition?

These variants are virulent. Wear a mask in stores and crowded places, at the very least.

So many of our fellow Americans refused to do what every other country's citizens did, and get vaccinated to protect everyone else. Hence, the virus has found fertile ground to spread AND MUTATE in the intransigent unvaxxed, coming back around to infect the rest of us. Be careful out there, so your sumner isn't used-up regaining strength after getting sick.

___

Resources / Navigation / Contacting us / finding what you want in current, recent, or archived Guide editions 


MOBILE-DEVICE-FRIENDLY

editions load quickly at


Or at


On mobile devices, click "view web edition" to bring-up the left side bar with navigation tools. That gives you direct access to click your way to all recent editions. It's easy to bring-up month-by-month archives to everything -- last year, a decade ago, so far this year, and each previous year.

It's all there, since we first moved The Guide (with its former name) to Blogspot. 

Does that mean you need to find Marty and Doc's DeLorean time machine? 

Because, geez, THAT was back when Rin-Tin-Tin hadn't gotten his second "tin" from Tin Pan Alley

... and you watched TV on a big box that bombarded you with non-ionizing radiation from its cathode ray tube if you sat close to it, instead of like nowadays, getting your inescapable non-ionizing radiation from 5g, wherever you sit

... and 

... and "the pandemic" meant 1918

... anyway, The Guide has been around a LOOOOONNNNNGGGG time! So you can escape into the musical wonderments of this current edition, AND/OR you can go far enough back to escape whatever is the current lunacy du jour, and explore MANY THOUSANDS of feature stories, musical explorations, band and artist descriptions, and assorted fascinating items we have published through the years for your perusal and enjoyment.

HINT: We often get feedback like this regarding the archive:

"We were talking about how we first met. We disagreed about who was playing that night. We were pretty distracted by each other. So we deep dived in your archive and we found everything about that night!!! It even let us figure out a bunch of our important dates--most of them were musical and it sure was fun to relive those times!!!"

 
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>

CONTACT US -- Post Comments / Send Questions / say Howdy at:

news-events-perspectives (at) outlook (dot) com

OR USE THE COMMENTS FUNCTION on the site.

<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>

Entire contents copyright © 2022

Lawrence Wines & Tied to the Tracks.

All rights reserved.

<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS – and views of interest to artists everywhere – more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers -- and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music. That includes both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues (now undergoing a major update), and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues from the monumentally large to the intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops, conferences, and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the swamp water roots of the blues and the bright lights of where the music is headed now.
The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell. The cyber porch'll be here anytime you come back from a masked safari to fetch your groceries, or get a hankerin' for a real or a virtual tuneful sojourn at (or from) a quality venue, or whatever version of hittin' the road for the festival circuit or a tuneful tour.

Toodles!
_______

MORE NAMM NEWS & REVIEWS COMING SOON.




.

Friday, July 1, 2022

4th of July Weekend 2022: the absolute best event

We will ADD PHOTOS from the event. Check back over the weekend and beyond! Meantime, here's the story so you won't miss-out...

___

We love it most when we can bring you a multifaceted event with music, history, and a whole lot more. This one is genuinely one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-lifetime. So, YES, with the shocking price of gas, it IS more than worth the road trip, and it includes Irish and other 19th century-era music.

Don't just read the title of the festivities and decide it's too specialized for you. It goes way beyond the basic sound byte line of:

Fifteen steam locomotives will gather for this one-of-a-kind four-day event, July 1 through 4, and nearly all will be running.


V&T #22, the "Inyo," was a star at a World's Fair in Canada. When any of these locomotives comes to visit, it draws crowds and makes news. The greatest reunion of 19th century steam in decades includes #22.

The best remnants of 19th century Victorian charm, with their art-embellished gleaming brass, are returning to life in a reunion drawn from four points of the compass. They won't just sit for you to gawk at them like Rose Parade floats parked and silent. These will move, clang and chuff, whistle and breathe fire, and they'll be pulling 19th century passenger cars for you to ride, all four days.

The "GREAT WESTERN STEAM-UP" at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City will have music from lots of bands and individual artists, including 19th century-era music from the Black Irish band (they've released 35 albums that include traditional songs of America's Irish railroad builders) plus other musicians will bring more variety.

The event will reunite the most famous 19th century trains in the world, for the first time in more than EIGHTY years. That's because when the movies came calling -- starting with silent films in the 1920s -- only one railroad still had most of its 1870s-era steam locomotives. And those were already-ancient, stunningly beautiful, polished-brass-adorned, colorfully-painted, custom-decorated, mechanical works of wonder. They will reunite only for this event.


V&T #12, the "Genoa," is one of the engines visiting from the California State Railroad Museum. For decades, it has been displayed indoors in Sacramento, framed by an equally-ancient iron-pin truss bridge. But for four days, "Genoa" will gleam in the Nevada sunshine after a very long absence.

Hit pause. Think of every colorful Victorian gingerbread wood house you've ever seen, and every picture of a Mississippi River paddlewheel steamboat. These are the surviving trains of that same era. It was a time when machines were embellished with art because they were special. Getting them into places that had recently been rugged frontier was quite a feat, and their operators wanted their presence to proclaim itself with literal bells and whistles.

Our own era is powered by hype over supposedly "powerful" dumb apps that put cartoon cat ears on your friends' pictures. People get excited about ear buds with slightly better frequency range than last year's offerings that isolated you from reality. Thousand-dollar phones that are 5g seem a necessity instead of suddenly obsolete 4g. Even when asked to take reality checks, it's usually by a marketer of more little electronic junk you're supposed to replace in two years. Don't we need to escape the paltry, trivial, claustrophobic, overhyped, and two-inch-screen virtual, to go see full-size spectacle that really did move the world? And, as it did it, brought hand-painted cameo murals, gold-leaf lettering, chuffing and hissing, melodic whistling, and rhythmic bell clanging along for the ride?


When new diesel-powered "streamliners" debuted in the 1930s, 1870s V&T locomotives were used to contrast progress. That, even as Hollywood bought-up the vintage engines for movie stardom. Here, V&T #21 -- which starred in Cecil B. DeMille's 1939 epic "Union Pacific" -- poses with the UP's then-newest passenger train. "Bowker" is among the visiting engines at the four-day event.


These four days go beyond the unparalleled esthetics of another time. The history is as rich as it gets. Everybody knows of Virginia City, Nevada, thanks to Ben Cartwright and his "Bonanza" clan. But all that was fiction, and the actual story is far better.

Virginia City is situated on the side of a mountain. Its streets are stairstepped contours, and tapping the riches of its Comstock Lode of silver -- on the opposite side of the High Sierra from the seaport at San Francisco-- was far more daunting than the nearly all-downslope moves of the California Gold Rush.

What intervened was the first Transcontinental railroad. You may recall our story of the 150th birthday of its completion with a 2019 event at Golden Spike National Historic Park in Utah, and the world's biggest steam locomotive being restored just in time to get there. (There's a link at the end of this feature story.)

Well, once the railroad connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in 1869, the four-month wagon train trek became a four-day train ride, AND, materials could be brought-in to build other railroads.

Among the first of these was the Virginia & Truckee, -- the storied "V&T" -- laying track south from the transcontinental railroad to reach Virginia City and the Comstock Lode. The new railroad made an upside-down question mark on the map to find terrain conducive to the maximum climb the trains could make. Running to Carson City and swinging east, it then climbed north to reach the famous mining town.

Mining booms all come to an end when the sought mineral is exhausted. Today they leave horrible scars from landscapes torn asunder, water courses diverted and polluted, and gaping open wounds of surface mining. Back then, they left Western ghost towns all of us find charming and comparatively small tailings from the tunnels of their underground mines.

The tracks to Virginia City were pulled-up in 1939, when the Comstock mines could not go any deeper. The remainder of the V&T was abandoned in 1949. One can only imagine what a rich property it would be today, we're it still there from Reno to Carson City and south.

But a curious thing happened to help sustain the railroad as the mines were playing out. It had a big stone enginehouse and shop in Carson City, filled with its original steam engines and wood passenger cars.

It so happened thst the first successful movie that told a story was a short called "The Great Train Robbery." It established moving pictures' first elements. Even before there was a Hollywood -- early films were mostly made in New Jersey -- filmmakers wanted steam trains to propel the action.

The V&T needed revenue. The studios needed 19th century trains that looked like they were transported from that era. And so the treasure trove of V&T equipment was saved from the scrapper, and scattered to the four winds of film, and later, television. In nearly every American-made Western that includes a train, what you see is one of those V&T 19th century steam locomotives.

A few were reunited and restored when the California State Railroad Museum opened in 1981 in Sacramento. They will make the trip over the Sierra to join their kin this weekend.

More V&T engines and cars were brought together when Silver State Nevada established its own state railroad museum, following the success of its neighboring Golden State. But nothing like this event has happened before, and more steam locomotives of V&T and other ancestry will join in. That includes an impressive array of three-foot narrow gauge steam locomotives and cars that you can ride, too.

A note about those cars. Hollywood bought things because they looked good, not because they understood or cared about history. One car that will remain on display inside the museum during the event is a holy grail of railroading. Bought from the V&T, it sat beneath oak trees after Hollywood was finished with it. There, generations of woodpeckers pecked thousands of holes and stuffed them with acorns as stored food. Neither human nor bird realized what was being pecked to almost death.

That car was one of the four that was present on May 10, 1869, when the Golden Spike was driven. Later, it was chartered by the Women's Suffrage Movement to take activists to the most notable gathering of the time to push for getting the right to vote for women. The car was eventually sold by the Central Pacific to the V&T, preserving it from ignominious scrapping the first time. Creation of the Nevada State Railroad Museum would do that again, even if the car's pedigree had been lost to history at the time.

So, go, enjoy the spectacle and the daily 1 PM pageantry of all the locomotives outdoors, and make sure your time inside the very formidable museum includes paying homage to that one, still unrestored car that is the sole survivor from the Golden Spike in 1869. The car is too fragile for it to hsve attended the 150th birthday in Utah in 2019. But you can see it now.

2022 is Nevada's turn for a significant celebration of a noteworthy 150th anniversary. And you should not expect another gathering on par with this one for another fifty years.

There are different engines pulling the trains and different musicians performing each day. Check all the schedules and get tickets at

www.greatwesternsteamup.com

___

The Nevada State Railroad Museum is located at
2180 S. Carson St.
Carson City, NV 89701
775-687-6953
___

There is ALSO a fine re-creation, a restoration of the original V&T that's mostly on its original roadbed from Mound House (east of Carson City) all the way up to Virginia City, and it runs seasonally, behind a steam locomotive. (Your editor worked on it as a college summer job!) It is not affiliated with the museum or this special event. It runs from Virginia City, with SPECIAL TRAINS over the 4th. Check out their train rides here.


The re-created V&T is based high-up in Virginia City, as seen here. It hauls tourists partway down the mountain over the original railroad's route. Separate from the Carson City event, it will operate special trains Friday and Sunday from  Virginia City as a benefit to restore an original 1875 V&T locomotive brought home from the Old Tucson movie set. Sunday's 5:30 pm special train is a two-hour ride.

___

You can read our 2019 story from the Guide's coverage of the 150th anniversary event for the Golden Spike, a big deal in Utah, here.

It's archived along with our special feature from the same year on trains to the Dixieland jazz and hoopla of Mardi Gras, also a fun read at that same address.
___

We will ADD PHOTOS from the event. Check back over the weekend and beyond! Meantime, Happy Canada Day July 1st, and Happy Fourth!


Resources / Navigation / Contacting us / finding what you want in current, recent, or archived Guide editions 


MOBILE-DEVICE-FRIENDLY

editions load quickly at


Or at


On mobile devices, click "view web edition" to bring-up the left side bar with navigation tools. That gives you direct access to click your way to all recent editions. It's easy to bring-up month-by-month archives to everything -- last year, a decade ago, so far this year, and each previous year.

It's all there, since we first moved The Guide (with its former name) to Blogspot. 

Does that mean you need to find Marty and Doc's DeLorean time machine? 

Because, geez, THAT was back when Rin-Tin-Tin hadn't gotten his second "tin" from Tin Pan Alley

... and you watched TV on a big box that bombarded you with non-ionizing radiation from its cathode ray tube if you sat close to it, instead of like nowadays, getting your inescapable non-ionizing radiation from 5g, wherever you sit

... and 

... and "the pandemic" meant 1918

... anyway, The Guide has been around a LOOOOONNNNNGGGG time! So you can escape into the musical wonderments of this current edition, AND/OR you can go far enough back to escape whatever is the current lunacy du jour, and explore MANY THOUSANDS of feature stories, musical explorations, band and artist descriptions, and assorted fascinating items we have published through the years for your perusal and enjoyment.

HINT: We often get feedback like this regarding the archive:

"We were talking about how we first met. We disagreed about who was playing that night. We were pretty distracted by each other. So we deep dived in your archive and we found everything about that night!!! It even let us figure out a bunch of our important dates--most of them were musical and it sure was fun to relive those times!!!"

 
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>

CONTACT US -- Post Comments / Send Questions / say Howdy at:

news-events-perspectives (at) outlook (dot) com

OR USE THE COMMENTS FUNCTION on the site.

<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>

Entire contents copyright © 2022

Lawrence Wines & Tied to the Tracks.

All rights reserved.

<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS – and views of interest to artists everywhere – more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers -- and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music. That includes both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues (now undergoing a major update), and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues from the monumentally large to the intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops, conferences, and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the swamp water roots of the blues and the bright lights of where the music is headed now.
The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell. The cyber porch'll be here anytime you come back from a masked safari to fetch your groceries, or get a hankerin' for a real or a virtual tuneful sojourn at (or from) a quality venue, or whatever version of hittin' the road for the festival circuit or a tuneful tour.

Toodles!
_______

MORE NAMM NEWS & REVIEWS COMING SOON.




.