One of a dozen singers performing their own and Woody Guthrie’s songs today at Grand Coulee Dam, Annie Ford sings “Pastures of Plenty.”
Here’s the schedule for today and tonight:
People attending are encouraged to bring their own picnics and blankets to the event.
Speaker Schedule
· 2:00 to 3:30 p.m .: Michael Madjic of University of Oregon: Roll On, Columbia screening and discussion with Greg Vandy
· 3:45 to 4:45 p.m .: Deana McCloud of Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa: “Woody Guthrie, Man of the People” discussion with Greg Vandy
· 5:00 to 6:00 p.m .: Libby Burke of BPA Library: Stephen B. Kahn and the BPA Motion Picture Division: “Get me a Folksinger!” with a screening of “The Columbia: America’s Greatest Power Stream”
· 6:30 to 7:30 p.m .: Bill Murlin and Joe Seamons: “The Lost Guthrie BPA Recordings”
· 7:45 to 9:00 p.m .: Greg Vandy: “26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest” book reading and discussion
Performer Schedule
1:30 p.m .: Bill Murlin
2:10 p.m .: Annie Ford
2:50 p.m .: Mike Giacolino
3:30 p.m .: Planes on Paper
4:10 p.m .: Country Dave Harmonson
4:50 p.m .: Smokey Brights
5:30 p.m .: John Pontrellow
6:10 p.m .: Michael Wohl
6:50 p.m .: Aaron Semer
7:30 p.m .: The Foghorns
8:10 p.m .: Jacob Miller & the Bridge City Crooners
May 28 is now officially Woody Guthrie Day in the state of Washington, and a large celebration of the musician and his works will take place at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center on that date.
The event will include performances from 12 different artists, as well as discussions from experts, including author Greg Vandy, who wrote the book “26 Songs in 30 Days” about Guthrie’s legendary place in Americana culture and Grand Coulee Dam history.
The event will also include screenings of films, including the stolen film “The Columbia,” a film by Elmer Buehler, who happened to be the man chosen to drive Guthrie around the Pacific Northwest as he penned songs for The Bonneville Power Administration. Buehler was ordered by the BPA in the 1950s to burn all copies of the film, but he squirreled away a copy and didn’t tell a soul about it until the 70s,
Woody Guthrie said his guitar was a fascist killer. Photo by New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer Al Aumuller.
thus preserving a piece of Guthrie and Grand Coulee Dam history.
Woody Guthrie, having experienced firsthand the hardships of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, wrote many songs in the folk-music tradition that captured the experiences. His Dust Bowl ballads from 1940 painted a bleak picture of hard times and farms ruined by dust, people losing their livelihoods.
In 1941, Guthrie was overcome with joy and optimism about the BPA projects and he penned the Columbia River songs, writing 26 in 30 days.
Vandy asserts that these songs were a bright answer and catharsis after the darkness of the Dust Bowl ballads. The dam projects represented optimism for working class Americans who were going through hard times — a light at the end of the Depression tunnel and an oasis of water which must have looked beautiful to Guthrie, who had been ravaged by dust himself.
Vandy explains that Americans in the Depression, despite a lack of material wealth, took pride and solace in the mass of cultural wealth found in our music, our literature, our films, and in every corner of the country, in every home and business on every street, dirty or paved. Woody, according to Vandy, “embodied the classic depression era folk singer” and that’s why the state is honoring him with his own holiday.
Said Governor Jay Inslee in his proclamation of the holiday, “Guthrie is the pre-eminent American folk icon and his Columbia River Songs are a part of our rich cultural history; it’s time for a meaningful recognition of his poetic accomplishments on the 75th anniversary of his Pacific Northwest songs. … I urge all people in our state to join me in the celebration of Woody Guthrie’s work.”
People attending are encouraged to bring their own picnics and blankets to the event.
Speaker Schedule
· 2:00 to 3:30 p.m .: Michael Madjic of University of Oregon: Roll On, Columbia screening and discussion with Greg Vandy
· 3:45 to 4:45 p.m .: Deana McCloud of Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa: “Woody Guthrie, Man of the People” discussion with Greg Vandy
· 5:00 to 6:00 p.m .: Libby Burke of BPA Library: Stephen B. Kahn and the BPA Motion Picture Division: “Get me a Folksinger!” with a screening of “The Columbia: America’s Greatest Power Stream”
· 6:30 to 7:30 p.m .: Bill Murlin and Joe Seamons: “The Lost Guthrie BPA Recordings”
· 7:45 to 9:00 p.m .: Greg Vandy: “26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest” book reading and discussion
Performer Schedule
1:30 p.m .: Bill Murlin
2:10 p.m .: Annie Ford
2:50 p.m .: Mike Giacolino
3:30 p.m .: Planes on Paper
4:10 p.m .: Country Dave Harmonson
4:50 p.m .: Smokey Brights
5:30 p.m .: John Pontrellow
6:10 p.m .: Michael Wohl
6:50 p.m .: Aaron Semer
7:30 p.m .: The Foghorns
8:10 p.m .: Jacob Miller & the Bridge City Crooners
Lots of fun set for this weekend’s (9/18-20/2015) Harvest Festival includes human foosball, for those who like to literally get into their games!
Teams of six square off in a life-size foosball court, holding onto the cross bars. Should be a hoot.
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Harvest Festival will feature a live, human-size foosball competition at Banks Lake Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m ., Saturday, Sept. 19.
It’s a case of humans becoming the pins in a real foosball shootout.
“It’s the newest, and most hilariously fun, addition to our ever-popular Harvest Festival!” the chamber’s website says.
Teams of six can enter the challenge with a registration fee of $30. To register, contact the chamber office, at 633-3074 or register online at the chamber website.
The chamber is encouraging people to contact friends and relatives and organize a team for a lot of fun and action on Sept. 19.
And that’s just part of the activities planned. Others include:
• Sumo Wrestling
• Three-Legged Racing
• Pumpkin Decorating
• Bubble Station and
• Water Balloons!
Plus, arts and crafts and food vendors, a sanctioned barbecue competition (tasting available), a quilt show, a community yard sale and a poker run for biker types.
And a beer garden is ready to accept the weary or the waiting!
An outdoor native American art exhibit and sale is happening this weekend on Midway Ave. across from Coulee Hardware in the parking lot of Body by Dam.
The judged show and market features several artists from across the northwest and a style not often seen.
You may be familiar with the art of coastal tribes with stylized whale images, for example. Or you might readily recognize the art of Southwest tribes, with prominent turquoise and silver.
But this show is called The First Ever Platuea Native Art Exhibit. Entries can win up to $400 for first place.
The event is being coordinated by the Northwest Native Development Fund
A tiny rider races the barrel course at the Ridge Riders Junior Rodeo.
The Ridge Riders’ Junior Rodeo opens at 10 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday, July 18-19 and is free.
With 180 contestants from as far away as British Columbia and Ellensburg (and we saw California plates in contestants’ parking lot) the competition is stiff and the skills on these young cowboys and cowgirls impressive.
The Junior Rodeo involves both boys and girls up to the age of 18.
Young cowboys and cowgirls in several age groups will compete in such events as barrel racing, dummy roping, calf riding, bull riding, calf roping, saddle bronc riding, chute dogging and steer wrestling.
Top placers will get championship belts, and there will be all-round awards.
