Brown County Literacy Coalition presents
WILDERNESS
BALLADS
CONCERT
Sunday, March 8, 2015
The premiere performance of a new collaboration between author Scott Russell Sanders and some of Indiana’ s best-known folk singers will be the presented at 4 p. m. Sunday, March 8, at the Brown County High School auditorium. Proceeds benefit Brown County Literacy Coalition programs and services. Tickets are $ 15 in advance, $ 20 at the door, available at Brown County Visitors Bureau or online at < bcliteracycoalition. org >.
“ Wilderness Ballads” features Sanders’ s stories of frontier life in the Midwest in the early 1800s, as seen through his books Wilderness Plots and Bad Man Ballad. Sanders’ narration of his work will be interspersed with original songs inspired by the books and written by a group of 10 musicians led by singer-songwriter Tim Grimm of Columbus, organizer of the original“ Wilderness Plots” project in 2007 which was taped and aired nationally by PBS.
The March 8 concert will feature some of those songs, but also will incorporate new stories, songs, songwriters, and musicians.
The concert is a project of the Brown County Literacy Coalition,
54 Our Brown County • March / April 2015
Tom Roznowski, Scott Russell Sanders, Tim Grimm, Krista Detor. courtesy photo
and is the culmination of the annual Community Book Read. The third annual community reading project, co-sponsored by the Brown County Public Library, is centered on“ Wilderness Plots.” All profits from the show will help fund coalition activities, which are focused on the early education initiatives benefitting children in Brown County from birth to eight years of age.
Sanders is a distinguished professor emeritus of English at Indiana University, where he taught from 1971 to 2009, and an award-winning author of more than 30 books. Grimm, who was recently named as the top artist on a national folk radio survey, has recorded more than a dozen albums. He’ s also an accomplished actor who co-starred with Harrison Ford in“ Clear and Present Danger,” and has been involved in several theatrical projects since.
Joining Sanders and Grimm will be Bloomington-area musicians and songwriters Krista Detor and Tom Roznowski, who were part of the original“ Wilderness Plots” project. New performers will be Ben Bedford, a Springfield, Illinois singersongwriter, and The Underhills, an energetic young band from Bloomington.
“ Wilderness Plots” became an Emmy-nominated public television music special and the compact disc featuring 19 songs has become a highly prized collector’ s item.
“ Our original Wilderness group members were very interestingly disparate writers— but, we were all fairly close in age( now 40s and 50s). I’ m interested in expanding our range, so to speak, and our two new acts do just that— on a couple of levels,” he said.
Bedford has released three recordings and“ has become known as an exceptional writer of historical fiction in song,” Grimm said.
“ The Underhills are all in their early 20s and their writing can be quirky and unpredictable— and I mean that in the best way. They are a dynamic group, blending old-time music and bluegrass. With three writers and three different lead singers in their group of six, they can bring a lot to the plate. I’ m very enamored with them.”
Tickets to the concert are $ 15 in advance or $ 20 at the door.
Continued on 56