sauerkrautcowboys

Fashion: (Very) Imaginary Wild West

2012-02-14T17:05:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

From Nudie to Ralph Lauren (and beyond) the fashion industry has long looked to an imaginary vision of the West, cowboys, the Frontier, Native Americans and all that for inspiration. The Autry Museum some years ago chronicled this love affair in a major exhibit, How the West Was Worn, which also resulted in a book by my friend Holly George Warren.

The latest (very) imaginary take comes now from the LA-based designer Jeremy Scott, whose Spring-Summer 2012 menswear line, called Urban Cowboy Couture, "updates an American classic" goes way beyond Rhinestone Cowboy glitz with a collection that features everything from rubber cowboy boots to crotchless fringed plastic pinto pants.....

Imaginary Wild West meets Modernity.... off geographic topic but interesting

2012-01-22T20:38:00.000+01:00

The New York Times runs a piece today about historic Tombstone Arizona's battle to deal with the mountains of trash produced by the 200,000 tourists who visit each year to experience the world of Wyatt Earp, etc

It is fair to say that well before the Earp brothers shot three cowboys in a lot behind the O.K. Corral, this city had a trash problem. Mule and horse droppings were everywhere. The stench of leather being tanned, charcoal burning and ore being dug out of the earth burned the nostrils. Garbage piled high in the muddy streets.

The article notes that Tombstone issued an ordinance in 1881 -- Ordinance 6 -- that created a Board of Health and stipulated how to dispose of animal carcasses, rotting food and dead bodies. This ordinance was enacted before the much better known Ordinance 9 -- the one, also issued in 1881, that banned carrying guns in the city.

And still, more than 130 years later, the city continues to wrestle with its refuse.

Happy Karl May Year!

2012-01-07T11:19:00.000+01:00

Poster for one of the exhibits

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Happy Karl May Year! The German adventure writer who gave us Winnetou and Old Shatterhand was born 1842 and in died in 1912 and many events are scheduled to mark the 170th and 100th anniversaries.

A web site has been set up to keep track of events and news. There is a long series of exhibits, festivals, symposia, conferences, lectures and other events programmed throughout the year, mainly in Germany but also in other countries. Some of the exhibits kicked off already in later 2011.

With any luck, I'll be able to get to some of these and report here.

Italy -- Country Christmas. The imaginary Wild West in Italia

2011-12-11T10:18:00.001+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Looks like the second annual Country Christmas in Pordenone, Italy is in full swing; actually the Dec. 8-11 event is winding up today. And here I am in Budapest, not northern Italy....

Country Christmas is a full-fledged country and western festival, like those in Germany and France -- with rodeo-style competitions, shops, other events and even live country music (Buddy Jewell), an element that has been largely missing from the horse and cowboy-action-shooting dominated Italian imaginary western scene.

The Festival web site calls it "the perfect mix of culture, entertainment, spectacle and nature, the ideal occasion for everyone who loves horseback riding and approaches 'country' also as a real lifestyle. The 'look' of visitors is de rigueur -- jeans, shirt, vest, cowboy boots and Stetson hat, with an attentive eye to the American style of the 1950s."

Insomma, Pordenone diventa capitale del West, tra dimostrazioni con cowboy e cavalli americani, prove di roping (tiro con lazzo) gare di toro meccanico e naturalmente, tanta musica country con dj e gruppi dal vivo che faranno ballare il pubblico dall’alba fino a notte fonda sulla pista più grande d’Europa, oltre 1.500 mq. Proprio qui si sfideranno le scuole di ballo country di tutta Italia, in arrivo gruppi dalla Sicilia come dalla Valle d’Aosta, che si contenderanno il terzo trofeo italiano di ballo country in programma sabato 10 e domenica 11 dicembre. Ma tutti potranno scendere in pista, e partecipare agli stage e corsi per imparare i passi giusti. E magari entrare nel Guiness dei Primati: Country Christmas infatti cercherà di battere il world record di Barn Dance (sabato ore 16.00)2, ovvero il più alto numero di coppie che si lanceranno nella barn dance, lo scorso anno il conteggio si è fermato a 465 coppie in pista contemporaneamente. Country Christmas 2011 lancia una nuova sfida ai suoi visitatori: la maratona di two step, primo premio una vacanza stile “Scappo dalla città” in un meraviglioso ranch in Wyoming.

Ad accompagnare le danze saranno alcune delle migliori band italiane e americane di country music. Star della manifestazione sarà Buddy Jewell, cantante leader della musica country americana, che sabato 10 alle ore 21.00 salirà sul palco con una miscela di musica e stili che richiama l’anima musicale dell’America Bianca. Da non perdere, domenica 11 dicembre, il 2°raduno italiano delle leggendarie auto americane degli anni ’50 che, dopo una sfilata nel centro di Pordenone, potranno essere ammirate nell’area esterna ai padiglioni della fiera. In un ambiente western non potevano mancare i saloon dove gustare i tipici piatti dei cowboy: t-bones, carne secca e fagioli, specialità tex-mex e ottima birra. E per concludere, niente di meglio di una puntatina al Country Market, con tanti stand per lo shopping, e per i più piccini tante attività a loro dedicate: la visita al villaggio degli indiani d’America, il recinto degli asinelli e il battesimo a cavallo, per coloro che salgono in groppa per la prima volta.

England et al -- February International Country Music Festival Line-up Expanding

2011-12-10T09:34:00.002+01:00

Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The program for the International Festival of Country Music to be held in February in London's Wembley Arena and other venues is expanding -- Charlie Pride and Asleep at the Wheel have been added to the line-up. Acts now include headliners Pride, AATW, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs, and Lonestar, as well as supporting acts Narvel Felts, John McNicholl, Jo-El Sonnier, Will Banister, George Ducas, Sandy Kelly & George Hamilton IV, Raymond Froggatt, and Tim McKay.

The Festival kicks off Feb. 26, 2012 at Wembley -- scene in the 1970s and '80s of famous country music festivals -- and then travels to Belfast, Zurich and Germany.

Returning to Wembley after more than two decades thus really marks a symbolic return of big-time country music to the mainstream arts agenda -- and signals a revival of popularity in the genre. As the web site says:

The International Festival of Country Music introduced country music to the British public almost 45 years ago. The shows, promoted by the legendary Mervyn Conn, ran for 23 years from 1969 to 1991 at Wembley Arena. Hugely popular, the shows always featured the biggest stars of Country music fans were treated to outstanding performances by artists including; Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Lee Lewis, Crystal Gayle and many more.

Now after a gap of 20 years the Festival is back, and one thing that has not changed is world class line-up.

International Festival of Country Music founder Mervyn Conn said: “I’m bringing the International Festival of Country Music back after over twenty years due to popular demand. The regard for Country Music has grown significantly in the UK since the first year I promoted this event and I believe that now is the time to reintroduce this once hugely popular event to converted fans of country music and to a new and emerging group of country music lovers”.

Reba McEntire comments; “My band, crew and I are really looking forward to going back to Europe to play our music. The last time we performed there was in 1999! We have been very busy for the last 10 years doing the REBA TV show and concerts in North America. Now, we are so excited to be able to travel abroad and do both our new and old songs for our European audience, who has always been so good to us.”

Slovakia -- The annual Peter Dula Tribute Concert

2011-12-09T00:48:00.000+01:00

Michael Lonstar and Dorota Krawczyk at the Peter Dula tribute. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This week I was in Kosice, in far eastern tip of Slovakia, to attend the annual concert and awards event held there to honor the memory of local son Peter Dula, a Slovak country singer who died of cancer in 2009 at the age of only 28. He had been diagnosed ten years earlier while in the U.S. playing hockey for a junior league in Boston, then got into country music while undergoing cancer treatment back in Slovakia.

I never met Dula (though we were friends on Facebook), but he was a friend of several of my friends in the central European country scene. Dula had fronted the band Veslari -- "The Rowers," Slovakia's oldest country music band, since 2004. With Dula singing, the band won a Slovak Grammy and other numerous awards including the best European country band of 2007. They also played at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 2007.

After his death, Dula's friends in the country music scene over here decided to honor his memory by each year passing on his guitar to a chosen artist, who would be its custodian for the following 12-month period, creating a sort of "Wayfaring Guitar" as a living memorial.

The guitar is handed over at a concert event where awards are also handed out, inducting chosen artists into "Peter Dula's Country Music Hall of Fame."

The first two awardees, in 2009, right after Dula's death, were European -- my friends Michael Lonstar, from Poland, and Allan Mikusek, from Slovakia. Last year there were four Americans: songwriter Mark Trail, Billy Yates, Joe Diffie and Buddy Jewell.

This year the awards went to my Czech friends Robert Krestan and Lubos Malina, and their band Druha Trava -- I worked with the band on their latest CD, Shuttle to Bethlehem, which features Robert's original songs sung in my English translations.

The concert -- which lasted four hours -- was held in a big theater-type hall in some sort of anonymous facility (a driving school?) on the southern edge of Kosice. The theater was packed, and the atmosphere was good: not raucous, like a German or Polish country crowd; not "tramp" like the Czech bluegrass crowd can be. There was no bar in the place -- so no one was drunk, either! And the only person in a real cowboy hat was Lonstar. (Several of us wore cowboy boots, though....)

Lonstar, a young Polish singer named Dorota Krawczyk, and a Slovak band led by local singer Laco Sasak performed during the first half of the show. A mix of U.S. songs, and traditional-style originals (sung in English, Polish and Slovak) -- concluding the set with a Slovak version of the song "Cowboy's Gone," which Lonstar wrote in memory of Peter Dula. All the while, pictures of Dula were projected onto the rear of the stage.

Druha Trava was the headline act and played the second half of the show. I've seen them perform a lot, but I've never seen such an enthusiastic audience -- whooping and stomping and cheering, etc. Pretty wild. DT hadn't performed in Kosice in years, and it was as if the audience was just hungry for the music.

At the end of the show, the awards (framed citations) were present, and Peter Dula's wayfaring guitar was handed over into the care of DT.

Then, as the closer, Robert, joined by the other artists, sang the folksong "Wayfaring Stranger", with Dula's picture as a backdrop, which seemed the right way to end the show.

India/Pakistan -- Country Music Goes to Bollywood...

2011-11-26T22:50:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Shahvaar Ali Khan, a musician based in Lahore, Pakistan, has infused the score of his friend director Rohit Dhawan’s upcoming Bollywood movie Desi Boyz with some US style country music...

Unmistakable country twang sets the tone of Khan's song titled “Filmain Shilmain” -- which also has elements of Pakistani and Indian music.

States an article by Rafay Mahmood in the Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune:

The song itself has captivated the audience with its reminiscent feel. It takes the listener to the good, old carefree days, when sipping tea at roadside stalls and jamming at college concerts defined life.

Here's the song:

Italy -- A Wild West Restaurant Chain in Italia

2011-11-19T23:15:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Just a note to highlight yet another chain of wild west restaurants, this one Old Wild West in Italy. The web site says there are 70 branches.

UK -- The Best of British Country Music

2011-11-16T09:57:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Telegraph newspaper runs an article on the best of British country music. "Britain is renowned for its folk music," writes Martin Chilton, "but there also UK country bands strutting their stuff in proud style."

He highlights new albums by several groups:

Red Sky July: Red Sky July (Proper Records)
The Good Intentions: Someone Else's Time (Boronda Records)
Ahab: KMTV (Navigator Records)
Jim Harbourne: Hills Of Home (Borrowed Time Productions)

Read the full article HERE

Czech/US/Music -- Druha Trava and Shuttle to Bethlehem on U.S. national NPR radio

2011-11-12T17:41:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

More DT and Shuttle to Bethlehem -- the band's English-language CD that mainly features my translations of Robert Krestan's original Czech songs.

A story on the band and the CD, by NPR political correspondent Don Gonyea, ran on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" show today. Read a short version of it HERE or listen to the full story HERE.

The first time I heard Druha Trava play was April 2009. I was covering President Obama's trip to the Europe. There was a big outdoor speech in Prague, and the band was playing Czech versions of Bob Dylan songs.

I did a short radio postcard story back then, figuring it was the kind of experience that every music fan knows: You stumble upon a great band somewhere and never see them again.

Now it's the fall of 2011, and I'm chasing candidates around Iowa. Who should be doing a show at the Czech and Slovak Hall in Cedar Rapids? Druha Trava.

England -- Wild West ranch vandalized and robbed

2011-11-09T08:11:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

In the English town of Hartlepool, thieves ransacked and robbed a wild west enthusiast's private cowboy ranch of £3500 worth of items in his collection of Americana.

Ged Parker, who runs Hartlepool’s Wild West Legends Re-Enactment Society, turned up to his site on the outskirts of town yesterday morning to find it had been ransacked.

Thieves had gone through all of his belongings and stolen much-loved authentic pieces, including saddles, bridles and clothes that he had imported from the USA.

They also made off with expensive tools, tried and failed to use a trailer to steal a vintage tractor and made a mess of the field off Dalton Back Lane where the group keep their horses.

Ged, who founded the society three years ago, called the thieves “mindless idiots” as they also left gates open for three horses to roam free – despite it being just yards from the A19 dual-carriageway.

. . . .

The society has more than 40 members who regularly visit their very own prairie town on the outskirts of Hartlepool.

It was set up by Ged and his friends to recreate life on the range and he hoped to use it to educate people about American history.

Read full story HERE

Belgium -- "Nudie Suits" exhibit/Bobbejaan Schoepen

2011-11-04T07:21:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Fashion Museum in Antwerp, Belgium is presenting the first exhibition in Europe of the flamboyant clothing designed, mainly for country music stars and other popular entertainers, by Nudie Cohn, the "Rodeo Tailor" (and king of sartorial rhinestone glitz).

The show, called "Dream Suits", opened Oct. 28 and runs til Feb. 12. It features clothing owned -- and worn -- by the popular Belgian entertainer Bobbejaan Schoepen, who died in 2010 at the age of 85.

Drawn from the personal collection of iconic Belgian entertainer Bobbejaan Schoepen and his wife Josée, this show — curated by fashion historian Mairi MacKenzie and designer R. Cerimagic — will be the first European exhibition to examine the work of the Ukrainian born tailor who revolutionized the clothing of Country & Western Music.

Originally a designer of highly embellished g-strings for New York strippers, Nudie Cohn moved to Hollywood in 1947 and originated the rhinestone cowboy look that has become visual shorthand for Country & Western style. His fantastical, intricately embroidered and heavily ornamented outfits adorned the backs of numerous music and film stars, including Elvis Presley, Gram Parsons, Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Elton John, Cher, John Lennon, Steve McQueen, Johnny Cash, and Bobbejaan Schoepen. Today his work is still sought after and admired. Contemporary musicians such as Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream, Mike Mills from R.E.M. and Beck, fashion photographers such as Craig McDean and fashion designers from Tommy Hilfiger to Ralph Lauren have been inspired by his incredible designs. Bobbejaan Schoepen was a lifelong client and collector of Nudie Cohn designs. This resulted in a close friendship between the two men, and an exceptionally large and well-preserved collection of Nudie designs. This exhibition will celebrate both Nudie’s very particular aesthetic as well as the relationship between these extraordinary men.

Schoepen was a singer, actor and comedian whose career and style included a hefty dose of old-style comic country music -- including virtuoso whistling and yodeling. He got his first breaks entertaining American troops in Europe after World War II. He was one of the first Europeans to appear at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, performing three times there in 1953 with Roy Acuff.

A short film made by Alice Hawkins to accompany the exhibit is very consciously retro -- but I find it fails to capture the joy, verve and dazzlingly ironic sense of fun that Nudie, his often outrageous costumes and his over the top cars embodied.

"Shuttle to Bethlehem"

2011-11-01T01:42:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I just spent three days with Druha Trava in California (around the Bay Area) helping out with some of the PR for the new CD "Shuttle to Bethlehem" -- the CD showcases my English language translations of Robert Krestan's original Czech songs, and I also wrote the liner notes for the album.

It was fun. Three good and very well received concerts in three quite different venues as part of the band's current five-week U.S. tour (a sold-out gig at a coffee house in Santa Clara, a crowded concert in someone's house in Redwood City, and a lunchtime show at a Mexican Restaurant called Don Quixote's near Santa Cruz....see clip below

I also took part in a two-hour radio show on the local KRCB NPR affiliate in Sonoma country about the CD and the band, hosted by my friend Linda Seabright -- and ahead of the Don Quixote gig, I spoke on-air between songs during a live performance by the band on KPIG FM. (The studio is located in a former motel in Freedom, CA, and is decorated with layers of pictures and posters testifying to 40 years of rock...)

KPIG studio. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The band's tour has been getting good write-ups: to me it's interesting how the sets they sing are different in the States from what they do in CZ. Here in the US, most is in English -- new songs from "Shuttle" and a range of covers -- and there's more bluegrass. But in CZ, Robert's songs make up the major part of the onstage repertoire, with only a very few songs in English.

Country Music -- New Zealand Awards

2011-10-23T20:23:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Heads up! the New Zealand Country Music Star Awards are today!

Czech/US/Music -- Druha Trava's English language CD is Out

2011-10-13T10:29:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Shuttle to Bethlehem, the new English-language CD by the Czech band Druha Trava, is officially out now in the Czech Republic -- and the band is in the US at the start of a five-week tour to launch it. I take particular interest because I was involved with the CD production -- I translated Robert Krestan's songs and also helped out in the studio during recording. You can find the English lyrics HERE.

I'm eager to see how the CD is received -- so far, comments are very positive. One newspaper editor I know in Minneapolis called it on Facebook "a great album, and a wonderful introduction to the renowned "Czechgrass" band."

France -- Paris Western Show!

2011-10-01T00:09:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Paris Western Show last weekend! Oh man, why wasn't I there?? (Though there are actually not too many people to be seen in the video....)

I Receive a High Honor from Poland

2011-09-23T10:36:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I'm honored and delighted to report that at a ceremony at the Polish Consulate in New York last night I received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit -- one of Poland's highest honors awarded to foreigners. Poland's President Komorowski presented the awards -- alas, I was not able to be in New York, but my friend who stood in for me took a video of the moment when my name was read out:

Given my history with Poland, going back more than 30 years, it is quite an honor! As my old friend and colleague Doug Stanglin reported in USA Today, this award comes 28 years after Poland's the-Communist regime arrested me, threw me in jail, interrogated me and expelled me on trumpted up "espionage" charges.

At Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, 1983

What a difference a few years and the fall of the Berlin Wall makes.

In 1983, at the height of martial law and the Solidarity worker's movement, Poland's communist-led government detained American reporter Ruth Ellen Gruber on suspicions of "crimes against the state."

The then-bureau chief for United Press International was hauled in for questioning by police, then expelled from the country.

Thursday, the Polish government was at it again, with a new proclamation aimed at Gruber.

This time, it bestowed on her the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit, one of the highest honors awarded to foreigners.

.Read full story HERE

Poland -- New CD By Lonstar

2011-09-22T20:30:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I've been on the road on a very busy trip through central Europe and have had little time to post. But I did get to meet up with my Polish country singer/songwriter friend, Michael Lonstar, in Warsaw.

Lonstar and I met originally nearly 30 (yikes!) years ago, when I was a correspondent in Warsaw for United Press International -- he remembers us sitting at a party and talking about the Texas swing group Asleep at the Wheel (the Wheel's frontman Ray Benson is an old friend of mine).

In Warsaw, the weather was lovely and we sat outside at one of the city's plethora of sidewalk cafes and restaurants. He told me about some of the conflicts in the Polish country music world (rivalries, rival festivals, etc).

And he gave me a copy of his new CD, which was recorded in Nashville. It's called Michael Lonstar & (the Duets) and features traditional country-style duets with various other artists, such as the American Billy Yates and German Mandy Strobel.

Bluegrass -- Liz Meyer RIP

2011-08-28T23:21:00.002+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The bluegrass community on both sides of the Atlantic is mourning the singer-songwriter Liz Meyer, who has died at the age of 59 after a decade-long battle with cancer. Liz, an American who had lived in the Netherlands for a quarter of a century, was a leading figure in the European bluegrass scene and a major organizer and promoter for the European World of Bluegrass Festival and Trade Show.

Liz performed and recorded with many of contemporary bluegrass's greats, including one-time roommate Emmylou Harris, guitarist Mark Cosgrove, banjo players Bela Fleck and Ron Block, dobroists Rob Ickes and Jerry Douglas, fiddlers Glen Duncan and Stuart Duncan, bass player Bryon House and mandolinist Sam Bush.

From the CDBaby web site, about her 2005 Cd The Storm, in which she sang songs she had written that reflected on her illness.

Meyer is an American who is married to Dutch mandolinist Pieter Groenveld and who has lived in Holland since 1985. She’s been very involved with the European bluegrass scene, and months before its release, this album was in the Top Ten of the Euro Americana Radio Chart. All lyrics are included in the CD jacket. Liz’s songs have been recorded by such artists as Del McCoury, Mike Auldridge, Emmylou Harris, and Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum. Liz’s association with Emmylou goes back to the early 1970s when they roomed together in the D.C. area. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, Liz kept touring, underwent alternative treatments, and managed to beat the cancer. Liz attributes music with giving her the motivation and determination to keep going. “The Storm” is dedicated to the people who saved her life when the Storm was at its darkest. In her poignant closer, “Running Out of Time,” she says she wants kindness, love and to feel alive. Movies where they tell someone they have a few months to live had made a big impression on Liz as a child. Rather than write a song like “My Favorite Things” with a list of all the things you want to do while you still have time, she tried to find the most painfully poignant way to express these feelings--wanting to have a lover and feel passion one last time.

Read a full obituary on The Bluegrass Blog.

Bluegrass -- Congratulations to Lilly Pavlak, honored by the IBMA with Distinguished Achievement Award

2011-08-19T13:06:00.004+02:00

Lilly Pavlak at the European Bluegrass festival in La Roche sur Foron, France, 2009. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

My friend Lilly Pavlak is being honored by the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) with its Distinguished Achievement Award -- an honor, states the IBMA, that "recognizes individuals in the bluegrass music industry who have fostered the music’s image with developments that will broaden the genre’s recognition and accessibility."

Lilly and me after an all-night Tramp event...

Lilly was born in the Czech Republic, but since 1968 has been living in Switzerland. She is a hardcore bluegrass fan as well as constant chronicler, in words and pictures, of the scene -- and also sometimes works as an agent for groups.

I met her in 2004 when I was first exploring the European country/western/bluegrass scene. She was my own guide into the bluegrass scene in the Czech Republic (and elsewhere in Europe) literally taking me by the hand on some occasions to introduce me to people and events. She also brought me in to the Czech Tramping scene -- we spent a couple of memorable nights at all-night Tramp meetings and singathons.....

Here's what the IBMA says about her in its Press Release about the awards:

An active journalist for more than three decades who has been enormously important in telling the European bluegrass story in the U.S. (and vice versa), Pavlak is first and foremost a hardcore bluegrass fan who has devoted a large portion of her life and energy to promoting the music and artists she loves. The first American artist Pavlak heard in Czechoslovakia was Pete Seeger, in 1964. “I had never seen a live American before,” Lilly recalls. “We learned the worst things about ‘American imperialists’ in school and some people even believed they ate little children! After the first tones of the banjo, I knew this was the strange instrument from the hillbilly music I liked so much. That was a defining moment for me, and for the bluegrass movement that followed. Nowadays the Czech Republic claims the highest concentration of bluegrass musicians on earth!”

In 1975 Pavlak went to her first folk festival at Lenzburg Castle in Switzerland. The next day she flew to America for the first time, later returning with 20 pounds of bluegrass LPs and a guitar. She taped the albums and sent cassettes to her “Tramp Music” friends behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia—which was their only opportunity to hear bluegrass for 12 years. On a shoestring budget, Pavlak has returned to the States and Canada many times to hear and write about bluegrass music. She subscribed to American bluegrass publications and bought music to educate herself and her friends in Europe about new bands and trends. Lilly is one of the original members of the Swiss Bluegrass Music Association and the Bluegrass Association of the Czech Republic. Despite health issues in recent years, Pavlak attends nearly every bluegrass event in central Europe, sending reviews and photos to the bluegrass press around the world. “I feel home is where the heart is, and my heart is where good music is,” Lilly says. “I was always kind of a bridge between East and West, trying to put musicians from different countries together and make them friends.”

Lilly taking pix at La Roche. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

In addition to Lilly, the Distinguished Achievement awards went to Bill Knowlton, Geoff Stelling, Roland White, and Greg Cahill, past president of IBMA and former chairman of the IBMA board of directors, who has brought his band Special Consensus to Europe many times in the thirty-six years of its existence.

I wrote about some of the adventures Lilly and I had on several occasions -- including in an article about the Czech bluegrass and tramping scene for The New Leader, which also forms a chapter in my book "Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere)":

Lilly left Czechoslovakia after the Soviet-led invasion in 1968 and has lived in Switzerland more or less since then. For years, starting in 1975, she made tapes of bluegrass music from American LPs and sent them to her friends in Czechoslovakia. At the time, it was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain original American recordings. Lilly's friends copied and recopied her tapes and passed them around from player to player, like secret, even subversive, messages from across the global divide. Indeed, during the darkest years of communist rule, singing American-style music often became an oblique way of expressing protest against the regime.

Lilly was not able to return to Czechoslovakia until 1987, but when she did, she found poignant evidence of how widespread her influence had become. During that homecoming trip, she said, "I hitch-hiked toward the Oslavka River, and the people in the car that stopped for me were listening to a bluegrass tape. It was very familiar to me. I knew exactly what the next song would be -- once, long ago, I had put this tape together for a Czech friend. I asked the people where they had gotten it, and they told me that a friend of their friend had gotten from his friend. And so, after 12 years, I listened to my own tape again. The quality was terrible, but it was bluegrass, and I was home again."

Lilly's involvement with the music began, as it did for many other Czech fans and musicians, in the so-called Tramp Movement, a uniquely Czech outdoors and music subculture that originated in the 1920s and is still going fairly strong. Tramping grew out of the Boy Scout movement and was particularly influenced by the back-to-nature Woodcraft Indian Movement founded in 1901 by the Canadian author and naturalist Ernest Thomas Seton.

Czech tramps were not American-style hoboes, but for the most part urbanites who took the train out of big cities on Fridays and spent their weekends "living free" -- hiking, canoeing, sleeping under the stars and sitting around campfires, strumming guitars and singing. They called it "going to America," and many romanticized the American west, taking inspiration from western movies and novels. Czech tramps often dressed in cowboy hats and bandanas, gave their camp sites American names and decorated them with totem poles and other hybrid American Indian symbols and imagery.

"People couldn't travel, so they took the romance and made it at home," Lilly told me. "It came from books -- Jack London, John Steinbeck, and the romance of the wild west, Alaska and so on. Because people couldn't travel, they thought about it, and they tried to live their dreams."

Tramp songs, meanwhile, evolved from the informal stuff of campfire camaraderie into a full-blown genre of Czech popular music, merging local folk traditions with American folk songs, country music, cowboy songs, jazz and pop. A recent CD compilation of tramp songs originally recorded between 1920 and 1939 features performances by groups with names like Settlers Club, Camp Boys and Westmen. The cover of its information booklet features drawings of totem poles surrounding a sepia photograph of a group of young men strumming guitars and seated in the woods outside a log cabin bearing the name "Hudson" spelled out above its door.

The tramp movement remained strong under communism, despite periodic attempts by the authorities to regulate it or stamp it out.

"The dominant official opinion always was that tramps were relics of capitalist society and, as such, shall be given no rest until they would disappear from the face of the better socialist world," wrote Pavel Hubka, an amateur historian of tramping. "But they never did, despite vexation on the part of communist police and state Security."

Lilly described to me how, when she was 15, she and her sister were arrested when on a tramping jaunt in Slovakia and accused of spreading American ideology. They were harshly interrogated, and friends of theirs were sent to prison. "They beat me until the blood flowed," she told me.

In June, I accompanied Lilly to what is called a "tramp potlach" -- an all night sing-a-thon held around a blazing bonfire and well lubricated with freely flowing beer. The term derives from "potlatch" -- the term for the ceremony among native cultures in the Pacific Northwest at which hosts give away their possessions to their guests. The potlach I attended was held to celebrate the 45th anniversary of a tramp club near Brno that Lilly had belonged to as a teenager. There must have been 300 people present, most of them appearing to be in their 50s or 60s and most of them dressed in the green army surplus that has replaced cowboy gear as typical tramp attire. Former members had come from as far away as Canada to mark the occasion.

We gathered around a five-foot tall bonfire in a lush meadow clearing on the Bubrova River that had served for decades as the club's regular camp site. At the edge of the clearing, four totem poles built by club members stood amid a tall pine forest, and a small tepee was set up next to a log cabin very similar to the one pictured on the tramp music CD information booklet. At dusk, participants held a ritual ceremony to light the bonfire, and then the singing began. At first, individuals stepped forward to sing favorite songs. They were cheered by the crowd and presented with wooden plaques bearing painted images of Indian, trapper or woodland scenes. As night fell, the entire group joined in, singing song after song after song, straight through until daybreak. M
ost of them had lilting melodies with a regular beat -- real "campfire songs." There must have been a dozen people with guitars, and, as far as I could tell, no song was ever sung twice.

"You have 10,000 tramping songs, you know," Lilly told me. "Every group has their own songs, and we have some very good songwriters. You cannot count the music. I could have gone on singing for three days without stopping."

In 1964, Lilly was present at a seminal performance that electrified tramp music fans and changed the face of the Czech acoustic music scene. It was a concert by Pete Seeger, the second of two concerts that the American folk legend performed in Czechoslovakia following a tour of the Soviet Union.

"I had never seen a living American before, and at school we learned the worst things about the 'American imperialists,'" Lilly has recalled. "Some people even believed that they ate little children!" What's more, she said, "Pete sang a lot of songs we knew from tramp music, and so I realized that they must be American originals, not just tramp songs. That was the defining moment not just for me, but for the entire bluegrass movement that followed."

What particularly struck her and other fans were the appearance and sound of Seeger's long-necked, five-string banjo. According to legend, Seeger's performances in Prague and Brno marked the first time after World War II that a five-string banjo was seen and heard to be played live in Czechoslovakia. Lilly and other fans have recalled to me how they would listen to "hillbilly music" on the "forbidden but beloved" American Armed Forces Radio, beamed from West Germany across the Iron Curtain, and try to figure out what instrument made the distinctive, ringing sound that was so different from that of the guitars, mandolins and tenor banjos already common in the Czechoslovakia.

As soon as Seeger touched the strings, Lilly said, "I knew that this was the strange instrument I liked so much from the hillbilly music."

A Czech musician named Marko Cermak, who was active in the tramp music scene, became so excited that -- according to his own and other accounts -- he built his own long-necked, five-string banjo by studying photographs taken of Seeger at the Prague concert and blown up to life size. Cermak went on to become one of Czechoslovakia's first banjo virtuosi, the father of five-string banjo playing in the country -- godfather in effect to the 65 banjo players who set the record in Caslav this summer for unison playing.

Cermak also founded one of Czechoslovakia's first American-style country and bluegrass groups, the Greenhorns. The Greenhorns became extremely influential by playing Czech language versions of American folk songs, copying arrangements they heard on American Forces Radio. "The Orange Blossom Special" became "Oranzovy Expres," "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" became "Slama v Botach," and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" became "Pracoval Jsem na Trati." In doing so, they, and similar groups, brought these songs firmly into the local musical tradition, fostering a total assimilation of many songs into the Czech repertoire. Even today, many American folk songs are considered to be traditional Czech tramp songs -- or even believed to be Czech originals that were taken to America.

This assimilation was intensified by force after the 1968 invasion, when official censorship made much of America's cultural production taboo. The censors permitted groups to play bluegrass, folk and country music, which performers convinced them was the music of the "oppressed" American proletariat. Still, when performing in public they had to sing in Czech, and censors scrutinized the lyrics. Music groups were also forbidden to have English names, so the Greenhorns had to change themselves into the "Zelenaci," and a fellow group, the Rangers, became "Plavci."

Italy -- Out "Ovest" in Italia

2011-08-18T21:13:00.000+02:00

An Italian cowboy at a ranch near Rome. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

A friend of mine told me the other day about how much he enjoyed a few days' stay this summer at a dude ranch in Italy -- Silver Creek Ranch not far from Parma.

I took a look at the web site -- and I think I may have to go try it out myself....I find that I already missed some interesting looking events in Italy.

Not to mention various other ranches and "wild western spaces" -- all seemingly linked to the horse-riding and competition community.

Italian Cowboys in the Wild West imaginario... Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

There's Seventeen Ranch, for example, which hosts a Ranch Academy -- this is run by Andrea (Drew) Mischianti, an Italian Cowboy whom I met some years ago when he worked at the ranchlike Tenuta Santa Barbara ranch near Rome and was involved in organizing "western games" there -- these included rodeo-style riding competitions as well as a variety of exhibitions, stands, etc. I was always planning to go there to see the working ranch -- on my cellphone I still have a text message from him announcing that there would be branding that I could visit. (It doesn't seem as if these games still go on.)

"Drew" Mischianti some years ago. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

He has spent much time out west in the U.S., and for awhile wrote a column for an Italian Western magazine called Western Side (which doesn't seem to exist any more). Now he edits his own cowboy magazine (in Italian) called Cowboy Journal, which runs everything from recipes to adventure tales.

Italy -- Death of Italian country singer George McAnthony

2011-08-12T00:10:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I've just caught up with the sad news that the Italian country singer George McAnthony died last month of a heart attack. He was only 45. George was the first European country singer I met when I first started exploring the "imaginary wild west." I saw him perform a couple of times and did a lengthy interview with him -- he was a nice guy and he and his story helped trigger my interest in the imaginary wild west phenomenon. (For his web site click HERE)

George was born Georg Spitaler in 1966 near Bolzano in the Dolomite Mountains of the mainly German-speaking South Tyrol/Alto Adige region of northern Italy. He grew up an avid fan of the European-made western movies based on the popular “Winnetou” novels of the 19th century German author Karl May. As a teenager he fell in love with American country-western music and began roaring around his village on a motorcycle, blasting country music from its loudspeakers and wearing a cowboy hat and boots. In the 1990s after working as a carpenter and spending a couple years as a volunteer aid worker in Ethiopia, Georg reinvented himself as George McAnthony and went on the road fulltime as a country and western singer. He chose McAnthony as his stage name in honor of his late father, Anton. “I wanted a name that sounded American,” he told me, “and this made sense.”

McAnthony toured Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as a "country one man band," complete with a black Stetson, leather fringes, a painted stage backdrop of Monument Valley and a souvenir stall selling cheap turquoise jewelry, “George McAnthony” bolo ties, cowboy hats and his own CDs, a couple of which were recorded in Nashville. He played street fairs, horse shows, beer festivals, and outdoor summer fêtes in medieval village piazzas.

He died while spending the day on the beach at Terracina, south of Rome, before a scheduled appearance in the town of Vico (at a country festival).
I first saw McAnthony perform at a rural inn in central Italy that was sponsoring a “Country Festa” at which guests sported paper Indian headdresses and called each other “pardner.” McAnthony wrote much of his own material, in English. His songs stressed what he described as socially engaged, “positive images” – racial harmony, animal rights, world peace and safeguarding the environment. “I live the country way of life, and I love country music, and this is the way I do it,” he sang, with a distinct non-native accent, in his song “Country Way of Life.” He went on, “You don’t have to kill the Indians, or the people of Africa...”

The German blog Country Music International has put up a tribute page to George with lots of information on him, and lots of links.

Country REALLY Eastern -- Country Music Festival coming up in China!

2011-08-02T12:03:00.000+02:00

Illustration from Hunan web site

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Country REALLY Eastern -- there's another country music festival coming up in China... The second Zhangjiajie International Country Music Week - will take place at the Wulingyuan scenic area, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Hunan Province, Sept. 10 to 16. The hosts of the event are China's Ministry of Culture and the Hunan provincial government.

According to the Hunan Government web site, more than bands from more than two dozen countries have signed on -- but I haven't yet seen a list or program.

The First Zhangjiajie International Country Music Week came off at Huanglong Cave Square from May 14 to 18 in 2009, serving as a milestone of integrated development of tourism and culture.
The six-day music week this year aims to display and exchange country music across the whole world, and promote the development of national cultures. At present, thirty-one overseas bands consisting of 392 musicians from twenty-six countries and regions have been identified, while the list of eight domestic bands of the minority nationality is still up in the ai　

According to Ye Wenzhi, general planner of Zhangjiajie International Country Music Week, efforts will be made to develop the music week into regular music festival and foster Zhangjiajie into an international brand as well as a holy land of country music after holding three to five music weeks.

The China Daily quotes an official as saying they want to make the locale a major country music venue.

Ye Wenzhi, general manager of the Huanglongdong Tourist Corp, one of the event's organizers, said, "Every effort needs to be made to turn the music festival into a regular event and to develop Zhangjiajie into an international country music venue."

Here's a report about the first Country Music Festival in Zhangijajie in 2009, noting that there were country bands from Austria and Australia and -- not unsurprisingly -- John Denver's songs were hits.

Musicians from all over the world are meeting here at Zhangjiajie, a tourist destination in Hunan Province. The stage was set against high mountains to showcase talents of 24 country-music bands from neighboring countries like Japan and South Korea, and countries across the Pacific like the U.S. and Argentina as well. There were also eight distinguished performing troupes from domestic ethnic groups in Xinjiang Uygyur and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions as well as Yunnan, Guizhou and Hunan Provinces.

Country music was first created in the Southern states of the US in the 1920s and was originally popular among country folk. For this festival week, country music universally refers to all styles of folk music in the world with distinct national flavor.

The music feast featured music performed simultaneously at six distinct scenic areas and offered many other activities, such as a bonfire party.

The opening ceremony started with Hunan folk music performed jointly by Santa Fe Art Ensemble from America and a Zhangjiajie local troupe. Tom Maguire, the conductor of the American ensemble, says he enjoys the collaboration with Chinese folk artists.

"I feel very fortunate to be able to be with those wonderful musicians. It is amazing to be able do this kind of festival. I hope I can come back."
And Xiedan from the Zhangjiajie local troupe is honored to take part in the opening ceremony and communicate with foreign performers.

"There's no national boundary in the world of music. Although we speak different languages, we express the same wish through music. We performed together with musicians from Santa Fe in a traditional Zhangjiajie folk song "Lampstand on Masang Tree". They have different understandings of the music. We learned a lot from them."

Many other oversea participants also treated music fans with a real dose of country music. The Pond Pirates band from Austria gave Chinese audience members a taste of Austrian contemporary band genre, with their mixed influences of rock, ska and hip-hop.

Depressing drum sounds and slow dance moves characterized a dance troupe named Awa dance Performance Team from Japan, emphasizing a mysterious side to the eastern culture. Naka Tani Hirosni is a 64-year-old performer in the troupe.

"Awa dance is a famous Japanese folk dance with a history of more than 400 years. People in our county would dance when they hear this music. We're honored to perform our music here to foreign audiences."

And audiences were captivated each time an African performance was given by the National troupe of Benin. They heard sounds they had never heard of in real life. Huang Xiaoqing is a visitor from Shenzhen.

"They're gifted musicians. Their music is passionate and infectious. I cannot prevent myself from getting onto the stage to dance with them. It's a happy experience to enjoy the beautiful scenary as well as other countries' music culture."

Grant Luhrs, an Australian country music band, brings a country classic by American singer John Denver.

"We know that in China, John Denver as a county music performer is very popular. And we've just come off stage now on a John Denver classic song called "leaving on a jet plane".

"Country Roads, take me home", another country hit by John Denver, was chosen as the theme song of the music week, performed by two American bands Lucy Angle and Magan Sheehan.

Along with these blended tunes of East and West, famous French vocalist Cyril Niccolai also charmed the Chinese audience by singing a hit mandarin song - Teresa Teng's 'The Moon Represents My Heart'.

"It's very interesting. It proves that China is opening to the world. It's like the Olympics for music. It's an incredible mix of culture. You can talk with African people. You can talk with Greek people. And it's amazing how people connected with music. I have no religion personally. I just believe in music and the power of music and power of man. Music can connect everybody. And I'm very proud to be here."

Spectators were moved both by the music and the location. They danced, with large grins on their faces, some singing along with the performers on stage.

It's a refreshing combination of natural beauty, international faces and, most of all, music from all over the world at the Zhangjiajie International Country Music Week. Zhao Xiaoming, mayor of Zhangjiajie and spokesman of the music week, says the event will be a regular international festival held once every two years.

"The International country music week builds up its platform in the beautiful Zhangjiajie city, aiming at combining professional and folk music and showing and communicating country music from all over the world. Thus, we can inherit and carry forward the art of country music and promote cultural exchange."

The country music week was expected to build the image of Zhangjiajie as a holy land for all styles of country music from all over the world.

Laos -- Country Music from Thailand

2011-07-28T10:53:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

A radio station is going to be beaming country music into Laos from Thailand in order to boost business and adverting, according to an article in the Thai newspaper/web site The Nation.

R Siam, RS's country-music subsidiary, will use Sabaidee TV to penetrate Laos to boost advertisers' confidence to spend more money on its satellite channel as well as to seek business partners to provide music-download services. "Laos has high potential for the Thai country-music business because its people understand Thai culture and language, while most of them are able to access both free and satellite television services from Thailand," said Soopachai Nillawan, managing director of R Siam. A survey by the company found that Sabaidee TV was the most popular satellite channel in Laos.[...] Soopachai said the overall country-music market in Thailand was worth about Bt1.5 billion annually, of which R Siam accounted for 45 per cent.

I don't know anything about the country music scene in Thailand, but I've written on this blog about the general wild west scene in Thailand, including at least one wild west theme park. Erik Cohen, an emeritus professor of anthropology (and expert on tourism studies) at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who lives in Thailand has included a lengthy -- and fascinating -- description and analysis of "Thai Cowboys" in his book Explorations in Thai Tourism, published in 2008 by Emerald, Bingley

American Indian Workshop -- Call for Papers

2011-07-27T15:22:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The 33rd American Indian Workshop conference will take place in Zurich next April. A website has been set up and a call for papers has gone out, with the deadline for submissions Oct. 31. The topic will be "Presentation and Representation Revisited: Places, Media, Disciplines."

The American Indian Workshop started in 1980 and has become the most important scholarly platform for European researchers into issues related to the Native Peoples of North America. Since the beginning this experience has been shared with colleagues from North America. By now the American Indian Workshop is the most important international conference on American Indian and Inuit Studies in the world.

The 33rd American Indian Workshop "Presentation and Representation Revisited: Media, Places, Disciplines" held in Zurich from April 12 – 15, 2012 will be organized by the following two institutions:
The Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich

The Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich / Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich, formerly the “Ethnographic Collections / Sammlung für Völkerkunde”, was renamed in 1971, when it also became part of the School of Humanities. In close cooperation with the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, it supports research and teaching, and puts up special exhibitions with emphasis on aspects of ethnoreligion, cultural history, art history and technology.
The North America Native Museum (NONAM)

The Nordamerika Native Museum (NONAM) developed out of a private collection acquired by the Education Department of the City of Zurich in 1963. The collection is strictly limited to objects from the USA and Canada. Under the name of “Indianer- museum” it served for four decades primarily to instruct schoolchildren about Native America. After its relocation and enlargement in 2003 the museum changed its name to NONAM. Since then it has played an increasingly important and visible role, both nationally and internationally, as one of the few European museums devoted solely to the Native Peoples of North America.

Czech Republic -- In the Studio with Druha Trava

2011-07-26T18:21:00.005+02:00

In the studio. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

In mid-July I spent two days in a Prague studio helping record the vocal tracks for a new CD by the Czech country/bluegrass/fusion group Druha Trava. Founded 20 years ago, in 1991, DT and its various members have brought out more than a score of albums, including several in English -- see a history of the group by Lilly Pavlak, posted on the European Bluegrass Blog by clicking HERE

But the new Druha Trava CD -- tentatively titled "Shuttle to Bethlehem" after one of the songs (the inspiration was Bethlehem PA, not the "other" one) is the first that will primarily feature English-language versions of singer-songwriter Robert Krestan’s distinctive original songs.

I made the translations, and the studio session was the culmination of a collaborative project that had taken more than five years to come to fruition.

During the recording session, we were joined in the studio by Lee Bidgood -- a wonderful musician who did his PhD on Czech bluegrass and now teaches at East Tennessee State University, which has a Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music Studies program -- and his colleague from ETSU, the documentary filmmaker Shara Lange, who are making a documentary on Czech bluegrass. They filmed the session and also interviewed Robert, banjoist Lubos Malina and me.

Lee and me when we met in 2004

Lee is one of the first people I got to know what I was starting to follow the Czech bluegrass scene -- we met at the Caslav bluegrass festival in 2004 and I recall how wonderful it was to talk to someone who also was looking at the scene and the music from the "outside" and considering the same questions that I was.

While he was doing research in CZ a few years ago, Lee kept a wonderful blog in which he described music and musicians and reflected on the history and trajectory of the music in the Czech Republic. He hasn't posted anything lately, but it is a terrific resource.

I wrote about the Prague recording session this week in a post on the Arty Semite blog of the Forward, describing a bit of the complex process of translation. I started translating Krestan's songs into English in 2006 and continued working on them as one facet of the "Sauerkraut Cowboys/Indian Dreams" project for which I had a Guggenheim Fellowship and NEH summer grant.

My first goal was basic: I loved the Czech originals, but I wanted to know what they meant. As I started working, though, it seemed much more logical — and in fact, even easier — to put them in a rhyming form that could be sung. The process was surprisingly straightforward.

A young student in Prague, David Kraus, supplied me with word-for-word equivalents. David’s father Tomas is an old friend, the secretary of the Federation of Czech Jewish Communities, but he also knows a lot about the Czech country music scene. In Communist times Tomas’s late brother [Ronald Kraus] produced, wrote and translated songs for several key Czech tramp and country-style groups [including the iconic band KTO]..

I took the words that David gave me, compared them to the rhythm of the original Czech lyrics, and listened over and over to the original songs in order to capture their meaning and rhyme structure as well as to fit them to the melodies.

Czech is a more bristly language than English, with quite different sounds and cadences, and Krestan uses words for their tonality as well as meaning. But remarkably, my lyrics got to a point where they seemed to click into place. Later, Krestan and I spent a couple of sessions together tweaking the English to improve both nuance and “singability.”

In the studio, as Krestan sang into the microphone, I stood in the sound booth with DT’s banjo player Lubos Malina, who is co-producing the CD with Nashville-based Steve Walsh. Five years on, it was the first time I heard the songs sung in their final form. (Walsh oversaw the recording of the instrumentals in Nashville last spring.) They sounded, well, right. I focused on recording levels and intonation, but I couldn’t keep a goofy smile off my face.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/140290/#ixzz1TEAt1c7T

Here's a brief video clip I took of one of the recording session takes of the song "Before We Say Good-Bye".

And here's the original Czech version, sung by the band performing outside Prague castle in 2009, when President Obama was there meeting with Czech leaders.

Spain -- Almeria Western Film Festival Coming Up

2011-07-25T19:18:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Heads up for the Almeria Western Film Festiva l, the first European festival dedicated exclusively to the Western genre, coming up at Almeria on the south coast of Spain Sept. 8-11. It will be showing recent Westerns from a vareity of countries as well as a retropsective dedicated to the Spaghetti Western, which will be accompanied by panel discussions.

You can see trailers for the films to be shown on the web site.

Some of the festival events will be taking place in Fort Bravo -- a wild west theme parkin the desert, 25 kms from Almeria, that encompasses various stage sets used in the filming of European-made westerns.

FORT BRAVO is a place of dreams, the movie set of hundreds and hundreds of films produced by people from all over the five continents. The movie studios of Texas Hollywood in Tabernas are like a Mecca for film fans; located in the only desert in Europe, reality and fantasy intermingle, creating a unique, unforgettable and inimitable atmosphere.

Australia -- Dale Watson's airline woes spark a song

2011-07-19T15:03:00.000+02:00

Dale Watson signs autographs at the Interlaken Trucker and Country Festival, 2004. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

American alt.country star Dale Watson's woes traveling on Tiger Airlines in Australia have prompted him to write a song about the experience. The singer, who has a loyal following the Europe and Australia as well as North America -- I saw him perform at the Trucker and Country Music festival in Interlaken, Switzerland a few years back -- was charged a hefty excess baggage fee for a case of CDs, and then the case got lost in transit.

This is how the Sydney Morning Herald quotes the song:

There goes Tiger Airways and their we don't care-ways
You got a complaint, well stand in line
You got a problem, well that's your problem...
They charged me 500 dollars in extra baggage fees
My hands were tied
I had to pay their price
The song goes on:
But now I'm back in Texas and like a Tiger Airways rep said
They ain't gonna help me if they could.
His name was Timothy Archer
He worked public relations along with Simon Murphy
They made the calls
When all was said was done, nothing was said and done
Which seems to be their motto after all.

Autry Museum's New Installation on early 20th Century Images of the West

2011-07-17T23:48:00.000+02:00

"Chavez Ravine" by Misha Askenazy, one of the new canvases in the Romance gallery (Photo: Autry curatorial staff)

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Autry National Center has announced the opening of a new and fascinating installation as part of its "Romance" of the West exhibit. It is An Unspoiled Space: The West in the Eyes of Early 20th-Century Artists and it deals in part with how idealization and longing/desire influenced how artists saw -- and painted -- landscapes and cityscapes in the West.

Focused on the unique, regional landscapes of the desert Southwest and coastal California, this installation explores the people and places that artists were drawn to as they sought to redefine the West by looking at who, what, and where artists chose to paint following the close of the historical frontier.

Artists often saw life in the West in terms of its differences from the Eastern cities where they had previously lived. Whereas city life often left a person—as D. H. Lawrence put it—feeling “dead, dark, and buried,” the Southwest seemed to possess an uplifting visual aesthetic that enhanced daily living. Many believed that Pueblo Indian culture was driven by an innate artistic spirit, and their paintings of Native people reflect this belief. While Indian life preoccupied many artists in New Mexico, blossoming resort communities from Santa Fe to Southern California also became subjects. In Southern California, some artists documented the burgeoning social scene of Los Angeles, from the docks of San Pedro to the downtown plaza, whereas others celebrated the unspoiled beauty of the coast. As they created images that touted the visual landscapes and cultural life of these Western destinations, they promoted ideas about place that remain embedded within their modern identity.

In addition to the landscape of the West, artists were fascinated by its people. The Pueblo Indians and Hispanic families of Northern New Mexico were represented in individual portraits as the visual personification of their respective geographical settings. By focusing on Native and Hispanic cultures as immersed in traditions of craftsmanship, artists believed they were capturing values lost in the quest for industrial progress. The quest for a life spent in harmony with nature also fueled creative production across Southern California, where artists’ groups from La Jolla to the Bay Area created a supportive environment for art. Unlike their counterparts in New Mexico, however, California painters often overlooked the Native population in favor of a more exclusive focus on the private gardens and ocean resorts in works of landscapes and leisure that conveyed the relaxed, stylish qualities that California continues to export to the world.

The Autry blog has a very interesting discussion with Amy Scott, the Autry’s Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Art.

“This is about how artists are orienting themselves within a changing West, settling into certain communities, working with the landscape and its native, sometimes its Hispanic, residents to develop visual ideas about place,” Scott said. “Not only did they settle there permanently, but often they brought their families, they raised their kids there, they developed local artists’ organizations to exhibit and promote their work. So they’re really embedded within these communities in a directed and organized way.”

As these painters looked to express their vision amid the ferment of the times — this was the time of World War I, the Roaring 20s and then the Depression — they moved out West, or at least spent significant periods here, in search of a more “authentic experience.” The result was colorful canvases that used the blocky, pared-down visuals of modernism, cubism, surrealism, and impressionism, but applied to the austere landscapes and the indigenous people of the West, like the Navajo (Diné) and the Hopi.

“In the twentieth century, part of the allure of places like Santa Fe and Taos, or Los Angeles and La Jolla, is the fact that they seem to be separate or operate differently from the modern, industrial centers of New York and D.C. and Philadelphia, which sort of form the bedrock of American modernism,” Scott said. “Many of the artists, particularly those who settle in Taos in the early twentieth century, like Blumenschein, are in search of a distinctly American art and distinctly American subjects by which to distinguish their work from the more Europeanized abstraction that is coming out of the East Coast.”

Of course, authenticity is a loaded concept. The artists sought honest representations of American life, and they believed they found them in images of Indigenous people and Southwest desert landscapes.

But some might argue that is still a view from the outside, because the Indigenous people in the paintings were still merely subjects, not necessarily collaborators in the forging of their images. This even though the artists considered the Pueblo Indians they were painting highly artistic, integrating art into their everyday objects and leading lives that had been essentially unchanged for hundreds of years.

“Not only are the Pueblos considered to be inherently creative and artistically gifted people,” Scott said, “but they are one of the few groups of Native people who are seen to be — and of course this is all the perception of Anglo and European artists coming from the East Coast — they’re perceived to be living in manners that are relatively straightforward and consistent with the way they’ve always done. They are not tainted or corrupted too much.”

Eventually, even maverick artists like Blumenschein and Sloan would themselves become the establishment, and they would inspire a reaction in another direction from their successors in the 1940s and 1950s, like Georgia O’Keefe. But at least at the dawn of the century, they and their colleagues formed part of an effort — cyclical in art — to both appropriate new influences and return to “genuine” images and concepts.

“The longing to experience the West as it truly is and as it truly was is part of what (was) pushing these artists into these places,” Scott said. “It’s part of a longing for a more straightforward, what they considered to be more honest representation of American landscapes and American life.”

"Iesaka Waken," by Maynard Dixon, one of the new 20th-century works in the Autry's Romance gallery (Photo: Autry Collections)

Rehearsing for new DT CD

2011-07-12T10:14:00.002+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

For the past couple of days I have been in the rural Czech Republic, helping the Czech singer songwriter Robert Krestan of the Czechgrass group Druha Trava rehearse the English language versions of some of his songs for a new, all English language CD -- today we go in to the studio in Prague to begin cutting the tracks. I've never been in a studio for a recording, so it should be an interesting experience..... I did the translations of the songs, and I have to say, they sound good!

Here are the lyrics for the ones that will be on the CD:

Tanecnice (Dancer)

An upturned chair shows the hour has passed
In a night club at the end of care.
The one last dancer in the corner stands
Brushing glitter from her long dark hair.

I'm the last guest, the last glass in my hand;
I'm the last one in this place.
I push back my hat and I look at her,
How she fools the world, with all her paint

Refrain:
Josephina, dance for me, dance the dawning sky
For this undrunk, unfinished night
Ah, dance for me good-bye

She takes her bag, my ballerina;
Just a key and a bottle of beer.
She straightens the chairs and kills the light,
She smiles as she gets out of here.

I open the door, it's early dawn
It leads me down the path outside
Where heaven's morning stars await
The one who has refused to hide.

The north wind’s casting its magic spells
On my beachhead by the sea
When all at once my heart reveals
A naked fantasy

Somewhere in my dream a dancer whirls
Too daring maybe for my soul
I set sail toward the open waves
Just call me Ishmael
Refrain:
Josephina, dance for me, dance the dawning sky
For this undrunk, unfinished night
Ah, dance for me good-bye

Infiela

Infiela,
Feathers in your touch
Dying, by your side
A hundred times, as much.
A tyrant takes my soul
I'm locked in God's embrace
The Devil calls my name
Eternal sacrifice

Morning, I set sail
From the waters of Cartegena
From the infernal gates of Hell
Grateful, at peace, I come
Morning, I sail away
In darkness diminished to dawn
Oh, beautiful, faithless one,
Infiela!

Infiela,
Weren't we maybe so
Lost in our own world
Countless times and more?
Pure in innocence
Damned in our desire
Gods in nakedness
Human in envy's fire?

Morning, I set sail
From the waters of Cartegena
From the infernal gates of Hell
Grateful, at peace, I come.
Morning, I sail away
In darkness diminished to dawn
Oh, beautiful, faithless one,
Infiela!

Shuttle to Bethlehem (Pendl do Betlema)

I hear nothing, just a barking and a seagull's cry.
Bells are wailing, friars humming, and the crows whiz by
The whistle's sizzling, even kissing you sounds like a slap
Dies irae, and all around the shrieks of pelicans.

Refrain:

But before I disappear, my dumb love,
Let me hitchhike for you while I can.
Today I'm gone, on the shuttle train to Bethl'em,
Maybe soon, a taxi to the promised land.

Your eyes tell me, you got everything you ever asked.
You're driven crazy, by my fear, my nakedness.
My heart is bleeding, the priest slashes with a knife of stone;
Just like you, dear, just like you and you and you alone.

Refrain
But before I disappear, my dumb love,
Let me hitchhike for you while I can.
Today I'm gone, on the shuttle train to Bethl'em,
Maybe soon, a taxi to the promised land.
When I Take Off My Shoes (Az si jednou sund�m boty)

When you tell me to stop
And then when I take my shoes off
When the smile of the rails
Tells me jump, now, my friend

When my hand becomes hard
As a tile of terracotta
When I sit by my door
Just don't ask to what end.

When the dust from my roads
Cleans the scars upon my forehead
When I learn about things
That are best not to know

When the last of my rhymes
Become idle in my song book
It may well be too late,
The last time, maybe so.

Then when the wind and the rain
Wash the traces from Golgotha
When the smoke from the pyres
In the end fades away

When I take off my belt
And then when I take my shoes off
Nothing's left for me, now
And for you, now, who's to say.
When Death Does Us Apart (Az Nas Smrt Rozdeli)

When horses fly away
To the night, to the gates
Of Jericho
When our embrace dissolves
in the fog, on the shore
When those lips of yours are double-locked
As if I tried to kiss the Gates of Troy
I'm just an outcast soul without a name
Undrunk, unloved, unfull of joy.

When shots of firearms
quiet down
on the streets
down by the bay
When death does us apart
along its blue
waterway;
When the reek of booze clears this nest of doves
And the fortune teller does the same
It’s the end of song, end of love
End of war, end of game.

The Last of the Galleons (Za Posledni Lodi)

The last of the galleons had sunk into the sea
The last of the soldiers had heard his death knell
And a desolate chant from within a stone cloister
Was like one of us bidding farewell

The last of the galleons had sunk into the sea
And like night-flying bats the wind ruffled the shore
And a brave young musician chimed chords on an organ,
Jeremiah's his name evermore

The last ship had sunk, and I rushed to a place
Where the turning flood tide left me armor from Spain,
A sack of pesetas, some yellowing letters;
Stark memories and, unfathomed pain

Royals go western!

2011-07-09T23:12:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I know, I know. It was pre-ordained, de rigeur and all that. But William and Kate did don cowboy hats in Calgary....

The Washington Post runs a lot of pictures of the great event and reports that:

Apparently there was some hubbub surrounding the wearing of the traditional hats. When William and Kate arrived at Calgary’s airport, Mayor Naheed Menshi presented the royal couple with the white hats, which they apparently didn’t try on because it was windy. People were outraged! But their spokesperson told the Associated Press, “In no way are they snubbing what is a very honored gifts.”
They more than made up for the perceived snub by dressing like classy cowboys later that day.

Cowboy Action Shooting in Serbia!

2011-07-03T16:25:00.003+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

As a proud member of Italy's Cowboy Action Shooting group, the Old West Shooting Society (OWSS) -- the Italian branch of SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) -- I was interested to see that there is a group in Serbia...the Union of Western Shooters. The Associated Press had a story about it by Jovana Gec. The person she quotes, Milorad Sudar, sounds like many of the hobbyists and fans I have talked to all over Europe.

BELGRADE, Serbia — He lives in a country bombed by the United States only a few years ago and where anti-American sentiments still run high, but Milorad Sudar says he'd like nothing more than to be a cowboy like those in Western movies, riding off into the sunset.

"It is all there, in that one scene: adventure, freedom, justice," the 62-year-old Serbian economist explains. "Freedom to go wherever you want."

Gec writes that Serbia's cowboys have faced a number of difficulties — from financial to political. For one thing, the replica 19th century weapons used in the sport can be very expensive for a Serb.

Since registering in 2007, the Serb shooters have taken part in three international competitions — in Italy, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — but have lacked funds to participate the past two years. They have no support from the state or wealthy sponsors and say many here view their sport "American propaganda."

France -- Disney Western Celebration coming up

2011-06-20T14:43:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I wish I could clone myself! There are so many events I want to go to -- festivals, concerts, celebrations, encampments and all that, in so many countries. Here's the trailer for the Western Celebration at the beginning of July at Euro Disney near Paris.

The Guardian Honors Gene Autry

2011-06-16T12:37:00.000+02:00

The Guardian newspaper in the UK has paid tribute to Gene Autry, noting the date November 15, 1934, when Autry (already a radio star) became cinema's first Singing Cowboy as Number 7 in its series of the "50 key events in the history of world and folk music."

In 1934, he made his silver-screen debut in a B-western called In Old Santa Fe, the first of his 93 films. ... In 1939, he visited the UK with his horse, Champion, and while he was really a Hollywood creation, he brought the songs of the range to the world.

Germany -- Confederate Reenactors

2011-06-04T09:30:00.000+02:00

German Civil war reenactors (hobbyists) at the Country Music Messe in Berlin. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

There have been a couple recent U.S. media pieces about Germans who reenact U.S. Civil War battles from the Confederate side -- a phenomenon that is closely linked with other hobbyists who populate Europe's Imaginary Wild West, some (many?) of whom adopt the Stars and Bars flag and other "Rebel" symbols as an evocation of freedom, independence, anti-establishmentism and rebellion. The Rebel flags, in fact, is one of the most striking of all the striking visual images of the wild west scene in Europe. It is used on its own or in tandem with the American flag, the Stars and Stripes. It’s found as decoration, on T-shirts, pins, jewelry, backdrops, logos, you name it.

One of the recent pieces on Confederate reenactors was a blog in the Atlantic.

If the German reenactors actually "model their characters in the reenactments after...German immigrant soldiers," as they explained to the reporter that they do, then those who wear gray have their work cut out for them. Less than 10 percent of the Germans immigrants in the United States, scarcely 70,000, dwelt in the entire territory controlled by the Confederacy at the outbreak of the war. Many fled north, with perhaps 2,000 joining the Union Army. Hundreds of those who remained petitioned the consuls of German states for protection from the draft. There were certainly some ardent secessionists, and even a few slaveholders, and between 3,500 and 7,000 Germans may have served in the Confederate Army. But of that number, many were conscripted, a large number deserted, and some mutinied. "The German minority of the South," one scholar concluded, "was all but insignificant politically, economically, and militarily during the American Civil War."

It was a comment by Yoni Appelbaum on a piece on PRI Radio by Caitlan Carroll.

So for those at the reenactment, it is appealing that the U.S. Civil War took place in another country, in another time. It is safer, even romantic. A lot of fantasies have built up around the Confederacy, thanks to the movie, "Gone with the Wind;" it is a staple of German popular culture.
On the other side of camp, the Confederate soldiers are busy preparing for the battle. More people want to be on the Confederate side, so the Union troops sometimes have to recruit local reenactors from the American Revolutionary War. Chris McLarren plays a confederate captain from Texas. He is actually an American. He said the Germans are totally immersed in the history.
"The Germans like to do things 110 percent sometimes," McLarren said. "They are perfectionists in many ways and they want to do this the way it was then."

There are Civil War hobbyists in other countries, too -- the Czech Republic, for example. The great Czech author Josef Skvorecky even wrote a novel, The Bride of Texas, about Czech immigrants involved in the conflict.

I've been harrangued by Stars and Bars-wearing (or bearing, or selling) hobbyists about the Civil War and its meaning, and I've written in the past and posted many photos about the Rebel Flag phenomenon, which also goes far beyond Germany -- I've posted pictures from France, Austria, Cz, etc:

One of the most striking of all the striking visual images of the wild west scene in Europe is the frequent display of the Confederate (Rebel) flag, the Stars and Bars or Southern Cross. It is used on its own or in tandem with the American flag, the Stars and Stripes. It’s found as decoration, on T-shirts, pins, jewelry, backdrops, logos, you name it.

For most country music fans in the scene, the flag seems to represent pure “rebel-hood” or the anti-Establishment, rather than to have a direct link with the Civil War, Confederacy, or slavery, i.e. connotations that it evokes in the United States. “They don't now much about the history of the southern cross and for them it's not important, it’s a link to freedom and rebellion against the establishment and their normal life,” one German member of the scene, a former employee of one of the Pullman City wild west theme parks and a close observer of hobbyist and other behavior, told me. Rockabilly fans also use it as a symbol of their favorite music -- album covers often feature the image.

In France, Alain Sanders uses the Rebel Flag as the logo of his country music fanzine, “Country Music Attitude.” Country music feeling, he told me when we met in 2004, is a kind of attitude toward life. “It's rebel attitude,” he said. “Don't believe everything because it's printed. We don't like kind of world where you have the good and the bad. It's grey, like the uniform of the confederate soldiers. And we explain to people also that when you are country, when you have a country attitude, it's not once a month or once a year when you come to a festival. It's every day. You think country, you sing and you think country -- that's what we try to explain.”

Nonetheless, outside the country scene per se, some skinhead and neo-Nazi groups also use the flag -- as a symbol of racism, to link them to the Ku Klux Klan and other extremists.

Imaginary Wild West -- RIP James Arness, TV's Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke

2011-06-03T22:41:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

James Arness, the towering actor who carved out the TV role of Marshal Matt Dillon on the iconic western Gunsmoke, died today, June 3, at the age of 88. He was a true icon of the Imaginary Wild West (even though I prefer radio Gunsmoke's William Conrad in the Matt Dillon role.)

I don't have time to write an assessment at the moment -- so here is a link to a long obit by Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly.

Here's what John Wayne said about him:

Imaginary Wild West -- the Bonanza Map

2011-05-26T16:26:00.000+02:00

Map/Photo: Autry Collections

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Autry National Center in Los Angeles now displays one of the most potent icons of the post-World War II imaginary wild west -- the map of the fictional Ponderosa ranch that was displayed and set on fire at the beginning of every episode of the long-running and internationally popular TV show Bonanza.

The map -- which has been hung in the Autry's "Imagination Gallery" -- charts a place that doesn't exist but is recognized and even beloved by millions world wide. As the Autry blog puts it:

NBC audiences from September 1959 to February 1973 saw this map every week in the opening credits of the Paramount Television show. It would appear briefly before it burst into flames, dissolving into a shot of all four members of the Cartwright family, astride their horses, as the memorable theme played.

“We’re talking 14 seasons, 431 episodes,” said Jeffrey Richardson, associate curator of western history and popular culture at the Autry. “Just those numbers alone are staggering. But at the beginning of every single episode, and the theme song that so many people can hum, it all began with a shot of this particular map.”

The burning map was a high spot for viewers, but Richardson notes that it actually was drawn with an incorrect geographical orientation.

The map is a beauty, hand-drawn in intense colors for Bonanza creator David Dortort by Robert Temple Ayres, a company employee. But it has a flaw.

When Ayres drew the map, he evidently thought that a fictional ranch didn’t need a terribly accurate map. So he drew Reno to the west of Carson City. Dortort noticed.

“They put it together; they brought it to David Dortort; he looked at it,” Richardson said. “He said, ‘I love it, but your directions are wrong.’”

Looking at it as it was designed, the map shows Reno to the west of Carson City. In reality, Reno sits to the north. To fix it, Ayres drew a compass. But instead of the north arrow pointing straight up as on most maps, it goes off in a vaguely west-northwest direction. To look at the map in its correct orientation, one would have to flip it on its side, with the “horn” of the property pointing upward.

“To justify the inaccurate locations the way they had them drawn, they had to slant the compass a different way,” Richardson said. “It was too late at that particular time in 1959 for them to redo the map, because again, it was hand-drawn, and they were going to start shooting the opening sequence."

Read more by clicking HERE

Dortort had donated most of his papers and memorabilia to the Autry a year or so before his death last September at the age of 93. He had held on to the map however. After he died, his family gave it and other objects to the museum.

Germany -- Karl May Festival anniversaries

2011-05-22T11:04:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This year, two of the biggest Karl May festivals in Germany are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

The Karl May Festtage in Radebeul -- the town outside of Dresden where May lived, and where there has been a Karl May Museum since the 1920s -- marks its 20th anniversary with this year's edition, June 3-5.

Special feature will be the participation of Pierre Brice -- the French actor who won fame (and stole the hearts of girls all over Europe) by playing Winnetou in the German-made movies in the 1960s. I myself was one of these girls -- I saw my first Winnetou movie ("Old Shatterhand") in Prague in 1966, and I still have the pictures of Brice I bought or cut out of Czech magazines at the time.

In addition, the Karl May Spiele in Bad Segeberg, north of Hamburg -- the biggest and oldest Karl May Festival -- is celebrating its 60th anniversary this season! The festival runs from June 25-Sept. 4 and will feature a performance of "The Oil Prince" -- based on Karl May's classic book -- on its outdoor stage. Erol Sander stars as Winnetou, and Joshy Peters as Old Shatterhand (I saw Peters in this role in 2003).

Next year -- 2012 -- marks the 100th anniversary of Karl May's death, and many events are being planned.

France -- Line-up for the La Roche bluegrass festival at the beginning of August is now online

2011-05-20T20:30:00.000+02:00

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

For the program of this year's wonderful European bluegrass festival at la Roche-sur-Foron, France (at the foot of the Alps near Geneva) -- click HERE

The line-up includes:

Thursday August 4th

18:30 - Workshop band

19:00 - Poa Pratensis (H)

20:00 - Dr Bluegrass and the Illbilly 8 (GB)

21:00 - Elenor (CH)

22:00 - Holy Water (NL)

Friday August 5th

18:00 - Autopista (E)

18:45 - Opening ceremony

19:00 - All Bells & Whistles (Cz)

20:00 - Blue Side of Town (D)

21:00 - Blueland (Sk)

22:00 - Kathy Kallick Band (USA)

23:15 - Bluegrass 43 (F)

Saturday August 6th

12:00 - Grass Road (Cz)

13:00 - Veget (Cz)

14:00 - Roots and Galoots (GB)

15:00 - Kid’s Concert with Lonesome Day (F) Square Danse Session, Masterclasses

17:00 - Tupelo (Ire)

18:00 - Le Chat Mort (S)

19:00 - Lilly of the West (Bg)

20:00 - Lazy Tater (NL)

21:00 - BlackJack (Cz)

22:00 - Hickory Project (USA)

23:15 - G-runs ‘n Roses (Cz)

Sunday August 7th

12:00 - Percy Copley (GB)

13:00 - Heather Joyce (GB)

14:00 - Blue REJ (Cz)

15:00 - Melting Times (H)

16:00 - Except 2 (NL)

17:00 - Country Cocktail (Cz)

18:00 - TBA

19:00 - Contest results and winner

20:00 - Lonesome Wally (USA/GB)

21:00 - Field-Thompson Band (USA)

22:15 - Howlin Fox (F)

Interesting and useful blog about European Western Movies

2011-05-20T19:26:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Hey -- I just came across the blog Westerns... all'Italiana -- which dedicated to "the preservation, investigation and all things related to European films and personnel involved with the western genre."

Great stuff! (I just snagged from it in my previous post the interview with Gojko Mitic.)

Winnetou et al -- Interview with Gojko Mitic, European western star

2011-05-20T19:19:00.000+02:00

Gojko Mitic as Winnetou. Bad Segeberg festival 2003. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The blog westernsallitaliana, which is devoted to western movies, posts an interview with Gojko Mitic, the legendary Yugoslav-born actor who played the Indian hero in East German Defa movies and also, after the fall of the Wall, played Winnetou at the Bad Segeberg Karl May Festival.

He was immensely popular -- when I saw him perform as Winnetou at Bad Segeberg in 2003, the crowd chanted "Goj-ko! Goj-ko!" when he appeared and surged forward to shake hands and get his autograph.

Gojko Mitic in the DEFA film Die Söhne der großen Bärin (The Sons of the Great Bear)

Mitic, now 70, was taking part in a film festival in Linz Austria this month where some of the 12 DEFA "Indianer" films were shown. The Austrian News Agency APA conducted the interview with the "Winnetou of the East."

APA: You are known as the "Winnetou of the East", is this a compliment?

Gojko Mitic: I don’t mind, because I'm already used to it. When the GDR still existed, they gave me a nickname: I was called "Indian chief" because I starred in the DEFA films as different Indians. Then when I appeared in Bad Segeberg for 15 years and 1,400 performances at the Karl May Festival, the writers like you, gave me that name.

APA : "Red Westerns" are something completely different than the American Western.

Mitic : Of course, I grew up with the US-Western. I can remember that we were all glad when John Wayne appeared. But I never wanted to be an Indian, because they were "evil". In retrospect, I realize that we have done them wrong. We were the ones who came to their country and decimated them. These Indians, who I played did not meet the American stereotype. It was researched more at the DEFA films, they were stories of real Indians retold. These films were for me, a bit of an attempt to correct the story.

Continue reading HERE

Funnily enough, when I actually met Gojko Mitic -- at the Karl May Festival in Radebeul, Germany a few years ago -- he was dressed as a cowboy. Dana Weber (who has done here PhD dissertation on Karl May Festivals) and I interviewed him -- I'll see if I can find the transcription and post it.

Me with Gojko Mitic (cowboy style) and Dana Weber at the Karl May festival in Radebeul.

UK -- New Toy Hearts Video

2011-05-16T14:22:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Toy Hearts is a charming (and talented) family band (father and daughters) from the UK, which is veering into country from more bluegrassy strains. They give a great show -- and I'm happy to present here their just-released new video, "The Captain".

Russia -- US Cowboys (and the cattle industry) bring ranching to Russia

2011-05-15T19:22:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Yee-haw!

Voice of America -- VOA -- reports that Americans are bringing cowboys and cattle ranching to Russia:

Darrell Stevenson, an American cowboy and cattle rancher, is not riding the black earth country of Russia to film a western movie.

He is bringing American-bred beef cattle, American ranching technology, and American cowboy knowhow to Russia.

Country Music -- French Duo Steve & Heather to perform during CMA fest in Nashville

2011-05-10T09:42:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

My friends, the French country due Steve & Heather, will be featured next month in Nashville at global artists events during the Country Music Association Festival, June 6-7.

The husband-and-wife act are actually a French-American duo, as Steve is French and Heather is from the US -- though she has lived many years in France.

It's a particular recognition for Steve & Heather -- who perform in French as well as English and are a mainstay of the many country music festivals and events held throughout the year in France -- as all the other international acts on this year's roster come from English-speaking countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK) that have produced many country acts and even some big name international stars (Hank Snow, Keith Urban, etc).

(Nashville, Tenn. – May 9, 2011) Eighteen Country artists representing five different countries have been announced for this year’s annual Global Events showcases, held June 6 and 7 during CMA Music Festival week in downtown Nashville, Tenn.
Chevrolet Presents The CMA Global Artist Party is held Monday, June 6, at The Stage on Broadway. Kicking off at 6:30 PM/CST with a special performance from legendary guitarist and Australian native Tommy Emmanuel, the evening also features performances from Kaylee Bell (New Zealand), Dean Brody (Canada), Chad Brownlee (Canada), Diana Corcoran (Australia), Luke Dickens (Australia), McAlister Kemp (Australia), O’Shea (Australia), Raintown (UK) and Marlee Scott (Canada). Aussie husband and wife duo O’Shea is hosting the event. Sponsors include Chevrolet, CMA, The Stage on Broadway, Billboard, AristoWorks, and Four Seasons Coach Leasing.

The AristoMedia Global Show is held Tuesday, June 7, at noon/CST at famed downtown honkytonk The Second Fiddle. Hosted by Australian sister trio The McClymonts, performers at the AristoMedia Global Show include High Valley (Canada), Brett Kissel (Canada), Ryan Laird (Canada), Mike & Ashley (New Zealand), Craig Morrison (Australia), Six West (Canada), Springfield (Australia), and Steve & Heather (France). Event sponsors include AristoMedia, CMA, The Second Fiddle, Billboard and Four Seasons Coach Leasing. A free lunch will be offered for attendees.
“This is the fifth year for our Global Events showcases,” says AristoMedia President and CMA Board member Jeff Walker, who organizes the two shows each year. “These shows are a great way to help kick off CMA Music Fest, and it provides a valuable opportunity for some of these fantastic artists to be heard. The talent pool of international Country acts is very deep, and this year’s events are a good balance of up-and-comers and established veterans.”

Past Global Events performers have included Troy Cassar-Daley, Jasmine Rae, George Canyon, The McClymonts, David Bradley, Adam Gregory, Doc Walker and Jessie Farrell, among others.

Matt Watkins is handling event logistics, while Nashville-based record producer Mark Moffatt is handling music coordinator duties for both Global Events. AristoMedia is serving as the executive producer. Four Seasons Coach Leasing is providing artist buses and green rooms for each show.

For more information about the Chevrolet Presents The CMA Global Artist Party, please contact Bobbi Boyce at bboyce@CMAworld.com. For more information about the AristoMedia Global Show, contact Christy Watkins at (615) 269-7071 or Christy@aristomedia.com.

Bluegrass -- recent passing of European bluegrass pioneers

2011-04-30T10:02:00.000+02:00

Honza Macak at Bluegrass Jamboree, 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

In recent months, the European bluegrass scene has lost several of its pioneer figures, musicians who helped import bluegrass music from the USA and create and promote interest in it among thousands of fans across the continent.

They include:

-- Jan 'Honza' Macák, of the Czech Republic, who died today April 12, aged 67. A banjo player, he was the founder, in 1973, of Europe's oldest bluegrass festival, the annual Banjo Jamboree now held at Čáslav (CZ). At the Banjo Jamboree in June 2007, I conducted a joint interview with Macak and another Czech bluegrass pioneer, Milan Leppelt, of the band CKWROT, who sadly died in August 2009. (I'll try to clean up the interview, which was rather disjointed, and post it.)

-- Swiss-born businessman and banjo-player Erio Meili died April 20, aged 63, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he had lived for many years. He was the founder of the São Paulo Bluegrass Music Association and the South American Bluegrass Network.

-- Robert 'Bob' Lauer, the first, and for many years probably the only, five-string banjo maker in Switzerland, died in November 2010. A Czech-born immigrant to Switzerland, he built his first five-string in 1973 and played in Swiss bands. Czech-Swiss bluegrass fan and chronicler Lilly Pavlak recalls:

I met Bob by surprise in the Alusuisee Company in Zurich in 1973, where we both worked. I could not believe he was from my hometown (Brno) and we probably met as children, because we went frequently to the same violin shop close to my house. He just started to play banjo, after seeing the Deliverance movie and also went kayaking on whitewaters with his friends. So he soon was taking me with them over the weekends. I used to play the Czech 'tramp' songs on my guitar, and soon we started to play together. The first song I learned from him was the 'Foggy Mountain breakdown'. It was the beginning of a wonderful years-long friendship. We used to talk for hours about our biggest love – the bluegrass music and listening to its performers.

-- Peter Gisin, a multi-instrumentalist who in 1960 played in the first live country music show in Switzerland, died in September 2010. He played guitar, dobro, autoharp, musical saw, mouthharp, and vocals in a Swiss group called Country Pickers.

See the European Bluegrass Blog for lengthier obituaries.

Exhibitions -- Indigenous Peoples of North America, Rosenheim, Germany

2011-04-28T16:48:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This looks like a terrific exhibition -- and I'll try to go there next month. The curator, Christian Feest, is tops in the field, and the authors of the essays in the catalogue are excellent. Bravo to all involved!

INDIANS - INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA

Lokschuppen Rosenheim
8 April - 6 November 2011
Mo-Fr 9 am - 6 pm, Sa, Su, legal holidays 10 am – 6 pm

Until 6 November, the Lokschuppen in Rosenheim, a large exhibition center southeast of Munich, is showing “Indianer - Ureinwohner Nordamerikas” (Indians - Indigenous Peoples of North America).

Curated by Christian Feest, the exhibition uses 550 objects dating from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century from sixteen museums in Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and the Vatican and nearly 200 images to convey a sense of the cultural diversity, historical complexity and ongoing vitality of indigenous peoples in the United States, Canada, and Greenland.

The exhibition is arranged in twelve chapters, which tell very specific stories, but which together are embedded in a framework of the effects of globalization processes of the last 250 years for indigenous peoples. After discussing the European concept of “Indians” as an artifact of the colonial encounter, it looks at the first-contact situation on Vancouver Island, when the ancestors of the present-day Nuuchahnulth were visited by Captain James Cook in 1778. The issue of indigenous lands is examined in a section dealing with the American Revolution, in which the future of Indian lands was to be decided, and when the German mercenaries fighting for King George could see the effects of land loss and cultural adaptation among the peoples living along the St. Lawrence River. Greenland provides an example, in which colonization ultimately led to autonomy, whereas under similar circumstances the peoples of Russian America (Alaska) fared very differently. The western Great Lakes region in the mid-nineteenth century provides a case study for the encounter with Christian missionaries and for the emergence of Indian Christianity. The Sioux and the Apache are shown as contrasting examples for the origins and effects of the “Indian Wars” of the late nineteenth century (with the Comanche looking over the shoulders of the Apache not only as their eternal enemies in Karl May’s novels, but also as the only group of Native Americans who signed a treaty of peace and friendship with German colonists). Hopi katsina religion stands as an example for the complexity indigenous worldviews and ritual practice. A chapter on glass beads illustrates that Western trade goods (and ideas) did not necessarily lead to a leveling of cultural differences and serves as a introduction to the section on indigenous arts and their encounter with the Western art world. The final segment of the exhibition looks at aspects of the contemporary Native American experience.

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated 270-page book with essays by the curator and Cora Bender, Peter Bolz, Matthias Dietz-Lenssen, Henry Kammler, Sylvia Kasprycki, Christer Lindberg, Sonja Lührmann, Gawan Maringer, Hans-Ulrich Sanner, Tom Svensson, Marthe Thorshaug, and Christine Zackel.

Bluegrass Festivals -- Reiterating this great resource for Bluegrass (and some country/Americana) festivals in Europe

2011-04-26T23:42:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I just want to underscore the valuable calendar of festivals and other gigs across Europe on the European Blugrass Music Association Web site.

The founding members of the EBMA festival network are the biggies:

EWOB European World Of Bluegrass, Voorthuizen, Netherland
La Roche Bluegrass Festival, La Roche-sur-Foron, France
Banjo Jamboree, Caslav, Czech Republic
Didmarton Bluegrass Festival, Kemble Gloucestershire, Great Britain
International Buehl Bluegrass Festival, Buehl, Germany
Risor Bluegrass Festival, Risor, Norway
Jamboree, Strakonice, Czech Republic
Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival, Longford, Ireland
Big Bear Festival, Zuidlaren, Netherland
Munich Bluegrass Festival, Munich, Germany
Bluegrass Meeting Birkenried, Birkenried, Germany
International Bluegrass & Acoustic Music Festival, Abaliget, Hungary
Appalachian & Bluegrass Festival Omagh, Ireland

But there are dozens of other smaller and lesser known festival all over the continent, Ireland and Britain.

Bluegrass -- Walter Fuchs on Hazel Dickens in Germany

2011-04-26T19:27:00.001+02:00

Photo: Walter Fuchs, from European Bluegrass Blog

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

There was an outpouring of tributes following the death on April 22 of Hazel Dickens, the pioneering bluegrass singer.

I am reposting here from the European Bluegrass Blog the recollections -- and photo -- of her from Walter Fuchs, the great country music historian and DJ in Bühl, Germany and founder of the Bühl International Bluegrass Festival.

Walter reminisces about Dickens' trip to Germany in fall of 1973 on tour with the Strange Creek Singers making a stop in Bühl.

All the gang stayed over night for one or two days, when we lived in a rented apartment in those years. From left to right: Tracy Schwarz, Lamar Grier, Hazel Dickens, Mike Seeger, Marianne Fuchs, Alice Gerrard (Mike Seeger's wife) and our two boys Patrick and Boris. In June of 1973 Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard were already in Bühl for a couple of days when I had them for a live concert on SWF 3 radio in my show.

The Cowboy Prince

2011-04-23T09:50:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

In honor of the upcoming Royal Wedding between Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton, here's a recollection of when William, aged 10, spent a vacation on a ranch in Montana -- incognito.

The article in the Great Falls Tribune recalls the young prince's "stint as a cowboy."

When details of the young prince's trip to Montana surfaced a week after his departure, the ranch was hounded by tabloids. British tabloids even flew reporters to the state. One headline read, "Willy the Kid: Cowboy prince is king of the wild frontier," according to an Associated Press story at the time

The book "Diana's Boys: William and Harry and the Mother They Loved" by Christopher Andersen recounted Prince William's week in Montana, saying "even the most grizzled ranch hands" were impressed with the boy, who could lasso a steer by the end of his stay and was a hero to the other children for his riding and shooting skills.

Celebrations and Events for big Karl May anniversaries coming up!

2011-04-14T10:00:00.001+02:00

Poster for upcoming Karl May exhibit

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Next year, 2012, marks 100 years since the death -- and 170 years since the birth -- of Karl May, the German hack writer who created the most popular and enduring Wild West heroes in Europe: the Apache chief Winnetou and his German immigrant adventurer sidekick Charlie, AKA Old Shatterhand.

Plans are already afoot for a wide range of programs, exhibits, symposia, events and activities -- and a web site has been set up: http://www.karl-may-2012.de/

More details as they emerge.

On its 40th birthday -- NPR on "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

2011-04-08T22:00:00.001+02:00

A couple sings "Country Roads" at the Geiselwind Trucker and Country Festival in Germany, 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

In Europe, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" -- John Denver's 1971 mega-hit -- is probably the most popular (and most covered) country-style song by local singers. To mark its 40th birthday, America's National Public Radio (NPR) ran an interview with the song's writers -- no, not John Denver (born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. in 1943), who died in a plane crash in 1997, but songwriter Bill Danoff and his girlfriend and writing partner Taffy Nivert.

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" became the unofficial anthem of West Virginia and the official song of the West Virginia University Mountaineers. But here's the catch: Danoff had never even been to the Mountain State before writing it, though he'd heard the sounds of the state as a kid growing up in Massachusetts.
Danoff said he listened to "hillbilly music" on WWVA from Wheeling, W.V.
"I just thought the idea that I was hearing something so exotic to me from someplace as far away," he said. "West Virginia might as well have been in Europe, for all I know."

Danoff would go on to write 12 more songs for John Denver. And he would also form the Starland Vocal Band, famous for "Afternoon Delight." Still, 40 years later, Danoff said, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" is his biggest moneymaker — he says he splits 75 percent of royalties with Nivert and gives the remaining 25 percent to the Denver estate.

Here are the three of them:

"Country Roads" touched a chord: it's omnipresent, everywhere.

"My first country song which I heard was 'Almost Heaven, West Virginia,'" a German truck driver told me in 2004. '… Henry John Deutschendorf... it was fantastic, yeah? And so I fell in love with country music. [...] He gives us beautiful songs. John Denver. His grandfather was German, and he was one of the best. But he died too early."

Here's Denver singing "It's Good to Be Back Home Again," -- in Germany. It's about a truck driver coming home.

I find "Take Me Home Country Roads" incredibly sappy; sugary sweet and bland at the same time.

But audiences in Europe love the song -- they invariably sing along, swaying and smiling. The idea of "home" translates into a sense that we (they) are all at home in America -- or the America of dreams, where is here. Other songs popular in the European country scene also play on this sense of the universal "home" somewhere in the mythical West (or South) -- "Sweet Home Alabama," for example.

Mondo a Little Bizarro -- Asleep at the Wheel Chinese Style

2011-04-06T21:57:00.000+02:00

The iconic Texas Swing group Asleep at the Wheel featuring Ray Benson and He Wenxing with the Yunnan Performing Arts Group team up for a unique version of the band's trademark song -- Miles and Miles of Texas in the KLRU studio. The performance took place as a part of the Yunnan, China cultural exchange visit to Austin, Texas.

Movies -- What is a Western? Off geographic topic, but great film series on the Western

2011-04-06T10:19:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

What is a Western? The Autry National Center in Los Angeles is hosting a great-looking film series on the Western that will explore the development of the movie genre, locating it in the broader social and cultural context and linking it to other pop culture genres.

What is a Western? Film Series
The Autry National Center announces the creation of a new film series that explores how movies have both mirrored and influenced larger social and cultural issues in the American West. It will challenge popular notions of what a Western is by showcasing various genres that can arguably be considered Western. All films will be tied to the Autry’s collection and current exhibitions, providing the audience a unique perspective on the objects and artifacts as they are viewed through an interpretive cinematic lens. Jeffrey Richardson, Associate Curator of Western History and Popular Culture, will offer key insights into each film before and after the screenings.
Other genres will include film noir, focusing on industrialization and urbanization in the mid-20th century; beach films from the 1950s and ‘60s, highlighting the youth revolution and social changes; urban police films from the 1970s and ‘80s, exploring the movement away from traditional Westerns in rural settings to urban locations; and space films, which incorporate the same conventions of traditional Westerns and launch them into outer space.

Czech Republic -- Druha Trava recording in Nashville

2011-04-05T20:51:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

My friends, the Czech bluegrass/fusion/rock "Czechgrass" band Druha Trava are recording a new album in Nashville -- and are maintaining a very interesting and revealing blog that reflects on and describes the process of crafting songs (the Czech translates pretty well in google translate).

There are pictures and some fascinating video showing how the songs come together. (It's not as dramatic as Godard's film One Plus One, one of whose running themes was the Rolling Stones working on Sympathy for the Devil....)

Italy -- Upcoming Lakota Event in Florence

2011-04-01T17:20:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I'm back from 3 very busy months in the United States -- on a fellowship, visiting family, giving a lecture tour -- and will be able to post more... To start off, here's information about Wolakota, a nine-day event and exposition on Lakota Sioux culture to be held in Florence April 11-20.

With sponsorship from the regional authorities in Florence, Wolakota will feature lectures, films and round-table discussions, with a main event on April 16.

France - and now a Country Rendezv-vous Craponne video trailer

2011-03-20T21:24:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

George Carrier has just put up a video trailer for this summer's Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne, France, one of the best country and western fests in Europe.

France -- Craponne Country Rendez-vous Festival Schedule is up

2011-03-20T05:02:00.000+01:00

Country Rendez-vous, Craponne. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I haven't posted much lately, as I've been in the USA on a fellowship and then running around on a rather full lecture schedule. But -- I thought I'd just post a note that the line up for the Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne, France -- one of the top country and western festivals in Europe -- is now up. Click HERE

Georges Carrier has put together a very rich program highlighted by Aaron Watson, Tanya Tucker, and Rhonda Vincent. I couldn't get to the festival the past two summers, but I hope I can this year.

MC Johnny Da Piedade (The Big Cactus Country radio show)

Friday 29 July 2011
7.00PM-1.30AM (4 BANDS)

7.00PM-8.00PM: TENNESSEE STUD (F)
8.15PM-9.20PM: THE SWEETBACK SISTERS (USA)
9.35PM-10.40PM: WHITEY MORGAN & THE 78'S (USA)
10.55PM-00.05AM: JOSH ABBOTT BAND with Kacey MUSGRAVES (USA)
00.20AM-1.30AM: AARON WATSON (USA)

Saturday 30 July 2011

6.00PM-1.00AM (5 BANDS)

6.00PM-7.10PM: TRUCK STOP RULES (F)
7.25PM-8.35PM: BOBBY FLORES (USA)
8.50PM-10.00PM: FLYNNVILLE TRAIN (USA)
10.15PM-11.30PM: RHONDA VINCENT (USA)
11.45PM-01.00AM: LISA HALEY (USA)

Sunday 31 July 2011

3.00PM-11.00PM (5 BANDS)

3.00PM-4.05PM: THE RANCH HOUSE FAVORITES (NL)

4.20PM-5.30PM: KATHY KALLICK BAND (USA)

5.45PM-6.55PM: KYLE PARK (USA)

7.10PM-8.30PM: TANYA TUCKER (USA)

8.45PM-10.00 PM: LOS PACAMINOS (UK)

Free Concerts (downtown Sat and Sun)

MATCH RIVER (F), HOWLIN FOX (F): BLUEGRASS DELUXE (F)

Bluegrass -- Joe Val festival; my American experience

2011-02-24T03:59:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I did indeed manage to spend part of last weekend at the Joe Val bluegrass festival in Framingham, near Boston. It was, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my first American bluegrass festival experience -- after attending quite a few festivals in Czech Republic, Germany, France and elsewhere. Lot of fun, great music, nice people. I've been trying to gauge what the differences are between this American festival and those in Europe. It's hard to say. There are many similarities, but -- if this means anything -- in Framington I knew I was in the U.S., and in La Roche, or Caslav or Bratislava, I knew I was most definitely not. It wasn't just the language and the "look." I'll have to think on it...

Meanwhile, here are a few pix and notes.

The festival, organized by the Boston Bluegrass Union, took place in the gigantic Sheraton hotel. The main stage, for the big acts, was a huge ballroom hung with crystal chandeliers.

The Grascals play on the main stage, last show of the festival. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

There was also a smaller stage, downstairs -- where there were rooms for workshops. I attended some of these -- a banjo workshop given by Tony Trischka and then a workshop on the history of the banjo, which featured unfinished footage from the Banjo Project documentary currently under production -- you can see some clips on the web site.

I also went to the Yodeling workshop, which was a little weird. I like yodeling but have never been able to do it. One thing I learned at the workshop is that women yodel more easily in different keys than men do -- but I still haven't yet managed to find the "break" in my voice to do it.

Another big room housed exhibitors and vendors (mainly of musical instruments).

Fiddles on display. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

In the corridors, lobbies and even phone booths, attendees joined up with others to jam.

Pickin. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The demographic seemed skewed toward middle-aged - though there were young people and even families, with some extremely accomplished kids. This could have been because of the venue and season (hotel not outdoors; Boston not Appalachia; winter not summer) or the price -- a day-ticket on Saturday was $55 for non-BBU members.

Tony Trischka plays with a young banjoist. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Johnny Cash in German

2011-02-18T00:41:00.002+01:00

Someone sent me this link, and I can't resist posting it: Johnny Cash in German....

And here's the German band Texas Heat, with a homage to Johnny Cash. Lead singer is Marty Wolfe, a very nice guy I've met several times over the years.

Bluegrass -- I may actually see Bluegrass in America!

2011-02-17T14:45:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Over the past few years, I've been to bluegrass concerts, jams and festivals (and festivals with bluegrass performers) in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland and Italy -- maybe elsewhere. But I've never been to a bluegrass festival in the United States. If things go well, this should be remedied this weekend -- I'm currently on a fellowship near Boston (at Brandeis University) and I hope to go the Joe Val Festival at nearby Framingham this weekend.

If I get there, I'll report on the intercontinental similarities and differences -- some of the performers on the bill, in fact, have toured in Europe: I've posted on this blog, for example, on some of banjo player Tony Trischka's gigs in CZ and Poland, as well as on various other European events, including the first European Bluegrass Summit, which I attended a few years ago. The third such summit is taking place this weekend. It includes a concert marking the 10th anniversary of the European Bluegrass Music Association. (The EBMA blog is a great resource.)

So watch this spot.

Movies -- True Grit, a Western, leads off Berlin Film Festival

2011-02-12T15:41:00.001+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

What is it with people who keep getting surprised that westerns can -- and often are/have been -- good? And not just good, but worthy of viewing by those who do not live where the antelopes roam (or roamed). I liked and enjoyed (but didn't love) True Grit -- which is apparently heading now to be the highest grossing western in history.

The movie, nominated for multiple Oscars, opened the Berlin Film Festival this week -- just days after the annual Country Music Messe (and rival Country Music Meeting) took place in Berlin -- festivals where, in at atmosphere scorned or ridiculed by many of those people who enjoy True Grit, thousands of fans dress up in cowboy gear to hear performances by dozens of (loud) bands.

BBC runs a nice interview with Jeff Bridges, the star of True Grit, who makes no apology for liking adopting a cowboy guise. His part in the movie -- one-eyed Rooster Cogburn -- was made famous by John Wayne in the original True Grit movie in 1969.

Bridges was more concerned about filling some bigger boots - those of his father, Lloyd Bridges, who acted in many Hollywood Westerns.

"I love dressing up as a cowboy," he says. "It reminds me of my childhood - my father was in so many of those films and I'd remember him coming through the door, in his boots and hat.

"He'd let me wear his things, and I'd call up my friends to come and play."

[...]

Bridges dismisses the idea he has helped make the genre fasionable again.

"I think these things are cyclical and the Western is just part of American history and could never really go away," he says.

"I think this is more to do with the Coen brothers and what they will do with a script.

"Also it's unusual, because there's not many hard-hitting films with a 14-year-old girl who is the central character. None of us can quite believe how well it's done though," he adds.

As it stands, True Grit could become the highest grossing Western ever. That should remove Jeff Bridges from the shadow of even the Duke himself.

Berlin -- Rivalry in the German Country Music scene this weekend!

2011-02-02T19:43:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I always try to get to Berlin for the annual Country Music Messe (trade/fan fair). It's being held this weekend -- but I won't be able to make it, as I am in the United States on a fellowship at Brandeis University. Too bad -- as this year, there's a bit of drama! TWO such fairs will be taking place, thanks to the split a few years back between the two original organizers of the event, Frank Lange and Kai Ulatowski. The "Messe" (Kai) will be taking place at the Postbahnhof hall next to Ostbahnhof where it relocated four years ago. But the first -- and rival -- "Country Music Meeting" (Frank) will be taking place at the original venue -- the Fontane Haus in the far north of Berlin, where the American Western Saloon is located.

Here's the announcement of the Country Music Meeting:

It finally took 4 long years, but now we are able to say: Welcome back für 3 days "Weekend Jamboree" with good friends at the best of Country Music at the Fontane Haus - a big meeting in the district Reinickendorf, the old Country-Music-Home of Berlin.

Because of his long time cooperation with the departement of Berlin-Reinickendorf and after extensive construction works to follow the necessary fire protection regulations, the owner of the American Western Saloon Frank M. Lange, who was one of the organizers of the Country Music Messe until 2006, decided to arrange a revival event for Country Music at the Fontane Haus.

The swinging doors of the Fontane Haus will be opened from February 4th til February 6th 2011 to give the many friends and fans the chance to celebrate their annual highlight in familiar atmosphere which will be titled "Country Music Meeting". The attractions of this venue are the well known ambience, its large exhibition areas and the big music halls - many reasons to bring back the fans of America's most famous music back to the north of Berlin.

Every visitor of the past Country Music Events at this venue might remember that getting through the crowds sometimes seemed impossible. That's why the organizer decided to allow only a limited amount of visitors per day. This will be guaranteed during the Pre-Ticket-Sale for the Country Music Meeting 2011 with a priority of weekend tickets. Day tickets are only available in limited quantities.

It all seems pretty ridiculous, and I would love to see how the fans and exhibitors break down. (For one this, it is much easier transportwise to get to the Messe venue). Looking at the line-ups, it appears that some artists have sided with the Messe, while others are only playing at the Meeting. A couple of groups look like they will be performing at both. And I think one or two former regulars decided to give both a miss....

I posted pictures, video and description on previous editions of the Messe, both at the Fontane Haus and the new Ostbahnhof venue: click HERE to see these posts.

Country Music -- International broadcaster award

2011-02-01T16:07:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Country Music Association's annual International Broadcaster Award goes to British radio personality Allan Watkiss. He was was surprised with the Award while interviewing CMA Chief Executive Officer Steve Moore for his "Your Country" show on BBC Radio Sheffield. The award recognizes "outstanding achievement by radio broadcasters outside the United States who have made important contributions toward the development of Country Music in their country."

Watkiss began his broadcasting career in 1993 at Radio Aire in Leeds, where he mixed news journalism with radio presentation. He soon began similar duties at Stray FM in Harrogate, where he presented the afternoon show from 1997-1999. A passionate Country Music fan since the late 1980s after he discovered the genre while volunteering at a hospital radio station, Watkiss was excited to host his first regular Country Music program in 2000 for Ridings FM in Wakefield.

When he moved to BBC 2001, he began "Your Country" on BBC Radio Sheffield, a weekly three-hour broadcast on Sunday afternoons which continues to this day. "Your Country" regularly introduces American Country Music to British audiences while also providing a showcase for the British Country Music artists of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. Watkiss has interviewed superstar artists including Dierks Bentley, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, George Strait, and many more, while also giving in-depth coverage to big events including the CMA Awards and the British Country Music Awards.

In Sept. 2007, Watkiss launched UKCountryRadio.com, an online radio station playing both British and American Country Music. In addition to continuing to host "Your Country" for BBC Radio Sheffield, he also serves as a senior journalist for the BBC and is currently based at BBC Radio York.

Previous winners of the award were:

1997 Nick Erby, Australia
1997 Walter Fuchs, Germany
1997 John Laws, Australia
1998 Lloyd Coles, Wales
1998 Ruud Hermans and Jan de Jong, The Netherlands
1998 Kirsten Helm Petersen, Denmark
1999 Country FM, the Netherlands
1999 Trevor Smith, Australia
1999 Dieter Vulpus and Bernd Schroeder, Germany
2000 Dick Barrie, Scotland
2000 Thomas Jeier, Germany
2000 Korneliusz Pacuda, Poland
2001 Nick Barraclough, UK
2001 Gary Beattie, Australia,
2001 Bill Black, Scotland
2002 David Allan, UK
2002 Stuart Cameron, Scotland
2003 Pat Geary, Scotland
2003 John Laws, Australia
2003 Johnnie Walker, UK
2004 Bob Harris, UK
2004 Trevor Campbell, Northern Ireland
2004 Nikos Gravelas, Greece
2005 The Odd Squad
2005 Ray Hadley
2005 Bryan Burnett
2006 Ian Holland, Australia
2006 Helen MacPherson, Scotland
2006, Tim Rogers
2007 Nick Erby, Australia
2007 Jackie-Rae Greening, Candada
2007 George Lang, France
2008 John Bond, Australia
2008 Joe Fish, UK
2008 Pio McCann, Ireland
2009 Casey Clarke, Canada
2009 Grant Goldman, Australia
2009 Brian Clough, UK
2010 Allan Watkiss, Great Britain

Other CMA international awards can be seen HERE

France -- video from Country Music and Line Dance Festival

2011-01-27T15:43:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I love the country and western festivals I go to in France. The music is generally good, the people are nice, and the fans generally look amazingly stylish in their duds. Line-dancing is very popular (sometimes to the chagrin of the musicians) -- and there are often huge line dance areas set up for big masses of dancers whose uniform movements are fascinating to watch.

There was a country music and line dance festival May 2009 at Disneyland near Paris -- this was the promo video....

Vidéo du Festival Country & Line Dance à Disney Village
Uploaded by am2v77. - Exotic and entertaining travel videos.

Music -- Different approaches to Don't Fenc(ing) Me In

2011-01-22T15:19:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

"Don't Fence Me In" is one of the iconic songs of the Wild West; the quintessentially Singing Cowboy's ode to the open range and all the aspirations and cliches that that embodies.... it was popularized by Roy Rogers (my biggest childhood TV cowboy crush) years before I was born. Here's Roy (and Trigger) introducing it in the 1944 movie "Hollywood Canteen."

Far from originating on the prairies, the song was an early offering by the ultra-urban, ultra-urbane Cole Porter, who wrote it in 1934 for a movie that was never produced.

Over the years, there have been a zillion covers of the tune -- including this, on German TV, by Ken Curtis -- in his costume from his days as "Festus" on Gunsmoke.

Gunsmoke, and the Festus character, were popular in Germany -- one of the folks I would see at country and western festivals in Berlin affected the Festus look and went by the moniker Festus Junior.

Festus Junior at Berlin Country Music Messe 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Below -- a different take on the song by another ultra-urbanite, David Byrne:

Western Movie Favorites

2011-01-14T23:19:00.001+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

American National Public Radio (NPR) runs a "western starter kit for the movie-going tenderfoot" -- a list of key western movies selected by correspondent Bob Mondello.

I settled on five films representing different styles — Shane (1953), a classic traditional Western; The Searchers (1956), John Ford's complex epic about the treatment of Native Americans; The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's revisionist Vietnam-era look at violence; Blazing Saddles (1974), Mel Brooks' romp through Western clichés; and Unforgiven (1992), a Clint Eastwood riff on disillusioned old-timers that's often referred to as a eulogy for the movie Western.

Listeners were asked to add their favorites..... Me? I would add The Frisco Kid, Limonade Joe -- and maybe a Winnetou movie....and a Gene Autry or two....

Australia - Tamworth Going Ahead Despite the Floods

2011-01-14T18:22:00.001+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Tamworth, Australia's biggest country music festival, is going ahead this weekend despite the floods devastating Queensland, but crowds are expected to be lower than in the past.

Around 4,000 people are expected to attend the opening night concert in Bicentennial Park, festival director Steve Bartlett says, but that is down on last year's event.
"At this stage we're anticipating probably about a 30 per cent reduction in numbers," he said.
Many of the regular visitors to the Country Music Festival come from Queensland, particularly regional towns like Gympie, which has been inundated by floodwaters.
Many of the main roads leading from Queensland to northern New South Wales have also been cut.

There will be festival events for flood relief. Here's what the Tamworth Web Site says:

The 2011 JAYCO TAMWORTH COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL will commence this Friday for ten’s days of celebrations and over 2,500 scheduled events contrary to bogus reports suggesting otherwise.

The major events, big name acts, buskers, camping and non-stop entertainment will engulf Australia’s country music capital as it delivers its 39th event.

Whilst devastating floods and raging waters have torn through the ‘sunshine state’, the NSW inland city of

Tamworth is ignoring rumour’s that its iconic annual event will not only proceed in 2011 or that some elements standard within the festival makeup and fibre will be shelved due to minimal rains recently received across the region.

Instead, organisers are hoping the event will provide opportunity for the country music fraternity, locals and visitors to show support for the northern neighbours.

Giving the opportunity to dig deep and give generously, several major concert events have been organized as fundraising drives. Some of the confirmed events raising funds include THE QUEENSLAND FLOOD RELIEF Concert, held on Monday 17th January 3.30pm to 6.00pm at BLAZES, Country Update Magazine’s STARRY STARRY ONE NIGHT STAND Flood Relief Concert held on Wednesday 19th January at 8pm to 11pm at The Pub and LEE KERNAGHAN’S Outdoor Concert, held on Friday 21st January in Bicentennial Park.

In addition to the above musical fundraisers, Tamworth Regional Council has placed a donation bin at Festival HQ (Tamworth Regional Council Building) for the duration of the internationally recognised event as a central location to deposit and donate for the flood victims. All monies raised will be delivered to the QUEENSLAND PREMIER’S FLOOD RELIEF FUND.

“The city of Tamworth is looking greener than ever and more pristine than what most of our previous visitors would have ever seen it before. Whilst we remain dry and move ahead into our 2011 event, we urge the local community and visitors to get behind and support activities planned that will provide assistance to the Queensland communities affected”, said Councillor Col Murray, Mayor of Tamworth.

The 2011 Jayco Tamworth Country Music Festival commences this Friday 14th January 2011 and concludes on Sunday 23rd January 2011. The 39th Jayco Country Music Awards of Australia will be presented on Saturday 22nd January 2011.

Other major highlights and artists confirmed for the 2011 Jayco Tamworth Country Music Festival include Kenny Roger’s first Australian tour date, Kasey Chambers, John Williamson, Lee Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daley, John Butler Trio, Wendy Matthews, Beccy Cole, Adam Harvey, Toni Childs, Melinda Schneider and Adam Brand just to name a few.

Banjo Project

2011-01-11T04:32:00.002+01:00

Tony Trischka plays in the Czech Republic. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Banjo Project written up in the Boston Globe -- This is going to be a great film -- I hope it takes into consideration the worldwide appeal of the banjo, and in particular the many banjo players in the Czech Republic and Japan!

[Marc] Fields, who lives in Concord and teaches documentary and studio television production at Emerson College, is going on his ninth year of making “The Banjo Project: The Story of America’s Instrument.’’
When it’s finished — and Fields swears he’s getting close — it promises to be the most in-depth visual portrait of the subject, encapsulating more than 250 years of history and restoring dignity to the instrument’s often misunderstood reputation. From the banjo’s origins in Africa to its role in modern music, the film burrows deep into issues of race (including its rise in popularity through minstrel shows), as well as class, regionalism, and gender.

“It’s America’s quintessential instrument,’’ Fields says over coffee last week near his office at Emerson. “On one hand, it’s part of the music that we invented, and at the same time it has all these negative and positive associations. You can appreciate that it speaks to concrete American experiences, but it also speaks to things we’d rather not be reminded of.’’

To say the project has been a labor of love is beside the point.

“Let’s put it this way: If I had known how big it was when I started, I wouldn’t have done it,’’ he says, before cracking a joke about how he had a full head of hair when he started it in 2002. “Other people have tried something like this, but I outlasted them. I feel like I’m going to be the one to tell this story.’’

It’s a strange mission for someone who doesn’t even play the banjo. But having worked on other music documentaries, Fields recognized the subject was fraught with a rich narrative that should be told.

“It’s a hard job,’’ says banjo master Tony Trischka, who’s been involved since the film’s beginning as its music director. “This is the first major undertaking to tell the banjo’s story. It’s not sexy like the Civil War, but it’s part of America and its social history. Even after all the work that’s been done, people still think of ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘Deliverance’ when you talk about the banjo.’’

Tombstone had Gun Laws

2011-01-10T21:36:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

In the wake of the horrendous shooting in Tucson, AZ, Wild West imagery and cliches have been used to describe both Arizona and an "Arizona state of mind"... This is much the way in Italy, newspaper invariably headline a shooting or especially violent street crime as "Far West in Milano" (or wherever).

Friends at the Autry National Center/Institute for the Study of the American West have passed on the link to an article in Politico by Arizona-born historian Katherine Benton-Cohen noting that even in Tombstone, scene of the iconic (not to mention romanticized and fictionalized) Gunfight at the OK Corral, there were gun laws.

As bloggers and journalists invoke the hoary image of “frontier violence” and “Arizona’s poisonous political rhetoric,” it is not that surprising it took less than a day to mention Arizona’s most infamous bloodshed—and from a local sheriff no less.

The irony of Dupnik’s remark is that Tombstone lawmakers in the 1880s did more to combat gun violence than the Arizona government does today.

For all the talk of the “Wild West,” the policymakers of 1880 Tombstone—and many other Western towns—were ardent supporters of gun control. When people now compare things to the “shootout at the OK Corral,” they mean vigilante violence by gunfire. But this is exactly what the Tombstone town council had been trying to avoid.

In late 1880, as regional violence ratcheted up, Tombstone strengthened its existing ban on concealed weapons to outlaw the carrying of any deadly weapons within the town limits.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47366.html#ixzz1AfOwStur

Cowboy Action Shooting vs Zoot Shooters

2011-01-05T08:12:00.000+01:00

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

As a member of two Cowboy Action Shooting associations -- Italy's Old West Shooting Society and SASS -- the Single Action Shooting Society -- in the U.S., I was amused and interested by an article today in the Wall Street Journal about both cowboy action shooting facing a challenge from a new form of dress up sport gunplay -- Zoot Shooting.

It's the latest twist on a sport called practical shooting, in which competitors move through a course, earning points for shooting with speed and accuracy.

About three decades ago, practical shooters from a generation reared on Roy Rogers and Gene Autry began dressing up in cowboy suits and firing six-shooters, giving birth to the sport of "cowboy action shooting."

Today, there are thousands of cowboy shooters world-wide.

Now, a new generation of sport shooters raised on punk rock, skateboards and mobster movies is moving in.

So far, there are only about 60 Zoot Shooters, in four states and Italy. As the sport gets under way, the cowboys are turning out to be some of the most eager gangsters. "Actually, our biggest draw right now is cowboys," says Mr. Huss. Still, the new guys haven't earned their spurs in the eyes of some cowboy shooters.

A new generation of sport shooters inspired on mobster movies and dressed up in zoot suits is moving in.

"There are two schools of thought," says Steve Fowler, a longtime cowboy shooter going by the name Bat Masterson, a famous Old West gunfighter.

He recently took up Zoot Shooting, under the alias G-Man. "One is that [Zoot Shooting] is another costuming game and it's a lot of fun…The other is, if it ain't cowboy, it ain't nothing."

France -- More French Western Food...

2011-01-04T18:27:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I don't usually post info on individual saloons, etc, in Europe (though maybe I should....) but I can't resist putting something up about the Buffalo Grill chain of Western-style restaurants in France -- in part because it is so widespread. They are all over France, with some franchises in Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Rentrer dans un Buffalo Grill, c’est comme faire une halte dans le grand ouest. En version Classic ou Hits, ici le bœuf tient la vedette. Vous pourrez aussi découvrir des produits et recettes originales qui flirtent avec le Far West : steak de bison, chili con carne, burger… Quant aux petits « cow boys », ils choisiront dans le menu Kids.