Category: Music

Celebrate 100 years of Woody Guthrie’s music with Tony Glover, Charlie Maguire and Pop Wagner at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18 at Calvary Lutheran Church.  Calvary Lutheran Church is located at 112 Park Ave. So. (US Highway 71), just south of the intersection of State Highways 71 and 34.

The Park Rapids Area Library and Park Rapids Lakes Area Arts Council are collaborating to host this free program, a celebration of the music and the icon Woody Guthrie represented.

Over the decades, Woody Guthrie’s songs have run around the world like a fast train on a well-oiled track. They’ve become the folk song standards of the nation, known and performed in many languages throughout the world, spreading messages of the power of the people. Pretty Boy Floyd, Pastures of Plenty, Hard Travelin’, Deportees, Roll On Columbia, Vigilante Man and This Land Is Your Land are among the hundreds of his songs that have become staples in the canon of American music.

Woody Guthrie was born July 14, 1912 in Okemah, OK and died Oct. 3, 1967 in Queens, NY. During his lifetime, Woody Guthrie wrote nearly 3,000 song lyrics, published two novels, created artworks, and authored numerous published and unpublished manuscripts, poems, prose and plays.

Having lived through some of the most significant historic movements and events of the 20th Century – the Great Depression, the Great Dust Storm, World War II, the social and political upheavals resulting from Unionism, the Communist Party and the Cold War – Woody Guthrie absorbed it all to become a prolific writer whose songs, ballads, prose and poetry captured the plight of everyman.

Maguire, Glover and Wagner will present a taste of Woody’s music and story through original pieces as well as through Woody’s own music.

This Legacy program is funded in part or in whole with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008 which dedicated funding to preserve Minnesota’s art and cultural heritage.    

The Arts Downtown PR series continues from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19 in downtown Park Rapids.

Lori Goulet Reich will be featured from 5 to 5:30 and 6 to 6:30 p.m. at Bella Caffè. A transplant from Minneapolis, Lori trained as a vocal classical singer for seven years and took some guitar lessons, too. She sang with a classic rock band and a country band while living in the Twin Cities and  was a church soloist for 10 years. Lori and her family have lived at Lake Itasca for the past five and a half years, and she plays in the country band, Buck Geezer.

The reggae band, Make the Most, will warm the January night with sounds from the Caribbean from 5:30 to 6 and 6:30 to 7 p.m. at The Good Life Cafe. Josh Prendiz does lead vocals and guitar, Brandon Prendiz is on the drums and Roger Fenzel plays bass and does back up vocals. Make the Most has been together for the past two and a half years, has performed in Grand Forks and Detroit Lakes and most recently at Terrapin Station in Nevis. The band also performed at the Youth Music and Arts III concert in August. Josh, Brandon and Roger have just finished recording their first studio album.

Third Thursday events are designed to bring audiences to see and hear visual artists, musicians, writers and other artists in businesses in downtown Park Rapids on the Third Thursday of the month. The public is invited to attend and encouraged to make a free will donation to the artists. Contact Lu Ann Hurd-Lof at 652-4081 or luann47@gmail.com with questions.

This activity is funded in whole or in part by a Region 2 Arts Council Grant through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, and the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund passed by Minnesota voters on Nov. 4, 2008.