Barry Cloyd at Fun Friday May 8th at Westminster Community Center!
Barry Cloyd to perform “Our Land Between the Rivers, Illinois in Story and Song”, a bicentennial program, on Friday, May 8th at 11:45 am at the Westminster Community Center as part of Graceland Center’s Fun Friday series!
Our scheduled program presenter, Mark Dubois, is unable to do his presentation as planned due to a family emergency, and will be rescheduled for the fall. Here’s a summary of this exciting program!
“Our Land Between the Rivers, Illinois in Story & Song” Bi-Centennial program
Barry Cloyd is an award winning songwriter as well as a full-time touring musician with a special love for the history and music of our own Midwest. This newly commissioned program begins with a whirlwind trip back through time to the early days of the origins of our State and where it's name came from, the Illiniwek Nation of Native Americans. The original song “Inaji Wabli, Arise O' Eagle” will be performed and take us into the time of the French Voyageurs, the first Europeans, coming into this land in the late 1600's.
From there we move into a brief timeline through the 1700's as the French give way to the British who in turn give way to the growing class of people known as Americans. Songs of the period, such as the colloquially spelled “Elanoy” will appear and usher us into events like George Rogers Clark's part in winning the Revolutionary War from Illinois and the beginning of the settlement of Chicago.
Events to include The Lewis & Clark Expedition and the importance of Illinois in the War of 1812 precede the entrance into the Union of Illinois as a State on December 3, 1818. From that point, the narrative slows down a bit and begins to provide a more in-depth focus, both through narrative and song, into some of the most important events and people who have shaped the amazing history of our State.
Some of the “stops along the way” include Abraham Lincoln's appearance in Illinois, The Black Hawk War, the creation of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates and The Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant's contributions, The Great Chicago Fire, the First Skyscraper, The Columbian Exposition, The Pullman Strike, Frank Lloyd Wright's genius, the Springfield Race Riots, “Lucky Lindy” in Illinois, Al Capone, Everett Dirksen, Carl Sandburg and a whole lot more.
All this amazing history will be presented with songs that are germane to the period, traditional and original performed on guitar & 5-string banjo.
Our state has been witness to, and a participant in, many of our nations most important historical events and with all of that as the backdrop, the audience will have an opportunity to step back in time for a “long-range” look with Barry Cloyd.