Spring Green, Wisconsin
Thursday, August 24, 2023 | Vol. 4, No. 15 FREE, Single-Copy
Inside this edition
Music Residency announces performance schedule
Community Calendar: BeatleFest, Fair and more
Day Trip Distractions: Driftless Music Gardens
Pages 1, 10
Pages 6, 7, 8
Pages 9, 10
Spring Green Music Residency brings “Astral Rock” musician Joshua Powell September 10 to 23
Residency announces shows and talks with this year's musician Joshua Powell Rob Steffen, Spring Green Musician in Residence Program
Now in its sixth year, the Spring Green Music Residency is bringing Indianapolis-based band leader Joshua Powell in for this year’s two-week session. The Residency talked with Powell a little bit about his roots, his music and his inspirations in advance of his stay in Spring Green. Spring Green Music Residency: What got you into making music in the first place, and what was your first instrument? Joshua Powell: My Mom started us on piano at age 4 to take advantage of that neural sponginess, but I could only ever read music and not actually play, create, or improvise. I got into it in a real sense at age 15 when I learned guitar to be in a pop punk band. I’d been playing piano and drawing with pencils for years and knew I was attracted to art, but that was the first sort of magical transformation for me. When I had the guitar in my hands, I could realize the idea in my head–still with shortcomings and frustrations, but fewer barriers than on the keys or with graphite. SGMR: Who were some of your inspirations when you first started playing, and who are some of your current inspirations? JP: No questions asked, Blink 182. The threshold of access to those songs is so low
Photo contributed by Spring Green Musician in Residence Program Spring Green's 2023 Musician in residence Joshua Powell. because they’re simple, like bizarro church music with rebellion and toilet humor instead of praise. You could learn four songs in an afternoon and feel like a guitar hero, then show up with your pals and play through them–even before we had written a song, I knew this was all I wanted to do. You know: New Found Glory, A Day to Remember and Underoath. Florida bands in particular because I grew up there. My biggest inspirations in a meta, overarching way are Neil Young, David Lynch, and Justin Vernon. I love that Neil has always done precisely what he wanted
to do instead of what we wanted him to do. I love Lynch because he transcends narrative structure and realizes dream architecture and refuses to give people the key. And I love Vernon because he has my favorite singing voice, and despite all his pop adjacency and critical acclaim, he continues to seem like a down-to-earth Midwestern dude who is more concerned with creativity and community than celebrity. SGMR: When did you start writing your own material? JP: As creative assignments for high school English classes to get out of writing book
reports.The first two songs I remember writing in total were about Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.” I was in two punk bands before we had one that actually wrote, but Three Star Riot (a mishearing of “Restart Riot”) had a few original tunes on Myspace with titles like “The New World,” “Bockscar,” and “Storm (Instrumental).” SGMR: How did the current band come together? JP: Farmersonly.com. No no, the drummer is my brother. The other two guys I met at Anderson University. There were several cool original bands in college but none of them went on tour much, and most of them didn’t last long past school. The other guys were a couple years behind me in school so I had a chance to establish some road dog cred beforehand, and by the time I was coming back to Indiana they were getting out of school. SGMR: What drove you to land on “astral rock” as your genre? JP: When you watch “Mulholland Drive,” and all of a sudden a character has inexplicably transformed into another person offscreen– then it becomes a horror movie for a second behind the dumpster, but that’s unexplained and you’re never quite sure what kind of movie you’re watching? That’s how Lynch’s influence interfaces with our records–like
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River Valley Players announces auditions for 'The Cricket on the Hearth' Patrick Hagen, River Valley Players River Valley Players announces auditions for The Cricket on the Hearth. The play will be produced December 2-3 and 8-10. The piece calls for 5 female and 4 male characters. Parts range from a female teenager to adult females and males. Auditions will be held from 5-7 p.m. on Sunday, September 10; Monday,
September 11; and Tuesday, September 12 in the Middle School band room in Spring Green. Those auditioning will read from the script. Questions may be sent to director John Kremm at krmn8r@ yahoo.com, and producer Patrick Hagen at hagenp2@gmail.com. River Valley Players encourages participation by both new and experienced actors. Rehearsals will begin on Monday,
September 25 and continue MondayThursday until the production dates. There will be a Thanksgiving break. The Cricket on the Hearth is by Charles Dickens and is set in 19th-Century London during the Christmas period. Local playwright Bruce G. Bradley adapted the story for the stage. In making his choice, Bradley was guided by Dickens’s claim that Cricket was his personal favorite of
his five Christmas novels. Director Kremm says of Bradley’s script: “The atmosphere is Dickens. It’s a fun story with characters we can relate to in the 21st century. It has a ‘she-said-hesaid’ quality, with surprises along the way.” The Cricket on the Hearth will be part of the Spring Green Chamber of Commerce’s “Country Christmas.”