A Study In Contrasts / Music from the Prairie

10 p.m. to Midnight Host: Steve Winters

I just returned from the 6th Annual Folk & Roots Festival in Urbana, Illinois, a very excellent two-day gathering of (mostly) Midwestern folk and tonight’s program shares some of the old-timey, bluegrass and historical music that filled the festival’s many venues. The festival is somewhat unique in that the music is presented in Urbana’s downtown in venues close enough to walk to that range from the public library to the ballroom and library in the downtown hotel to the local shopping mall to two fine taverns. This is just a bit of the variety I heard during the weekend.

As for openers: A sizeable number of retrospective CD boxes and newly found recordings have been popping up of late. The opening set can easily be called a study in contrasts — selections from a new 4-CD set of the works of the late John Denver and from a new album of performances by the late Phil Ochs at a Lansing, Michigan coffeehouse.

And if you’re doing music from the Prairie, the show’s musical bookends are from Peter Ostroushko.

  • Artist, "Title", Album, Label

  • Peter Ostroushko, “When The Last Morning Glory Blooms”, When The Last …, Red House

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  • John Denver, “Take Me Home Country Roads”, “Leaving On A Jet Plane”, All Of My Memories, RCA Legacy

  • Phil Ochs, “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”, “Changes”, Live Again!, RockBeat Records

  • John Denver, “Annie’s Song”, All Of My Memories, RCA Legacy

  • Phil Ochs, “Power And The Glory”, Live Again!, RockBeat Records

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  • Big Bluestem String Band, “Been All Around This World/Hangman’s Reel”, “The L&N Don’t Stop Here,

  • Anymore”, Under The Prairie Moon, Independent,

  • Old Salt Union, “Peace Of Mind”, Bridge, Independent

  • Old Salt Union, “Flat Baroque”, Western Skies, Independent

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  • Billy Strings & Don Julin, “Little Maggie”, Fiddle X Tune, Independent

  • Blue Mafia, “Pretty Polly”, My Cold Heart, Independent

  • Billy Strings & Don Julin, “Lonesome Midnight Waltz”, Fiddle X Tune, Independent

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  • Blue Mafia, “At’s Right”, “Many A Mile”, My Cold Heart, Independent

  • Billy Strings & Don Julin, “Shady Grove”, Fiddle X Tune, Independent

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  • Johnsburg 3, “Hanging Of Charlie Birger”, Caskets In The Cornfield, Independent

  • Cathy Richardson & The Haymarket 4, “Old Chy-Car-Go”, Folksongs Of Illinois #4/Chicago Since 1945,

  • Company Of Folk, , ,

  • Sunnyside Up With Elaine Moore, “City Of New Orleans”, Folksongs Of Illinois #5/Chicago Since 1970, Company Of Folk

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  • Peter Ostroushko, “Psalm Of The Prairie”, Minnesota, Red House