Special Guests

Special Guests
Saturday, June 21, 1997

Singer Arlo Guthrie's career began with the release of the epic Alice's Restaurant in 1967. Arlo, the son of the legendary Woody Guthrie, learned music from his dad and family friends such as Pete Seeger and Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly). He formed his own songwriting style that set him apart from other singer-songwriters during the late '60s. Guthrie's song "Coming into Los Angeles" is remembered for its popularity at Woodstock, and he followed with albums such as Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys, Amigo, and Outlasting the Blues. In the early '80s, he started his own record label, called Rising Son Records, which has re-released his old titles plus his mid-'80s recording, Someday, and a collection of his father's children's music called Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs. Earlier this year, Rising Son released Guthrie's album, Mystic Journey. His award-winning children's book, Mooses Come Walking, was illustrated by Alice M. Brock, best known as Alice of Alice's Restaurant.

A three-time National Fiddle Champion, Byron Berline began playing fiddle at the age of five. Berline, an Oklahoma native, has played with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys and with the Dillards. He led the bands Country Gazette; Sundance; and a group called Berline, Crary, Hickman (BCH), with whom he played for nearly 15 years. He's recorded with an enormous list of stars, including Emmylou Harris, The Eagles, The Byrds, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones. For Fiddle & A Song, his Grammy-nominated 1995 album, Berline brought together in the studio bluegrass patriarchs Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs. It was the first time in more than 50 years that the two had been in the studio together, and the result was the Grammy-nominated track "Sally Goodin." Berline has toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia, Northern Africa, and the South Pacific. After living in Los Angeles for more than two decades, Berline has now moved back to Oklahoma. At 8 p.m. tonight, Berline and Billy Joe Foster will perform in Guthrie at the Double Step Fiddle Shop & Music Hall, owned and run by Byron Berline.

Fiddler and Oklahoma native Billy Joe Foster last played on A Prairie Home Companion with the band Country Gazette. His father was an old-time fiddler, and Billy Joe received his first mandolin at age five and his first banjo before he was in his teens. In 1965, the Foster family moved to west Texas, where the music of Bob Wills and his band, the Texas Playboys, was all over the radio. In 1974, the family moved back to Oklahoma. Foster began playing bluegrass festivals and made some guest appearances at reunions of the Texas Playboys. In the late '80s, he played with Bill Monroe, and then began playing with Ricky Skaggs, with whom he played until 1995. Foster currently plays solo western-swing performances and has re-formed his '70s-era band, called Special Edition. A new recording featuring Billy Joe Foster and Special Edition is now in production.

The 12 young men and women who make up the Classen School of Advanced Studies Show Choir have made many appearances around Oklahoma, including a performance of The Star Spangled Banner in front of 8,000 hockey fans. As part of Classen School's larger, 40-voice "Allegro" choir, the students have sung for local civic groups and national conventions, in the Oklahoma State Capitol Building, and at the 1996 Oklahoma City Festival of Lights. The Allegro choir was named Outstanding Choir at several festivals, and this spring received Superior ratings from judges at the Oklahoma State Music Festival. The choir program is part of the Visual and Performing Arts Program offered at Classen School of Advanced Studies, which provides artistically talented students with a rigorous, conservatory-style training in the arts. Classen School's art and music students spend one-third to one-half of their programmed day studying art and music-the rest of the day is spent on academic, college preparatory studies. Performing with the Show Choir tonight are Noelle Moorad, Holly Moorad, Bonnie Montgomery, Mary King, Crystal Huffman, Mandy Chambers, Adam Gomez, Ryan Potts, Mario Vasquez, Drew Little, Mark Shepherd, Tony Webb. The choir is directed by Rebecca Lindley.