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Special Guests
Saturday, November 30, 2002
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Billy Collins
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Ladies and gentlemen, BILLY COLLINS, Poet
Laureate of the United States. That's it. It's all one would have to say
by way of introduction, no matter what the event. But we add a few bibliographical
bits here, not so much to polish the apple as to provide the backdrop:
His poems have been published in The Paris Review, Poetry,
American Poetry Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The American
Scholar, The New Yorker, Harper's and many others. He
is a Guggenheim Fellow, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and
a New York Library Literary Lion. Questions About Angels was a
winner of the National Poetry Series publication prize; The Art of
Drowning is his fifth book of poetry. He is professor of English at
Lehman College of the City University of New York. He lives in Somers,
New York. John Updike said: "Billy Collins writes lovely poems .
. . Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they
seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides."
THE BATTLEFIELD BAND has thrived
for over 30 years, though the group's personnel has changed over time.
Taking their name from the Glasgow district in which the group was formed,
the band plays an amalgamation of traditional Scottish music and modern
composition. Critics have said that the Battlefield Band combines "the
classical Celtic music of the Scottish Highlands with the contemporary
rock-oriented folk music of modern Britain." Although fiddle, bagpipes
and guitar are common instruments in Celtic bands, The Battlefield Band
is credited with being the first to add synthesizer. Providing the sound
of an organ, parlor piano, or drums, as necessary, synthesizer adds a
fullness not heard in most traditional groups. The band tours extensively,
including past visits to Singapore, Australia, Syria, Jordan, India, Sri
Lanka, and Egypt, as well as throughout Europe and Canada. Their latest
CD, Time and Tide (Temple Records) is the latest in a string of
more than fifteen albums the band has released. The current lineup is
founding member Alan Reid (keyboards, guitar), Mike Katz (Highland bagpipe),
Alasdair White (fiddle), and Pat Kilbride (guitar, vocals, bouzouki).
DAN NEWTON, a.k.a. "Daddy Squeeze," studied folklore
and music at the University of Nebraska and traveled extensively in the
British Isles and across the U.S., learning whatever he could about regional
music and food. Dan now resides in St. Paul where he maintains his life-long
fascination with all things spicy, pungent food, French Roast coffee,
dark beer, Jug-band, Cajun Gypsy and Cumbia music, and unbelievable stories.
He collects hot sauce, and enjoys playing baseball and watching Betty
Boop cartoons with his son, Walker. Dan spends most his time playing accordion
with his group, the "Café Accordion Orchestra," performing
the repertoire of the popular Parisian dance bands of the 1920s and 30s,
Musette orchestras. He also performs regularly with country blues singer
and guitarist Dr. John Walker as "Daddy Squeeze and the Doctor,"
and with the bands Jumbo Ya Ya, Guys Can Talk, dotCombo, and Art Carnage.
He has appeared on recordings by Prudence Johnson, the Proclaimers, Peter
Ostroushko, Son Volt, and Neal & Leandra. In 2002 Dan released his
7th CD, La Vie Musette.
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